Paper tape is why ASCII DEL is 0x7F — it's the only idempotent punch. And why typing DEL is properly a forward delete operation: it eliminates the character un

Paper tape is why ASCII DEL is 0x7F — it's the only idempotent punch. And why typing DEL is properly a forward delete operation: it eliminates the character under the cursor — converting it to a DEL, to be ignored when reading the tape — and (like any other punch) advances to the next. (I blame the VT220 for mucking this up and leading to endless confusion.)