What is Carriage return?

Question

I tried asking a question on a form and it said to separate paragraphs to use carriage return. Is that like HTML or is it something different?

Answer 1

"Carriage Return" refers to the button of the same name on an electric typewriter. Inside the typewriter, was a carriage with a ball element or a daisy wheel that stamped the letter on the paper through an inked ribbon. When you reached the right margin, a chime would sound, and you had to hit the carriage return to send the carriage back to the left margin. It would also advance the paper a line or two, depending on the setting.



The Carriage Return button was exactly where the Enter key is on modern keyboards.



On a manual typewriter (yes I'm old enough to have used one of those too!), the whole carriage that held the paper moved across as you typed, with the keys stamping in exactly the same spot, and when you reached the right margin, you had to reach up and push a lever that slid the whole thing back. You also had to hit the typewriter keys HARD. Look for images of one on-line or in an antique store if you're curious.



We have come a long way.

Answer 2

http://jesusnjim.com/programming/ascii_chart.html

it's like the 1st guy said about shift-enter in some programs. in some programs, it's simply enter. in windows this actually generates CR+LF. on linux/mac it generates LF (linefeed).

I think this came from the old KSR teletype days where you had a keyboard and a roll of paper and a serial port and linefeed actually feed a line worth of paper if you sent that character.

it's called for that purpose a control character probably because it controls the teletype.

and we still use it today, excepr now it's to scroll shell lines.

carriage return does what the carriage return does on a manual typewriter. there was a lever and when you hit the end of the line, you pushed that lever to the left and either the whole carriage containing your sheet of paper moved to the beginning of the line or the ribbon moved, depending on model. used to be the carriage I think.

today it simply moves the cursor to the beginng of the line, and does not advance the line(no scroll).

Answer 3

"Carriage return" refers to the 'Enter/Return' key on your keyboard.



It sounds as though this form is tailored for typewriters, as that's what it was called to start typing on a new line. :)



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Enter.png

Answer 4

it's the enter key, it's from typewriterese, it's a holdover from typewriter days.



*typewriters were ancient computers with no memory or internet.

Answer 5

EddieJ, lovely answer !! *****