From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.2 (2018-09-13) on inbox.vuxu.org X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.8 required=5.0 tests=HEADER_FROM_DIFFERENT_DOMAINS, MAILING_LIST_MULTI,RCVD_IN_DNSWL_NONE autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.2 Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (minnie.tuhs.org [45.79.103.53]) by inbox.vuxu.org (OpenSMTPD) with ESMTP id 0285098f for ; Sun, 6 Oct 2019 17:48:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 36A349BCEF; Mon, 7 Oct 2019 03:48:23 +1000 (AEST) Received: from minnie.tuhs.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 144199BBE9; Mon, 7 Oct 2019 03:47:53 +1000 (AEST) Received: by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix, from userid 112) id 9344A9BBE8; Mon, 7 Oct 2019 03:47:51 +1000 (AEST) Received: from mail.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (mail.cs.dartmouth.edu [129.170.212.100]) by minnie.tuhs.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 82FB69BBE4 for ; Mon, 7 Oct 2019 03:47:50 +1000 (AEST) Received: from tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (tahoe.cs.dartmouth.edu [129.170.212.20]) by mail.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id x96Hlm2s015903 (version=TLSv1.3 cipher=TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Sun, 6 Oct 2019 13:47:48 -0400 Received: from tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (8.15.2/8.14.3) with ESMTP id x96HlmDm034216 for ; Sun, 6 Oct 2019 13:47:48 -0400 Received: (from doug@localhost) by tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) id x96Hllxs034213 for tuhs@tuhs.org; Sun, 6 Oct 2019 13:47:47 -0400 From: Doug McIlroy Message-Id: <201910061747.x96Hllxs034213@tahoe.cs.Dartmouth.EDU> Date: Sun, 06 Oct 2019 13:47:47 -0400 To: tuhs@tuhs.org User-Agent: Heirloom mailx 12.5 7/5/10 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: [TUHS] lowercase vs. uppercase PDP-7? X-BeenThere: tuhs@minnie.tuhs.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.26 Precedence: list List-Id: The Unix Heritage Society mailing list List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: tuhs-bounces@minnie.tuhs.org Sender: "TUHS" > The scans for v0 code are in lowercase. I assume printed on TTY 37. > But why is the early PDP-7 code in lowercase? Once you've used a device with lower case, upper case looks as offensive as a ransom note. I went through this in moving "up" from Whirlwind to IBM's 704. By 1969, we'd all had lower-case terminals in our homes for several years. So Unix was ASCII from the start. Upper-case from a TTY 33 was converted to lower. On the PDP-11, at least, there was an escape convention for upper case. I believe the lower-case convention was explained in the introduction. In particular if you logged in with an upper-case user name, the terminal driver was set to convert everything to lower. Remember, too, that 33's used yellow paper. For printing on white we had use other machines that had full ASCII support. Doug