Tab stops - (nf)

[utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!jim]

Don't be so quick to judge!  The latest ANSI/ASCII does take advantage
of all 8 bits, and has for 5 years or so.  All of the functions you
suggest are supported by ASCII.  The problem is that no terminal
manufacturers or operating systems support the current ascii standard.

Have you ever wondered why the vt100 functions all start out with ESC-[ ?
That sequence is used to indicate that the following code is to be
interpreted as having the eighth bit on, and is used by those poor
terminals and systems that are incapable of using the eighth bit.

I'm afraid I don't have references handy, but I'm sure someone out
there will know the full story.