Etaoin shrdlu

test pattern 1234567890

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Ok, NOW you’re dating yourself.

Come to think of it, so am I.

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im trying to figure out what this means?

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I think @David_dns was checking if he was able to connect and post.

“Etaoin shrdlu” is from old typesetting machines (typesetting was a thing!), where the letters were laid out in order of how frequently they were used. Sometimes it would actually turn up in print if a typesetter did a test and forgot to remove it.

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Those machines were called Linotypes. And DrBB is right, it was a standard test pattern.

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“Etaoin shrdlu” is also the title of a classic science fiction story about a linotype machine that comes to life and first assists, then ignores, and finally takes hostile action against its human handlers.

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