What's a Carriage and Who's Feeding it Lines? CRLF - Computer Stuff They Didn't Teach You #1

Computer Stuff They Didn't Teach You #1 - What's a Carriage and Who's Feeding it Lines? CRLF

Thanks to Kerem Demirer for the Turkish Subtitles!

[runscopeable]

Please do continue those. Even though I knew about this topic, I kept watching because of your educational skills and soothing voice!

[geronimus-prime]

In an episode of Columbo called "Exercise in Fatality", there's a scene with an ultra-modern-for-the-1970s digital computer, with batcave-style spinning plate-disks and no screen! (Not even a green one.) It's a nice depiction of the world for which this CRLF system was invented - where rather than displaying on a screen, each byte was an instruction to a printer - it was the only way to get data out of the system! And the carriage returns really did tell the printer, "Move back to position zero." And the line feeds really did tell the printer, "Move the paper up."

MacOS X currently uses the Unix-style LF line ending, but it was the previous MacOS 9, 8, 7 and 6 (circa 1980s-2000s) that used the carriage return only. I remember, in 2001, purchasing my first Mac laptop. The authorized reseller (Apple Stores did not yet exist) told me it came installed with a prototype of OS X on dual boot. But that I shouldn't use it because it was still very buggy. I wonder how many of those bugs were due to the change-over in line end character...

(He also showed me something called an iPod, which looked a bit like a Tamagotchi with a headphone jack. I admit that I didn't see the point, since my family had never been prosperous enough to afford a disc-man portable CD player, and endure its maddening skipping. In the old days, we had to jog in abject silence. For five miles! In 3 feet of snow! Uphill both ways! Time is a funny thing...)

[ahmad-murery]

Back in 1994 a computer teacher taught us the copy con command,
and just now in 2022 I realized that the con means console and I suddenly I feel more confident 😎,
also, thanks for the Where command too,
Thanks Scott!

[Mrkonc]

Oh! This explains why in earlier days sometimes when I opened files in Notepad all content would be just one line. 👍

[JossinJax]

Aligning "Stuff they didn't teach you" to this channel is genius. As a CS student I get the urge to say "Amen" to the majority of your video titles lolz.

[nwrl]

Scott I don't now how you find the time to do all you do. Amazing stuff - thank you!

[dontown]

Great video. I was an alpha tester for the ARPANET in 1969. They brought a Telex machine to our High school here in Vancouver & we sent an 'e-mail' to SFU using a telephone handset & acoustic modem (remember those?). I learned programming on a Honeywell 200 mainframe @ Langara College in 1971 when it 1st opened. Look forward to your series.

[damianshaw]

Macs Switched from Carriage Return to Line Feed the same as other Unix like OSes as part of their transition from Mac 9 to OS X

[SeaWaves]

I'm the type of person who doesn't click like ever on a video, this one however I liked because it's explaining things that I'd have probably went on years without understanding if I didn't stumble upon this video, thank you keep making these please

[CRBarchager]

Been doing tech stuff for almost 40 years and never knew the "where" command. So you learn some new stuff everyday.

[IkaroAmorimeSilva]

I came to your channel through this video. I had some idea about CRLF, but this video elucidate me a lot. Thank you

[dazecm]

Arrived to this series as it's hit video #8 and it went straight into my Playlist. Thanks Scott, great info as always.

[rajaganji]

We Need this series 100% . Don't stop doing this Ever.

[harishvenkataraman]

This is a great playlist! Oftentimes, it's the knowledge of the mundane, non-flashy stuff about computer science that differentiates a great programmer from a good one.

[zebrg]

Thumbs up! My suggestion: Turing Machines. Many years ago, my computer science degree started on the first year by teaching the students what is a Turing Machine and how to make simple programs on it. I find it very enlightening about how computers work and better understand its strengths and limitations.

[girreturns]

I still say the Windows format makes the most sense. If you just return the carriage, you should, theoretically, return to the start of the same line you were just typing on. If you only feed the line, you'll be at the end of the line, just one line below where you started. You have to increment the line and return the carriage to the start in order to begin typing again.

[sebastianbergstrom]

Wow! Thanks so much! My friend pointed me here. Very grateful. I had no idea. I hope you feel encouraged to continue! Thanks <3

[coolelle]

Scott -- cool video, especially for those youngsters who have never used a manual typewriter. One small correction -- the line feed on a typewriter happens automatically when you push the carriage return (the big silver lever on the left). You don't have to manually advance the paper to the next line. How? There's a ratchet mechanism on the left that rotates the platen (roller) precisely one line. The carriage return lever activates that ratchet. No manual line feed. Keep up the good work!

[shobhitwalia]

Perfect Scott, you are one of the most passionate techy in my opinion so far

[agermoune]

Love this! Subscribed immediately. Thx Scott for these introductory videos!
Was looking for how PowerShell works inside VSC while learning Python. Glad I found you!