[unilynx]

I'm pretty sure the DOS TYPE command (its version of cat) would stop at the first ^Z it encountered, even if the file was longer.

It was sometimes used to have TYPE print something human readable and stop before the remaining (binary) file data would scroll everything away

[cesarb]

> It was sometimes used to have TYPE print something human readable and stop before the remaining (binary) file data would scroll everything away

Notably, in the PNG file format (created back when MS-DOS was still very relevant):

"The first eight bytes of a PNG file always contain the following values: [...] The control-Z character stops file display under MS-DOS. [...]" (http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/spec/1.2/PNG-Rationale.html#R....)