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great runes
(foldoc) | Great Runes
Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic
operating systems still emit these.
See also runes, smash case, fold case.
Back in the days when it was the sole supplier of
long-distance hardcopy transmision devices, the {Teletype
Corporation} was faced with a major design choice. To shorten
code lengths and cut complexity in the printing mechanism, it
had been decided that teletypes would use a monocase
font, either ALL UPPER or all lower. The Question Of The
Day was therefore, which one to choose. A study was conducted
on readability under various conditions of bad ribbon, worn
print hammers, etc. Lowercase won; it is less dense and has
more distinctive letterforms, and is thus much easier to read
both under ideal conditions and when the letters are mangled
or partly obscured. The results were filtered up through
management. The chairman of Teletype killed the proposal
because it failed one incredibly important criterion:
"It would be impossible to spell the name of the Deity correctly."
In this way (or so, at least, hacker folklore has it)
superstition triumphed over utility. Teletypes were the
major input devices on most early computers, and terminal
manufacturers looking for corners to cut naturally followed
suit until well into the 1970s. Thus, that one bad call
stuck us with Great Runes for thirty years.
(1994-12-02)
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great runes
(jargon) | Great Runes
n.
Uppercase-only text or display messages. Some archaic operating systems
still emit these. See also runes, smash case, fold case.
There is a widespread legend (repeated by earlier versions of this entry,
though tagged as folklore) that the uppercase-only support of various old
character codes and I/O equipment was chosen by a religious person in a
position of power at the Teletype Company because supporting both upper and
lower cases was too expensive and supporting lower case only would have
made it impossible to spell ‘God’ correctly. Not true; the upper-case
interpretation of teleprinter codes was well established by 1870, long
before Teletype was even founded.
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