this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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"It's just easier to type" and other lies you believe

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago (16 children)

Seriously though, why? Is there historic reasons for that? Did they have to pay extra for more letters back in the day?

[–] [email protected] 31 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Yes. Memory and storage were at a very high premium until the 1990s, and when C was first being developed, it wasn’t uncommon for computers to output to printers (that’s why print() and co are named what they are), so every character was at a premium. In the latter case, you were literally paying in ink and paper by the character. These contributed to this convention that we’re still stuck with today in C.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Wait, but they didn't print out the source code right? Or did they use teletypes to develop?

[–] xchgeaxeax 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

or did they use teletypes to develop

Basically yeah. ed the editor was designed with that in mind

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh, that makes a lot of sense then.

After all, it is the standard text editor

spoiler

uff, doesn't feel right if it isn't KasaneTeto saying this :/

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