Talk:Control character

message: Control characters are non-printable characters but is the reverse true?  Historically
control characters were the first 32 ASCII characters, back when teletypes were all
upper case, IIRC.  (Or did we just always lock the shift key down? I don't think so.)  
Then characters like DEL came along that could not be generated with
the control key, not to mention modern unicode characters like Zero-Width Non-Joiner.
(For the record I don't recall if the old teletypes all had a control key.)
Although these new characters cannot be made by using the control key, they certainly
control the receiving device.  Certainly in common usage all the non-printing ASCII
characters are control characters.  I can't say about the newer unicode characters. --Kop 18:59, 29 Aug 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Teletype Corp's ASR series all used ASCII (IIRC), with or without an actual lower case, and so DEL was an original builtin ASR character. Many of these machines came with a paper tape reader/punch, so DEL couls actually serve its original ordained meaning. As for non-printing ASCII characters being all controls, there are DEL (not in the control range) and SP (also not in the control range) both of which don't print. For that matter the national usuage characters, might in some national usage, not print either. These things, even simple old ASCII, are not so transparent in their meanings and relations and implications. ww 08:17, 10 November 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  DEL was commonly Ctrl-/ , and it's shown in the article --A194 44 217 5 (talk) 19:33, 11 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge control character with [[non-printing character]]?

message: this somehow duplicates stuff from ASCII code#ASCII control characters, but I miss here the "sucker^H^H^H^H^H^H customer" example. — MFH: Talk 00:23, 25 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  missing example 

message: I think the examples at the beginning (SYN, ) are not very representative,
LF, CR, TAB, NUL would be much more common. B.t.w., NUL would deserve a further study. — MFH:Talk 14:20, 13 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  examples at beginning 

message: Is its escape sequence \g or \a ? If I remember correctly, despite the key combination being Ctrl+G, the escape sequence itself is \a (alert)...Medinoc (talk) 08:46, 10 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  BEL 

message: I've snipped a statement that the ANSI X.64 standard is based on the VT100 terminal - it is the other way around.  The VT100 manual is up online at http://vt100.net/docs/vt100-ug/ which clearly states this.  I also removed the year of the standard because this reference gives the date as 1977 not 1979.  I'm not sure if 1979 was plain wrong or if there was a revised version. CrispMuncher (talk) 19:32, 15 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  ANSI X.64 and VT100 

message: This is not the right place, but how to write a caret notation in italic.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A02:8422:1191:6E00:56E6:FCFF:FEDB:2BBA (talk) 20:17, 27 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  wiki formatting: caret notation 

message: I have removed the link to a dab page not sure of the reason it was re added. Mo ainm~Talk 15:04, 3 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Link to dab page 

message: http://kikaku.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/ISO-IR/001.pdf
dns error  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2003:E8:23D6:CBC1:C81A:2992:3136:F6E7 (talk) 19:39, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: Fixed.  (It's currently at https://www.itscj.ipsj.or.jp/iso-ir/001.pdf.) Guy Harris (talk) 20:26, 23 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External link broken 

message: There are several issues with the current organization of the article:
# Many control characters exist in multiple character sets, at different code points.
# There should be a sections on characters that condition the interpretation of following displayable code points, e.g., FIGS, GE, LTRS, SI, SO.
# There are control characters without stand-alone articles, for which anchors would be appropriate
# Control character#How control characters map to keyboards has WP:NPOV issues; it is ASCII-specific and PC-specific.
I propose that the article be restructured into generic descriptions, with anchors, of all of the control characters and tables for at least ASCII, Baudot, EBCDIC and Unicode encoding. --Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 18:42, 13 August 2021 (UTC)
thread_title:  Organization of article 

message: DLE was normally used to indicate that the following character is a payload character and not to be interpreted as a control, which is the opposite of the description given.
The usual convention was that a control byte in the payload would have bit 6 inverted and be prefaced by DLE, for example, DLE in the payload would become DLE 'P' in the transmission. This is easily and unambiguously reversed upon reception, and avoids other control bytes being inadvertently included in the transmitted message.
Sadly this wasn't universally understood, and many manufacturers failed to note the significance of "invert bit 6", and a few did indeed create equipment that required the DLE STX sequence at the start of a packet.
I would like the purpose of DLE to be clarified, and the varied implementations highlighted. Martin Kealey (talk) 01:49, 16 April 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  ASCII DLE description inverted 

message: Should the article mention FIGS and LTRS in the 5-bit Baudot code? Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 13:42, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
replies: text: @Chatul I'm inclined to agree; they change the internal state of the receiver rather than printing anything, which would appear to meet the definition of a control character Martin Kealey (talk) 15:15, 1 November 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  LTR and FIGS in Baudot? 

message: Control characters have been used for their side effects, e.g., rattling the print element on an IBM 2741. Would a section on such uses be TMI? -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz Username:Chatul (talk) 22:45, 15 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Side effects