[Axiom-developer] RE: Windows CR/LF conversion

[Bill Page]

William,

On Friday, January 14, 2005 2:18 AM you wrote:
> 
> When saving files from within Axiom, say
> 
> )hist )write foo.input
> 
> The file saved is still using Unix convention. One has to use 
> unix2dos to convert it to insert the missing LF/CR (forget
> which) before editing with say Notepad.

Linux uses the unix convention of a LF code to mark the ends
of lines. Windows uses the combination of a CR and a LF code.
Legacy windows applications like Notepad and old MSDOS
applications do not support the unix format but almost all
newer windows applications (e.g. Wordpad) and ported linux
programs have no problem.

I recommend deleting "good old" Notepad from your system and
installing one of the many very good open source text editors
that support the unix convention and are available for free.
Some of these are configurable to produce either unix or
windows compatible line endings when saving files.

> 
> Can this be done automatically and transparently?
>

Yes, for the Windows version it is probably possible to make
sure that most things that are written out to files in text
format have the standard windows line endings.

> Of course, for portability, the reverse should be automatic 
> too (but linux users are more adept to make the conversion
> than Windows users and a few extra LF/CRs are easily removed
> manually for small files).

The windows version of Axiom already does this, i.e. it ignores
all CR codes in input text files. For portability the linux
version could also safely do this (maybe next release?). So it
wouldn't hurt to add the CR on the windows version for maximum
compatibility.

> 
> Not anything urgent, just a wishful request.
> 

I would like to hear from other windows users about how important
they think "Notepad compatibility" really is.

> Thanks very much for the Windows version.
> 

The thanks of course go to everyone who has worked on the
project.

Regards,
Bill Page.