Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!ogicse!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tekchips!tekgvs!toma
From: toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: minor problem with COPY command
Message-ID: <8595@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM>
Date: 13 Dec 90 22:16:04 GMT
References: <31600012@hpcvra.cv.hp.com.CV.HP.COM> <valley.661107643@gsbsun>
Reply-To: toma@tekgvs.LABS.TEK.COM (Tom Almy)
Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton,  OR.
Lines: 22

In article <valley.661107643@gsbsun> valley@uchicago (Doug Dougherty) writes:
>The whole "ASCII file/^Z = EOF" thing is a bug, in my view.
>All copying should be in binary mode.  Editors should not append ^Zs
>to files.  Foo on the Norton Editor!

Not a bug, but a compatibility feature. MS/DOS was designed to be somewhat
compatible with CP/M so that all the CP/M applications could be easily ported.
In CP/M, files were always a multiple of 128 bytes so end of file was 
indicated by filling the end of the 128 byte sector with ^Z's.

But this was years ago. There is no excuse for editors to append ^Z's now.
In fact there is no excuse for any program not ported from CP/M (which is
just about everything) to append ^Z's.

BTW, the major, still existing in one form or another, applications ported: 
  DBASE-II, WordStar, (Microsoft) Basic, SuperCalc, and Turbo Pascal.

(I had them all!)

Tom Almy
toma@tekgvs.labs.tek.com
Standard Disclaimers Apply