Subject: Re: ASCII and BINARY files. Why?
From: [email-masked] ("Eliot W Dudley")

2 Feb 1997 07:55:37 -0800
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Certain programs need to have \r\n to work right, e.g. 'type'.  Deprecate
them, srew 'em, shun them, or fix them if they're worth it, but I don't
think so.  Text mode was a bad dream, wake up, be happy.

Certain programs don't care, e.g. gcc, MSVC++, Borland BC5, elvis.  Good
for them, let's have more of the same.

Certain programs need not to have \r\n to work right, e.g. certain versions
of make.  Now if I allow a Win95/NT box the privilege of SMB mounting a
Unix filesystem because now after all these years they've joined the club,
and then some miscreant newbie utility decides to stick \r\n into a make
file, and breaks it such that I can't compile over on the MassComp what
should I do?

Some are suggesting I go get a 9-track tape drive, find the sources for
some 10-year-old make, go through the mess and implement so-called text
mode and that will be the end of it. This isn't going to happen.

So please, whatever you do, keep \r\n out of newline delimited text files. 
If the evil spawn of CPM want to join the 32-bit club, let them leave
'type' at the door.

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