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Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files
From: |
Dan Kalikow |
Subject: |
Re: interpreting ^Hs in text files |
Date: |
16 Jan 2003 19:37:16 GMT |
User-agent: |
Halime (MacOSX)/1.0b |
In <slrnb2djh3.9kl.mac@mac.dgp.toronto.edu> Maciej Kalisiak wrote:
> Text files occasionally use double-striking using ^H to create effects
> such as bold and underlined lettering. How do I make Emacs parse and
> interpret the text file according to this convention?
FWIW Maciej, I believe that such uses of ^H mostly occur these days as
jokes. In the old days indeed ^H would execute a physical backspace of
"the print-head" thus permitting it to over-strike a previously-typed
letter. A common use of this was to underscore such a previously-
printed letter. E.g., to print and underscore the word "the" the
sequence of characters transmitted would be
the^H^H^H___
where ^H was ctrl-H. It could also be used to strike through or
obliterate a previously-typed letter. It survived in that mode for
awhile as "glass TTYs" supplanted paper terminals, but gradually fell
into disuse in that mode. Nowadays, I normally see such ^H stuff used
as a "figure of net-speech" like this --
=====
Microsoft Windows is the most excellent^H^H^H^H^H^Hinsidious operating
system known to exist today.
=====
HTH^H^H^HI don't care if this helps or not to tell you the truth :-)
/Dan