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Date: Tue, 26 Feb 2013 03:08:31 +0000
From: MRAB <python@mrabarnett.plus.com>
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To: python-list@python.org
Subject: Re: Shebang line on Windows?
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On 2013-02-26 02:08, Michael Torrie wrote:
> On 02/25/2013 05:52 PM, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
>> Nobody is asking anyone to support "every Windows wart out there".
>> Windows-style line separators are not a wart, it is a convention used by
>> many, many tools, operating systems, data formats (e.g. email), etc. It
>> is an old, old convention, going back to teletype days and so predating
>> not just Windows but also Unix. So in fact it is *Unix* that broke the
>> convention, and Unix line separators which is the "wart" (or at least a
>> regression).
>
> That's really interesting.  I didn't know that before.  It does make
> sense.  As much as I love unix, it really originated as a hack in many
> senses.  With that in mind I think Linux should allow a trailing CR in
> the shebang line, even if other unix OS's don't.  Of course it's a minor
> thing, and there are ways of dealing with it.
>
> This is a reminder to me how much we Linux users look at Windows as a
> quaint anomaly with it's apparently backwards ways of doing things (like
> backslash directory separators, like CP/M did), but forget it is still
> the dominant platform out there for general purpose computing.  So it
> really could be argued that Linux indeed is the backward OS when it
> comes to these kind of incompatibilities (though I still think I like it
> better!)
>
That reminds me of the time I was making PPD (PostScript Printer
Description) files. They worked on both Windows and MacOS.

Then Apple released MacOS X, which complained when they were installed.

It turned out that MacOS X didn't like the line endings. It insisted on
CR only, despite the fact that the PPD specification said that the line
endings could be CR, LF, or CR/LF, and that they had followed the
specification previously!