[news.newusers.questions] <control> L

www@sppy00.UUCP (Victor Shakapopolis) (08/04/89)

Hello,

I was wondering about <control> L.  Precisely what is the correct
way to use this.  The reason I'm asking is because when I enter
a "^L" in the first column of an article it doesn't seem to work
when I see the article I just posted.  I enter the "carrot" sign
over the 6 on my keyboard, followed by an L.  Is this correct?
Will this work after the article is off site?

   Thanks...
-- 
  ==========================================================================
  William W. White                   {att|pyramid|killer}!osu-cis!sppy00!www
  ****    These are my views, not my employer's (standard disclaimer)   ****
  ==========================================================================

dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu (Doug Krause) (08/04/89)

In article <488@sppy00.UUCP> www@sppy00.UUCP (Victor Shakapopolis) writes:
>I enter the "carrot" sign
>over the 6 on my keyboard, followed by an L.  Is this correct?

You need a actual ^L, which is ASCII character 12, and I think it
needs to be the first character on the line.  If you are using
emacs, type a ^Q and then the ^L.  In vi you can just type ^L
without any "prep" characters.

Douglas Krause                     One yuppy can ruin your whole day.
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University of California, Irvine   Internet: dkrause@orion.cf.uci.edu
Welcome to Irvine, Yuppieland USA  BITNET: DJKrause@ucivmsa

lum@armadillo.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lum Johnson) (08/08/89)

In article <488@sppy00.UUCP> www@sppy00.UUCP (Victor Shakapopolis) writes:
>
>I was wondering about <control> L.  .. I enter a "^L" in the first
>column of an article[, but] it doesn't seem to work when I see the
>article I just posted.  I enter the "carrot" sign over the 6 on my
>keyboard, followed by an L.  Is this correct?

A very simple mistake.  You are entering two characters, "^" and "L",
when you want to enter one character, "^L", which unfortunately has
the same print representation.  (You will often see control characters
denoted less ambiguously:  CTRL/L, Control-L, C-L, <CTL/L>, etc.)
Control-L should do what you want - it is also known as Form-Feed,
and most software responds to it as though it denotes a page break.

First, find the key on your keyboard marked CONTROL, CTRL, CNTL, CTL,
or something of that sort.  (The marking may be eccentric on machinery
from eccentric hardware manufacturers - I hear that it is marked ALT
on IBM PC keyboards, to confuse those of us who _know_ that ALTMODE is
(or was until 1968) 033 (octal), now known as ESCAPE.)  It should be
on the left hand side above the SHIFT key and it is used similarly.

A control character is typed by holding down CONTROL and pressing
another key simultaneously.  Note that some control characters are not
typed in the obvious way on some terminals:  for example, on VT100s,
"^@" (Control-Atsign) is typed as though it were "^ " (Control-Space);
"^_" (Control-Underbar) as "^?" (Control-Question);  and "^^"
(Control-Caret) as "^~" (Control-Tilde).  Refer to the documentation
for your terminal or terminal emulation software for the surprises
your manufacturer has decided to give you.

There are 32 (decimal) control characters corresponding to all upper
case letters and to the characters:  "@", "[", "\", "]", "^", and "_";
some people argue that DELETE (RUBOUT) is also a control character.

Lum
-=-
-- 
Lum Johnson      lum@cis.ohio-state.edu      lum@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu
"You got it kid -- the large print giveth and the small print taketh away."
-------

barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) (08/08/89)

Inserting a Control-L into a news message is not a good thing to do.
Some terminals and/or news readers do not pause when they see ^L

In some cases - it might clear the screen or do something equally offensive.


Instead - just insert a few blank lines if you want to delay the
punchline to a joke.

Some news readers will pause before they see the character sequence
preceeding a signature:
<return>-- <return>

You might want to use that instead.

To change rn to do this, you can set the environment variable RNINIT
to have the following string:
	-EPAGESTOP=^--\
or
	-EPAGESTOP=^--
which will cause a pause on the lines separating digest articles
as well as signatures.

I think that will work.

--
Bruce G. Barnett	<barnett@crdgw1.ge.com>  a.k.a. <barnett@[192.35.44.4]>
			uunet!crdgw1.ge.com!barnett barnett@crdgw1.UUCP

grantham@super.ORG (Jon Grantham) (08/09/89)

In article <1525@crdgw1.crd.ge.com> barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett)
writes:
>Inserting a Control-L into a news message is not a good thing to do.
Try telling that to the folks in rec.arts.movies.  The lack of insertion of
Control-L has been the cause of major flamage over there.  People get really,
really upset if you spoil the ending of Batman for them.  Or Citizen Kane.

>Some terminals and/or news readers do not pause when they see ^L
>In some cases - it might clear the screen or do something equally offensive.
You take the risk -- mess up a few people's screens, or get tons of hate mail
and flamed all over the newsgroup for revealing the suprise ending to "Bill and
Ted's Excellent Adventure."

>Instead - just insert a few blank lines if you want to delay the
>punchline to a joke.
But that won't really protect people from movie spoilers.

>Some news readers will pause before they see the character sequence
>preceeding a signature:
><return>-- <return>
But not all will.  And you'll make the people who don't have that feature
*really, really* mad at you.

If you choose to post spoilers without ^L, that's your prerogative.  But don't
say I didn't warn you.
-- 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
grantham@super.org	uunet!super!grantham	Jon_Grantham@ub.cc.umich.edu

epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/09/89)

In article <57028@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Lum Johnson <lum@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:
>First, find the key on your keyboard marked CONTROL, CTRL, CNTL, CTL,
>or something of that sort.  (The marking may be eccentric on machinery
>from eccentric hardware manufacturers - I hear that it is marked ALT
>on IBM PC keyboards, to confuse those of us who _know_ that ALTMODE is
>(or was until 1968) 033 (octal), now known as ESCAPE.)  It should be
>on the left hand side above the SHIFT key and it is used similarly.

There is a CTRL key on IBM PC keyboards.  THere is also an ALT
key that does something very different.  Perhaps you are thinking
of IBM 3101 terminals?  Note: Some PC keyboards put CAPS LOCK
where CTRL should be, and CTRL on either side of the space bar.

The major PC manufacturer that didn't learn about CTRL until late
in the game was not IBM, but Apple!

(BTW, ALTMODE on old ASR 33s sent 175 octal.)

					-=EPS=-

barnett@crdgw1.crd.ge.com (Bruce Barnett) (08/09/89)

In article <12689@super.ORG>, grantham@super (Jon Grantham) writes:

>If you choose to post spoilers without ^L, that's your prerogative.  But don't
>say I didn't warn you.

You should mark the subject line with *SPOILER*
If you do, and don't put in a Control-L, then no-one should flame you.
If they do, you can flame them back.

I guess you could also insert 25 (or more) linefeeds.
But even that's not portable, as some people have 40+ lines
on their workstation.

--
Bruce G. Barnett	<barnett@crdgw1.ge.com>  a.k.a. <barnett@[192.35.44.4]>
			uunet!crdgw1.ge.com!barnett barnett@crdgw1.UUCP

lum@armadillo.cis.ohio-state.edu (Lum Johnson) (08/09/89)

In article <392@wet.UUCP> epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes:
>In article <57028@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Lum Johnson <lum@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:
>There is a CTRL key on IBM PC keyboards.  THere is also an ALT
>key that does something very different.  Perhaps you are thinking
>of IBM 3101 terminals?  Note: Some PC keyboards put CAPS LOCK
>where CTRL should be, and CTRL on either side of the space bar.

Actually, I'm not sure - I try to keep my hands off them.  :-)
I've recently heard of this ALT key, a shift key of some kind,
but I guess I'm not clear on what it is supposed to do.

>The major PC manufacturer that didn't learn about CTRL until late
>in the game was not IBM, but Apple!

True enough - it's that funny little "cloverleaf" thingie to the left
of the space bar, isn't it?  And all the documentation depicts this
cloverleaf thingie wherever there should be Carets or Uparrows.

>(BTW, ALTMODE on old ASR 33s sent 175 octal.)

Old Teletypes indeed used 175 for ALTMODE, 176 for ESCAPE, and 033 had
yet another name.  (?PREFIX?  If I recall correctly.)  Documentation
from MIT for programs like DDT (Dynamic Debugging Tool), developed
circa the ANSI X3.4-1968 revision of ASCII, generally refers to 033 as
ALTMODE.  (DDT has commands such as "$X" (ALTMODE X) for single-step
and "$$X" (ALTMODE ALTMODE X) for stepover-routine.)

Lum
-=-
-- 
Lum Johnson      lum@cis.ohio-state.edu      lum@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu
"You got it kid -- the large print giveth and the small print taketh away."
-------

epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/12/89)

Inserting CTRL/L in files is the standard page break.  If your
terminal is getting screwed up something is wrong with your
newsreader--it's supposed to be echoed as ^L, not literally.
If your newsreader supports an alternate PAGER you may be able to
fix it yourself, otherwise you'll have to ask your administrator.

Putting 25 linefeeds in articles is not going to win you any
friends, just an honorable mention in a KILL file.

					-=EPS=-

epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) (08/12/89)

>In article <392@wet.UUCP> epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes:
>>The major PC manufacturer that didn't learn about CTRL until late
>>in the game was not IBM, but Apple!

In article <57174@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Lum Johnson
	<lum@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:
>True enough - it's that funny little "cloverleaf" thingie to the left
>of the space bar, isn't it?  And all the documentation depicts this
>cloverleaf thingie wherever there should be Carets or Uparrows.

The new Macintosh keyboards have Control, Option and "cloverleaf"--
and they all perform different functions.  Some terminal emulators
used "cloverleaf" to simulate a control key, but this was never a
"standard."
					-=EPS=-

avery@well.UUCP (Avery Ray Colter) (08/26/89)

My problem with ctrl-L is in the nn reader program.
It doesn't clear my screen, and just writes the next page over it, making
for a very cluttered look. My only solution right now is to pull down
the help menu and then exit, leaving a fresh screen on which the pager
can print the new stuff.

Very annoying, there should be a way to get around that. Oh well....

-- 
Avery Ray Colter    avery@well.sf.ca.us   71067.606@compuserve.com
{apple,lamc,lll-winken,cogsci,hplabs,pacbell}!well!avery
"....Fat-Bottomed Girls, You Make the Rockin` World Go ROUND!" -Queen