> The unix shell has used the ^C nomenclature since I can remember, which
> goes back to version 6 on PDP 11s.
>
> --tom
This is the first time that I recall seeing it as well, but I got
the impression that Unix borrowed the ^ notation from somewhere else.
Maybe it was Multics or one of the other earlier operating systems.
The early Unix documentation seemed to treat using the ^ notation
as a standard practice, maybe it was a Bell Lab internal practice.
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dan Wright [mailto:dtwright_at_uiuc.edu]
> > Sent: Thursday, August 09, 2001 8:47 AM
> > To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> > Subject: an odd question
> >
> >
> > not sure if this is exactly on-topic, but I figure if anyone
> > would know, it
> > would be this bunch... where did the convention of using
> > "^x" to represent
> > "Ctrl-x" come from? I wonder because you see that convention
> > everywhere, but
> > it's totally non-intuitave -- i.e. why does the carat symbol
> > mean "hold control
> > while pressing the following key"? I think this came up
> > because someone
> > pointed out that using pine the first time was really hard
> > until they figured
> > out what "^" meant. so, anyone know where that convention came from?
> >
> > - Dan Wright
> > (dtwright_at_uiuc.edu)
> > (http://www.uiuc.edu/~dtwright)
> >
> > -] ------------------------------ [-]
> > -------------------------------- [-
> > ``Weave a circle round him thrice, / And close your eyes with
> > holy dread,
> > For he on honeydew hath fed, / and drunk the milk of Paradise.''
> > Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Kubla Khan
> >
>
>
Received on Thu Aug 09 2001 - 11:03:36 BST