From: kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com Date: Mon, 7 Oct 1996 08:20:53 -0400 Message-Id: <9610071220.AA07120@quasar.bloomberg.com > To: Paul AT chocolat DOT foobar DOT co DOT uk Cc: djgpp AT delorie DOT com In-Reply-To: <844476775.27675.0@chocolat.foobar.co.uk> (message from Paul Shirley on Fri, 4 Oct 1996 23:37:57 +0100) Subject: Re: Anyone know anything about RSXNTDJ? Reply-To: kagel AT dg1 DOT bloomberg DOT com From: Paul Shirley Date: Fri, 4 Oct 1996 23:37:57 +0100 [SNIP] Does anyone know if other Unix makes still need the hard tab? (I asked if anyone knew what 'important syntactical function' it fulfils >18 months ago with no reply so far, leading me to think this is just another bit of FSF pig-headedness ;) Yes all UNIX makes with which I am familiar require tabs before commands. This was part of the original 'language' definition. Only DOS based MAKEs are lenient in this as Microsoft and Borland had to modify their make utilities just because at the time ALL the DOS editors translated tabs to spaces. HISTORICAL NOTE FOR TRIVIA BUFFS (may be skipped or otherwise ignored): The reason that most DOS editors translate tabs is historical, many early printers emulated hard copy TTYs (like DECWRITER) and/or were intended as printers attached to the printer port on the back of character terminals these never saw tabs and so did not handle them. (To this day the UNIX termcaps for these printers and the TTYs they emulate translate tabs for them but DOS had no such facility DOS PRINT send untranslated characters to the printer.) Therefore DOS editors translated tabs so that printed documents looked like their onscreen source. Once the edlin standard was established it propagated. -- Art S. Kagel, kagel AT quasar DOT bloomberg DOT com A proverb is no proverb to you 'till life has illustrated it. -- John Keats