9 Aug
2001
9 Aug
'01
5:42 a.m.
The unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since I can remember, which
goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
--tom
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Wright [mailto:dtwright@uiuc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 8:47 AM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: an odd question
not sure if this is exactly on-topic, but I figure if anyone
would know, it
would be this bunch... where did the convention of using
"^x" to represent
"Ctrl-x" come from? I wonder because you see that convention
everywhere, but
it's totally non-intuitave -- i.e. why does the carat symbol
mean "hold control
while pressing the following key"? I think this came up
because someone
pointed out that using pine the first time was really hard
until they figured
out what "^" meant. so, anyone know where that convention came from?
- Dan Wright
(dtwright(a)uiuc.edu)
(http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)
-] ------------------------------ [-]
-------------------------------- [-
``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with
holy dread,
For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
7:28 a.m.
New subject: ASCII arrow... (was: an odd question
Rumor has it that Bill Pechter may have mentioned these words:
DEC docs older than that used the Ascii Arrow which
was replaced on
keyboards at a later date by the carrot.
Awrighty... It seems that this is "classic computing character week..." ;-)
let's spin off another weird thread:
What was the *newest* (classic) machine that used the arrow, instead of (or
in place of) the caret?
The newest one I can think of is the Tandy Color Computer 2. (the 3 might
have used it on the 32x16 screen, but the 40/80 character modes changed it
to the caret...)
Just another spin,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger "Merch" Merchberger --- sysadmin, Iceberg Computers
Recycling is good, right??? Ok, so I'll recycle an old .sig.
If at first you don't succeed, nuclear warhead
disarmament should *not* be your first career choice.
2:47 p.m.
New subject: ASCII arrow... (was: an odd question
Roger Merchberger skrev:
What was the *newest* (classic) machine that used the
arrow, instead of (or
in place of) the caret?
The C64 (and all subsequent compatibles, such as the C128) had two arrows, one
pointing upward and one pointing to the right.
--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
Die Zeit kommt aus der Zukunft, die nicht existiert, in die
Gegenwart, die keine Dauer hat, und geht in die Vergangenheit,
die aufgeh?rt hat, zu bestehen.
--- Augustinus (R?m. Kirchenlehrer, 354-430 n. Chr.)
2:44 p.m.
Bill Pechter skrev:
> The unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since
I can remember, which
> goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
DEC docs older than that used the Ascii Arrow which
was replaced on
keyboards at a later date by the carrot.
Arrow? Carrot?
--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
Och har du en TV utan Scart, vilket nittionio procent faktiskt har, kommer de
f?rmodligen att ringa fr?n Antikrundan.
Martin Timell
3:45 p.m.
On Fri, Aug 10, 2001 at 12:44:48AM +0100, Iggy Drougge wrote:
Bill (who should have written "caret") means that in the version of ASCII
used before the current version, the ^ was an arrow pointing upward.
Also the _ was an arrow pointing leftward.
There are still older versions of ASCII, but that's another story.
Bill Pechter skrev:
> The unix
shell has used the ^C nomenclature since I can remember, which
> goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
DEC docs older than that used the Ascii Arrow
which was replaced on
keyboards at a later date by the carrot.
Arrow? Carrot? 
4:02 p.m.
On Fri, Aug 10, 2001 at 12:44:48AM +0100, Iggy Drougge
wrote:
Bill (who should have written "caret") means that in the version of ASCII
used before the current version, the ^ was an arrow pointing upward.
Also the _ was an arrow pointing leftward.
There are still older versions of ASCII, but that's another story.
That's what I get for posting before coffee...
Caret... yeah... that's the word.
Been a long time since teletypes with the arrow... saw my last one about
15 years ago... loading a PDP8E from paper tape.
Bill
--
Bill Gates is a Persian cat and a monocle away from being a
villain in a James Bond movie -- Dennis Miller
bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org
Bill Pechter skrev:
> The
unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since I can remember, which
> goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
DEC docs older than that used the Ascii Arrow
which was replaced on
keyboards at a later date by the carrot.
Arrow? Carrot? 
7:03 a.m.
The unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since I
can remember, which
goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
--tom
This is the first time that I recall seeing it as well, but I got
the impression that Unix borrowed the ^ notation from somewhere else.
Maybe it was Multics or one of the other earlier operating systems.
The early Unix documentation seemed to treat using the ^ notation
as a standard practice, maybe it was a Bell Lab internal practice.
-----Original Message-----
From: Dan Wright [mailto:dtwright@uiuc.edu]
Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 8:47 AM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: an odd question
not sure if this is exactly on-topic, but I figure if anyone
would know, it
would be this bunch... where did the convention of using
"^x" to represent
"Ctrl-x" come from? I wonder because you see that convention
everywhere, but
it's totally non-intuitave -- i.e. why does the carat symbol
mean "hold control
while pressing the following key"? I think this came up
because someone
pointed out that using pine the first time was really hard
until they figured
out what "^" meant. so, anyone know where that convention came from?
- Dan Wright
(dtwright(a)uiuc.edu)
(http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)
-] ------------------------------ [-]
-------------------------------- [-
``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with
holy dread,
For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
1:33 p.m.
It was thus said that the Great Mark Green once stated:
The ^ was used on early shells as an alternative to the | character (and
this works under Xenix on the Tandy-6000). I don't think it's supported
anymore (much like @ to erase a line is no longer used).
-spc (Gah! Why do I remember this stuff? 8-)
The unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since
I can remember, which
goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
--tom
This is the first time that I recall seeing it as well, but I got
the impression that Unix borrowed the ^ notation from somewhere else.
Maybe it was Multics or one of the other earlier operating systems.
The early Unix documentation seemed to treat using the ^ notation
as a standard practice, maybe it was a Bell Lab internal practice. 
6:29 p.m.
New subject: LA Times articles about the PC's 20th birthday
http://www.latimes.com/technology/columnists/techcol/la-000064606aug09.story
Of course they mean the *IBM* "PC"...but don't run away yet!
http://www.latimes.com/technology/columnists/techcol/la-000064614aug09.story
is about collecting old computers (Sellam Ismail gets a quote in this article!)
http://www.latimes.com/technology/columnists/techcol/la-000064610aug09.story
History of "PC's" from Apples to Acorns
http://www.latimes.com/technology/columnists/techcol/la-000064619aug09.story
Where do old computers go when they die? They pollute the environment of
course!
And there are links to similar stuff from the main article...
Have fun!
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9 comments
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participants (9)
-
chobbs＠socal.rr.com -
dpeschel＠eskimo.com -
mark＠cs.ualberta.ca -
optimus＠canit.se -
pechter＠bg-tc-ppp1414.monmouth.com -
pechter＠bg-tc-ppp888.monmouth.com -
spc＠conman.org -
uban＠ubanproductions.com -
zmerch＠30below.com