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Why? Back in the day you could output a text file directly onto the printer and it would print, possibly interpreting control characters like backspace or carri

by bhaak 2y ago

Why? Back in the day you could output a text file directly onto the printer and it would print, possibly interpreting control characters like backspace or carriage return to overwrite existing characters. For that, the printer would also need to interpret the characters in the correct character set.

Dylan16807 2y ago
But who would design a character set that only works properly on printers in 1985? Hence the question of whether and which operating systems properly supported that kind of use.
- akira2501 2y ago
  We didn't start putting computers on everyone's desk until the mid 90s. Prior to that printed output dominated businesses.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    It's still a pretty crazy idea to add something that only works on printers at that time. It's very much worth asking about OS support, and "it's there because printers" leaves a lot of story untold, it's not a sufficient answer.
    - akira2501 2y ago
      We did printing with heads on specialized form paper. If you wanted to change the font you opened up the printer, took out the head, and replaced it with a new head. The character set standard defined how the head was physically manufactured. You want all the printers in your fleet to produce identical output. In 1985 "OS Support" meant picking up the phone and talking to the vendor directly.
- numpad0 2y ago
  A "printer" in 1985 wasn't necessarily a PostScript raster printer. Presumably.
- bhaak 2y ago
  It's not "only". A similar question is why does ASCII have a control character for ringing a bell? The answer is that the character sets were designed with specific hardware in mind and often with backwards compatibility. The accented characters were in use for typewriter and printer with a typewriter like interface or even hardware.
- chuckadams 2y ago
  > But who would design a character set that only works properly on printers in 1985? Someone in 1985 who has mostly printers. ASCII dates from the 70’s.
  - Dylan16807 2y ago
    > ASCII dates from the 70’s. Yes, and ASCII did not have these characters.

by bhaak 2y ago

Dylan16807 2y ago

But who would design a character set that only works properly on printers in 1985? Hence the question of whether and which operating systems properly supported that kind of use.

akira2501 2y ago
We didn't start putting computers on everyone's desk until the mid 90s. Prior to that printed output dominated businesses.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  It's still a pretty crazy idea to add something that only works on printers at that time. It's very much worth asking about OS support, and "it's there because printers" leaves a lot of story untold, it's not a sufficient answer.
  - akira2501 2y ago
    We did printing with heads on specialized form paper. If you wanted to change the font you opened up the printer, took out the head, and replaced it with a new head. The character set standard defined how the head was physically manufactured. You want all the printers in your fleet to produce identical output. In 1985 "OS Support" meant picking up the phone and talking to the vendor directly.
numpad0 2y ago
A "printer" in 1985 wasn't necessarily a PostScript raster printer. Presumably.
bhaak 2y ago
It's not "only". A similar question is why does ASCII have a control character for ringing a bell? The answer is that the character sets were designed with specific hardware in mind and often with backwards compatibility. The accented characters were in use for typewriter and printer with a typewriter like interface or even hardware.
chuckadams 2y ago
> But who would design a character set that only works properly on printers in 1985? Someone in 1985 who has mostly printers. ASCII dates from the 70’s.
- Dylan16807 2y ago
  > ASCII dates from the 70’s. Yes, and ASCII did not have these characters.