Anybody want to fix ash's backspace line wrap?

Rob Landley rob at landley.net
Thu May 14 20:12:52 UTC 2009


On Thursday 14 May 2009 10:50:40 Cathey, Jim wrote:
> >I think that getting backspace right across line breaks and manually
> >resetting the screen once it's gotten screwed up are two separate
>
> issues.  >This is just my opinion, of course...
>
> They are.  Belt and suspenders.  I just got done putting in
> BS-over-BOL and ^L repaint code in our product's shell (nothing
> to do with Un*x shells), and I felt like I was transported back
> 25 years...  But as one of the few around here (not the BB list)
> that did this crap the first time around I felt fairly qualified
> to just dive in and make it markedly better than it was without
> getting wrapped around the axle.

My uncle Alan worked for HP for 45 years (until the Compaq acquisition and 
Carly Fiorina's pointy hair drove out all the old Unix guys; he retired and 
does hot air balloon races now).

This is why he had an entire HP minicomputer and two terminals in his spare 
room, which is why I got to play hangman on an actual teletype I was 8 years 
old.  (It may also be why he recorded the original "Battlestar Galactica" on 
the same reel to reel tapes the minicomputer stored data on.).

Transporting me back 25 years would put me in front of my Commodore 64. :)

I repeat: http://landley.net/history/catfire/wheniwasaboy.mp3

(Yes, that's the same Frank Hayes who writes a column for computerworld.)

Rob
-- 
Latency is more important than throughput. It's that simple. - Linus Torvalds


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