[TenTec] ALL CAPS?

[Dr. Gerald N. Johnson]

On Tue, 2006-08-08 at 12:46 -0400, w8au at sssnet.com wrote:
> At 07:55 AM 8/8/06, Ronald Hands, VE3SP, wrote:
> >w8au at sssnet.com wrote:
> > >
> > > Anyone familiar with WU telegrams, Military messages, AP and UPI
> > > teletype news, etc knows that they were all done in CAPS.  Saved
> > > using the "shift" key, and lower case was not necessary for 
> > message content.
> > >
> >   This was done because they were working with primitive technology, not
> >because of any inherent virtue in all-caps messaging.
> 
> Militarily speaking, all branches had standard typewriters and for 
> general admin purposes they used upper and lower case, BUT not the 
> communications branches.  They knew the value of brevity and efficiency
> and used all caps machines.
> 
> 5-level Baudot code was used for 50+ years not because it was 
> primitive, but because it was sufficient for the job.  To use 8-level 
> ASCII just added to the time required to transfer the same info, and 
> was only required when teleprinters were tied to computers.  (and 
> that didn't last long)

Actually there was a 6 bit code called TTS that did include case but
could be printed on a Baudot printer as all upper case. In Baudot the
most significant bit is sent first, but the added bit in TTS is shown as
the most significant. But in TTS the 5 base bits of Baudot are sent
first, then the upper/lower case bit is sent. That oddity caused a lot
of extra work when I worked up a computer connection from a TTS circuit
25 or 30 years ago. The programmer figured it out in a week of trials,
then I went to that adjacent AP office and confirmed it by looking at a
receive cam. The TTY service people there didn't believe either until I
proved it with the cam.

Baudot and TTS predate ASCII by 20 or 30 years. And they predate
computers by nearly that much. ASCII came decades after IBM Hollerith
codes.

> >   Any time saved by not using the shift key at the AP office was lost
> >many times over at newspaper copy desks where editors had to laboriously
> >mark each of the capitals before sending the stories for typesetting.  I
> >know; I was one of those long-suffering copy editors.

Perhaps you could have paid a bit more to AP for a TTS printer on the
same circuit.
> 
> My reference to AP/UPI was to broadcasting news.  Rip & Read 
> newscasters did not suffer from not having lower case.  You have a 
> good point, but it references only a tiny part of the whole 
> communications picture.
> 
> Having said that, no doubt YOU were very good at your job, and having 
> that task added to your normal editing routine was something you 
> probably took in stride.  That's why they paid you top dollar.  :-)
> 
> >  Newspapers long ago discovered that all-caps headlines were hard to
> >read.
> 
> Headlines?  All headlines were/are caps... to call attention to an 
> article.  Right?
> 
> >As far as I know, they've all abandoned that style.  Internet
> >users should follow suit.
> 
> I'm sure newsdesks no longer get info via TTY.  It obviously comes in
> file format for direct insertion into electronic page setups.
> 
> But, are we Internet Operators, or Radio Communications 
> specialists?  Take your pick.  To me, the internet is just a helpful 
> tool to facilitate
> our primary concern: communications between like minded radio 
> folks.  And an all-caps posting should not startle such individuals.
> 
> (My apologies for this thread taking on a life of it's own.  I'm QNX 
> or QRT.  Back to the Orion wars...)  :-)
> 
> Perry   w8au

Now where's that shift up and shift down character for Morse or
Continental code?

-- 
73, Jerry, K0CQ,
All content copyright Dr. Gerald N. Johnson, electrical engineer