In message <Pine.LNX.4.58.0402091838110.31220@Tempo.Update.UU.SE>, Johnny Billq
uist writes:

>
>And second, early Unix systems had a high barf-factor, since the default
>for erase was '#' unless I misremember seriously...
>

And line kill was @.  But these were on ASR 37s -- hard-copy terminals 
-- and at a time when (a) #includes were rarely used, because the C 
preprocessor was rarely used; (b) the shell didn't have # as the 
comment symbol, just the : command; and (c) @ wasn't used for Internet 
email on Unix.

My, how life has changed...

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb