< character > (EOL) Synonym for newline , derived perhaps from the original CDC6600 Pascal . The abbreviation "EOL" is now rare, but widely recognised and occasionally used for brevity. Used in the example entry under BNF .
Out of context this would probably be (deliberately) ambiguous because different systems used different (combinations of) characters to mark the end of a line. Unix uses a line feed ; DOS uses carriage return , line feed ( CRLF ) and the Macintosh uses carriage return.
See also EOF .
(2002-03-22)