# The Great Newline Schism

**URL:** <https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-great-newline-schism/123>\
**Category:** blog\
**Created:** [January 18, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-great-newline-schism/123 "2010-01-18T00:00:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![McDowell](https://discourse-cdn.codinghorror.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v2/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@McDowell](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/u/McDowell)\
**Post date:** [February 16, 2010, 12:00am UTC](https://discourse.codinghorror.com/t/the-great-newline-schism/123/8 "2010-02-16T00:00:00Z")

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I wasn’t sure of the exact function of LINE SEPARATOR (U+2028) and PARAGRAPH SEPARATOR (U+2029), but you prompted me to go find out.

[http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0/ch05.pdf](http://unicode.org/versions/Unicode5.2.0/ch05.pdf)

The Unicode spec says:

“Traditionally, NLF started out as a line separator (and sometimes record separator). It is still used as a line separator in simple text editors such as program editors. As platforms and programs started to handle word processing with automatic line-wrap, these characters were reinterpreted to stand for paragraph separators. For example, even such simple programs as the Windows Notepad program and the Mac SimpleText program interpret their platform’s NLF as a paragraph separator, not a line separator.”

NLF (New Line Function) in this context is shorthand for CR, LF and CRLF. By contrast, the two Unicode characters have unambiguous uses. Not that I’ve ever seen them in the wild. I could see them being used converting HTML to UTF-8 plain/text or somesuch (maybe).

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