Why does Windows need CR LF to advance to next line, but Python does not?

Question

Windows:

Uses CR (\r) in combination with LF (\n) for line endings, facilitating compatibility with legacy systems.

Unix-like systems (including Linux and macOS):

Employs LF (\n) for line endings, offering simplicity and compatibility with text processing utilities.

Older Macintosh systems:

Uses CR (\r) for line endings in some file formats, retaining compatibility with legacy systems.

Question:

When I write the following in Notepad++ on Windows with all symbols displayed, I get this:

Notepad++

But when I write a simple code in Python also on Windows, I get this in the terminal:

print('Hello \nWorld')

enter image description here

It seems that Windows uses the CR LF as a convention for every new line, but why does Python compile without the CR if I only write \n and not \r\n as an equivalent to CR LF?

• whatsisname: I am 95% sure python (or the platform libraries it calls into) transparently turns that \n into \r\n when on Windows
• DevelBase2: @whatsisname I am trying to find that in the Python repo somehow...
• Philip Kendall: @DevelBase2 Looking in "the Python repo" (by which I assume you mean the CPython source) does not say what Python does.
• whatsisname: See docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html#open and os.linesep
• pjc50: @DevelBase2 correct - most languages have this in their file handling somewhere, a means to automatically output the correct line endings for text files on the current platform. This may also apply to the standard output stream used by print().

Answer 1

Windows uses CR (\r) in combination with LF (\n) for line endings, facilitating compatibility with legacy systems.

Well, no. A windows system stores text files on the hard drive with whatever style of line endings you gave them.

If you follow the windows convention most windows programs that read these files will interpret the line endings correctly.

Some, like python interpreters, notepad++, and eclipse will interpret the line endings correctly whichever convention the file follows.

Others won’t. It’s not the file system that makes the difference here. Or the operating system. It’s whatever’s reading and saving the file. It’s only a windows thing because one style is most popular in windows.

• inaba: Plus for NP++ and most text editors you can just change which kinds of newlines are saved