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I never understood why the ASCII separator characters aren't used more. It seems like we're one simple text editor feature away from having easy display and mod

I never understood why the ASCII separator characters aren't used more. It seems like we're one simple text editor feature away from having easy display and modification. Is there some historical reason for not doing that?

quesera 4y ago
ASCII separators (mnemonics FS, GS, RS, US) are difficult for most users to type, and have no obvious/standardized visual representation.
- hermitcrab 4y ago
  Notepad++ show RS and US as little black boxes with 'RS' and 'US' in. It works well enough.
- jonnycomputer 4y ago
  My editor, and lots of editors now, put spaces instead of tabs when I press the tab key. No reason something similar couldn't happen in CSV modes/apps.
- Gigachad 4y ago
  Who is typing out CSVs anyway. You’d either use a spreadsheet tool or do it in code.
  - qwerty456127 4y ago
    From my point of view, CSV is mostly operated in text editors because they are much faster and don't risk to do any unintended modifications.
- indymike 4y ago
  Early on they were used in some serial and modem protocols, which was problematic when you used them in actual file content. I remember trying to use them in a file, and then when I tried to transfer them, the transfer would stop at RS.
_vdpp 4y ago
I’ve wondered this too. At one point I started writing a hobby programming language and explicitly added escape codes for these extra control characters to be used in string literals. (Ada has them all included in the “ASCII” package which is nice.) It seems like a no-brainer to bake them into file formats like the OP describes.
garaetjjte 4y ago
Because they don't have standardized escaping, and when you are rolling your own ad-hoc escaping scheme you can just use printable separator anyway.
- 6yyyyyy 4y ago
  Really? Then I wonder what the ASCII character coded 0x10 is for?
  - zzo38computer 4y ago
    That is what I considered too, actually.

quesera 4y ago

ASCII separators (mnemonics FS, GS, RS, US) are difficult for most users to type, and have no obvious/standardized visual representation.

hermitcrab 4y ago
Notepad++ show RS and US as little black boxes with 'RS' and 'US' in. It works well enough.
jonnycomputer 4y ago
My editor, and lots of editors now, put spaces instead of tabs when I press the tab key. No reason something similar couldn't happen in CSV modes/apps.
Gigachad 4y ago
Who is typing out CSVs anyway. You’d either use a spreadsheet tool or do it in code.
- qwerty456127 4y ago
  From my point of view, CSV is mostly operated in text editors because they are much faster and don't risk to do any unintended modifications.
indymike 4y ago
Early on they were used in some serial and modem protocols, which was problematic when you used them in actual file content. I remember trying to use them in a file, and then when I tried to transfer them, the transfer would stop at RS.

_vdpp 4y ago

I’ve wondered this too. At one point I started writing a hobby programming language and explicitly added escape codes for these extra control characters to be used in string literals. (Ada has them all included in the “ASCII” package which is nice.) It seems like a no-brainer to bake them into file formats like the OP describes.

garaetjjte 4y ago

Because they don't have standardized escaping, and when you are rolling your own ad-hoc escaping scheme you can just use printable separator anyway.

6yyyyyy 4y ago
Really? Then I wonder what the ASCII character coded 0x10 is for?
- zzo38computer 4y ago
  That is what I considered too, actually.