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The term escape sequence apparently dates back to the telegraph and pre-computer technology, according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_sequence. So I doubt there's an universally...
Answer
#1: Initial revision
by
Lundin
·
2020-08-17T10:22:31Z (over 4 years ago)
The term escape sequence apparently dates back to the telegraph and pre-computer technology, according to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_sequence. So I doubt there's an universally relevant definition of the term. I would guess that the term, in the scope of computer science, originates from C, UNIX and AT&T. The C language (5.2.1) makes this formal definition of an escape sequence: > In a character constant or string literal, members of the execution character set shall be represented by corresponding members of the source character set or by _escape sequences_ consisting of the backslash `\` followed by one or more characters. This definition covers the use of escape sequences in C and various languages inherited from C, but not necessarily all uses of escape sequences in all languages.