character, humour The mnemonic of a mythical
ASCII control character (End Of User) that would make an ASR-33
Teletype explode on receipt. This construction parodies the numerous obscure
delimiter and control characters left in ASCII from the days when it was associated more with wire-service teletypes than computers (e.g.
FS,
GS,
RS,
US,
EM,
SUB,
ETX, and especially
EOT). It is worth remembering that ASR-33s were big, noisy mechanical beasts with a lot of clattering parts; the notion that one might explode was nowhere near as ridiculous as it might seem to someone sitting in front of a
tube or flatscreen today.
[
Jargon File]
(1996-06-29)