vi vs. emacs

[The Polymath]

In article <12510 at ism780c.isc.com> mikep at ism780c.UUCP (Michael A. Petonic) writes:
}In article <Aug.1.09.48.52.1988.8196 at topaz.rutgers.edu> ron at topaz.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes:
} >I should point out children that Control-? does not exist and is
} >a figment of the BSD control character printing routine.

}Sorry, Ron.  This doesn't come from BSD, although it's popularized there.
}I've seen references to ^? being translated to DELETE dated back in October
}1977 in RFC #734 (SUPDUP Display Protocol which ran on the ITS, TOPS-20 and
}Stanford's SAIL operating system at a machine at (each) MIT, Stanford, and
}SRI International).

May I direct your attention to any ASCII chart?  The difference between
any control character and it's corresponding printable character is the
setting of the high order bit.  E.g.: '@' is 64 decimal. '^@' is null
(64 - 64 == 0).  The delete character is 127 decimal. 127 - 64 == 63.
Know what the ASCII equivalent of decimal 63 is?  It's '?'.  Thus,
referring to delete as '^?' is perfectly logical and in keeping with the
ASCII standard.  It has nothing to do with BSD or SUPDUP except that they
acknowledge the ASCII standard.

-- 
The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe, hollombe at ttidca.tti.com)  Illegitimati Nil
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