16 lines
866 B
Plaintext
16 lines
866 B
Plaintext
twirling baton
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n. [PLATO] The overstrike sequence -/|\-/|\- which produces an animated
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twirling baton. If you output it with a single backspace between characters,
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the baton spins in place. If you output the sequence BS SP between
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characters, the baton spins from left to right. If you output BS SP BS BS
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between characters, the baton spins from right to left. This is also
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occasionally called a twiddle prompt. The twirling baton was a popular
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component of animated signature files on the pioneering PLATO educational
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timesharing system. The archie Internet service is perhaps the best-known
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baton program today; it uses the twirling baton as an idler indicating that
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the program is working on a query. The twirling baton is also used as a boot
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progress indicator on several BSD variants of Unix; if it stops, you're
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probably going to have a long and trying day.
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