Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!pesnta!hplabs!hpda!hpisoa2!hpitg!mit-eddie!barmar@mit-eddie
From: barmar%mit-eddie@mit-eddie.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.emacs
Subject: Re: Response to <569@tjalk.UUCP> <1660@mit-eddie.MIT.EDU> <1620@wucs.UUCP>
Message-ID: <1753@mit-eddie>
Date: Mon, 28-Apr-86 02:38:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1753
Posted: Mon Apr 28 02:38:00 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 11-May-86 15:52:51 EDT
References: <569@tjalk>
Lines: 19

In article <1620@wucs.UUCP> nz@wucs.UUCP (Neal Ziring) writes:
>	^Z	ctrl-Z was originally the C-M- prefix, and I have
>		made it be so for my environment.  ^Z was chosen
>		because it is near where the META key is on keyboards
>		with META keys.

That's not quite the way it happened.  EMACS was originally implemented
on ITS, on which ^Z was normally the interrupt character, so ^Z was
bound to a command to suspend the editor, and ^C was the C-M- prefix
command.  When it was ported to TOPS-20, these two commands were
interchanged, because ^C on TOPS-20 is analogous to ^Z on ITS.

I suspect that ^C may have been used in the original implementation
because it is one of the initials of Control or Meta, and most other
characters were already taken.
-- 
    Barry Margolin
    ARPA: barmar@MIT-Multics
    UUCP: ..!genrad!mit-eddie!barmar