Backspace does not erase in stdout

[Grant Edwards]

On 2011-12-06, Nobody <nobody at nowhere.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:23:55 +0000, Grant Edwards wrote:
>
>>> Emitting "\b \b" is one very common way to do a destructive backspace.
>>> Inelegant? Perhaps, but a common inelegance.
>> 
>> That's pretty much the only way I've seen it done for the past 25
>> years.
>
> ... before which, it was BS-DEL-BS.
>
> DEL being 127 means that it punches through all of the holes on the
> paper tape, causing whatever was there previously to be replaced with
> a DEL character.


> BS-SPC-BS would only punch through one of the holes.

Ah yes.  And when you read a tape, you silently ignored DEL
characters.  I had completely fogotten about that. I only used paper
tape very briefly, and only for storage, never as a "live" medium for
editing.

-- 
Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! I own seven-eighths of
                                  at               all the artists in downtown
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