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Why are hyperlinks blue?

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  Why are hyperlinks blue? "Andrei Z." <no-email@invalid.invalid> - 2021-08-27 07:25 +0300
    Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) - 2021-08-28 05:31 +0000
    Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? SixOverFive <hae274c.net> - 2021-08-28 01:32 -0400
      Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2021-08-28 09:10 +0100
      Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? "Carlos E. R." <robin_listas@es.invalid> - 2021-08-28 13:11 +0200
        Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? Rich <rich@example.invalid> - 2021-08-29 04:21 +0000
          Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2021-08-29 08:44 +0100
            Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> - 2021-08-29 21:44 +0000
              Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2021-08-31 20:43 +0100
          Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be> - 2021-08-29 16:43 +0200
            Re: Why are hyperlinks blue? Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> - 2021-08-30 08:08 +0100

#32918 — Why are hyperlinks blue?

Why are hyperlinks blue?

https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/

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#32929

Andrei Z. <no-email@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> Why are hyperlinks blue?
> 
> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/

Quite interesting. That article didn't mention the IBM BookManager
Library Reader for Windows which defaults to blue (without
underline) for link text in the last release. That release shows a
copyright year of 1994 in the "About" window; I don't know where
to find earlier versions but it might turn out to be among the
earlier blue-hyperlink adopters.

-- 
__          __
#_ < |\| |< _#

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#32930

On 08/27/2021 12:25 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:
> Why are hyperlinks blue?
> 
> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/ 

   Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???

   It's often "inventors priority" in these things.
   No actual REASON for it ... the HTML inventors
   just wanted links to stand out somehow. Blue
   looked nice ...

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#32932

On 28/08/2021 06:32, SixOverFive wrote:
> On 08/27/2021 12:25 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:
>> Why are hyperlinks blue?
>>
>> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/ 
> 
> 
>    Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???
its been a convention in script languages for years.
C uses // or /* .....*/
Assembler used  ; .....
> 
>    It's often "inventors priority" in these things.
>    No actual REASON for it ... the HTML inventors
>    just wanted links to stand out somehow. Blue
>    looked nice ...

need something. #  as good as anything else.

-- 
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's 
too dark to read.

Groucho Marx

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#32937

On 28/08/2021 07.32, SixOverFive wrote:
> On 08/27/2021 12:25 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:
>> Why are hyperlinks blue?
>>
>> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/
> 
> 
>   Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???

Because that char was available.

All languages I know chose one character or a combo to mark comments.
They need it, some character that doesn't have already a meaning in the
language. For example, Pascal used "(* ... *)", and later Turbo pascal
added "{ ... }", and even later added "// ..."

Basic used a line starting with "REM" (remark).

-- 
Cheers,
       Carlos E.R.

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#32953

Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
> On 28/08/2021 07.32, SixOverFive wrote:
>> On 08/27/2021 12:25 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:
>>> Why are hyperlinks blue?
>>>
>>> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/
>> 
>> 
>>   Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???
> 
> Because that char was available.

Another possibility (for the Python specific question) is that Python 
simply copied the Unix shell's comment character, which is also a #.

But then that just moves the question back to: Why do Unix shell 
comments begin with a "#"?

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#32958

On 29/08/2021 05:21, Rich wrote:
> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>> On 28/08/2021 07.32, SixOverFive wrote:
>>> On 08/27/2021 12:25 AM, Andrei Z. wrote:
>>>> Why are hyperlinks blue?
>>>>
>>>> https://blog.mozilla.org/en/internet-culture/deep-dives/why-are-hyperlinks-blue/
>>>
>>>
>>>    Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???
>>
>> Because that char was available.
> 
> Another possibility (for the Python specific question) is that Python
> simply copied the Unix shell's comment character, which is also a #.
> 
> But then that just moves the question back to: Why do Unix shell
> comments begin with a "#"?
> 
Why not?

-- 
"Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They 
always run out of other people's money. It's quite a characteristic of them"

Margaret Thatcher

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#32990

In comp.os.linux.misc, The Natural Philosopher  <tnp@invalid.invalid> wrote:
> On 29/08/2021 05:21, Rich wrote:
>> Another possibility (for the Python specific question) is that Python
>> simply copied the Unix shell's comment character, which is also a #.

Yeah, # was a common choice of comment character before Python existed,
so need to look back before Python.

>> But then that just moves the question back to: Why do Unix shell
>> comments begin with a "#"?
> Why not?

:r! stty -a |grep erase
	-echoprt -altwerase -noflsh -tostop -flusho pendin -nokerninfo
	erase = ^?; intr = ^C; kill = ^U; lnext = ^V; min = 1; quit = ^\;
	time = 0; werase = ^W;

These days erase defaults to del (^?) or backspace (^H), but I can
remember a time when it defaulted to #, and using your backspace
character as a comment indicator makes it hard to add comments. My 1988
copy of _The Unix Operating System_ (second edition) by Kaare Christian
shows defaults (page 98)

	erase = #, kill = @, intr = ^?

(I remember seeing that kill thing also interfere with use of @ in
passwords.) The book does not show the default for lnext, which is what
you'd need to type to escape the special meaning of # or @ to use it in
comments. There's an explanation that you can use # for comments in
shell scripts (p195), but no explaination for why in that book.

For reference, first release of Python was 1991. First release of Perl,
which also uses # for comments, is 1988. 

Looking around I see a 1967 doc for BCPL using // for comments, very
c++ ish:

https://www.bell-labs.com/usr/dmr/www/bcpl.pdf

The Unix Seventh Edition man pages, in *roff format which I can read
fine but..., are here:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/index.html

I see that awk uses # for comments, but shell shows : for comments.
These days, in sh the : command is a substitute for /bin/true. It
works like a no-op command, which is subtly different from a comment:

	#!/bin/sh
	#this is a comment
	:this will like produce ":this: command not found"
	# the following does nothing
	# > /etc/passwd
	: the following will produce an error or destroy your system
	: > /etc/password
	: moral: don't run stuff as root
	# oops, no closing quote!

https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/vol2/awk.txt

   .ND "September 1, 1978"

https://s3.amazonaws.com/plan9-bell-labs/7thEdMan/vol2/shell.bun.txt

   .ds DA 1977 November 1

No stty manpage there to look for control character defaults. Erase,
kill, etc, might not have made sense in early ASR-33 days. I wasn't
there and don't know. BUT probably:

Larry Wall probably used # for comments in Perl because AWK used # for
comments. Guido van Rossum likely used # for comments because languages
like AWK and Perl used # for comments.

Elijah
------
carefully uses : for embeded vi commands in shell scripts sometimes

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#33040

Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> writes:
> No stty manpage there to look for control character defaults. Erase,
> kill, etc, might not have made sense in early ASR-33 days. I wasn't
> there and don't know. BUT probably:

There are defaults in the V7 kernel:

    #define	CERASE	'#'		/* default special characters */
    [...]
    /*
     * set default control characters.
     */
    ttychars(tp)
    register struct tty *tp;
    {
            tun.t_intrc = CINTR;
            tun.t_quitc = CQUIT;
            tun.t_startc = CSTART;
            tun.t_stopc = CSTOP;
            tun.t_eofc = CEOT;
            tun.t_brkc = CBRK;
            tp->t_erase = CERASE;
            tp->t_kill = CKILL;
    }

...and login:

            gtty(0, &ttyb);
            ttyb.sg_erase = '#';
            ttyb.sg_kill = '@';
            stty(0, &ttyb);

# for comments also turns up in ratfor and troff.  The choice of # seems
quite inconvenient given the default terminal settings.

I’ve still not found any hard evidence of comment syntax in Multics’s
shell. The 636 version of runcom used * for a comment and $; the Multics
shell was apparently designed by the same person but none of the
documentation I’ve found online mentions any kind of comment syntax.

> Larry Wall probably used # for comments in Perl because AWK used # for
> comments. Guido van Rossum likely used # for comments because languages
> like AWK and Perl used # for comments.

That seems likely.

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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#32983

On 29.08.2021 at 04:21, Rich scribbled:

> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>
> > On 28/08/2021 07.32, SixOverFive wrote:
> >
> >>   Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???  
> > 
> > Because that char was available.  
> 
> Another possibility (for the Python specific question) is that Python 
> simply copied the Unix shell's comment character, which is also a #.
> 
> But then that just moves the question back to: Why do Unix shell 
> comments begin with a "#"?

Slightly educated guess: it may have been inherited from Multics.

-- 
With respect,
= Aragorn =

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#32999

Aragorn <thorongil@telenet.be> writes:
> On 29.08.2021 at 04:21, Rich scribbled:
>> Carlos E. R. <robin_listas@es.invalid> wrote:
>>> On 28/08/2021 07.32, SixOverFive wrote:
>>>> Why do Python comments begin with a "#" ???  
>>> 
>>> Because that char was available.  
>> 
>> Another possibility (for the Python specific question) is that Python 
>> simply copied the Unix shell's comment character, which is also a #.
>> 
>> But then that just moves the question back to: Why do Unix shell 
>> comments begin with a "#"?
>
> Slightly educated guess: it may have been inherited from Multics.

Probably not; the Multics user guide documents # as being used to delete
input.

http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/honeywell/multics/GB61-01B_OperatorsGde_Dec87.pdf

-- 
https://www.greenend.org.uk/rjk/

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