[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
RE: ASCII def.
At 02:59 PM 12/4/98 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>Hi, ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange.
>It uses 8bits per character and can therefore be used to represent 256
>unique bit patterns. Since there are fewer than 100 characters available
>in western languages, the majority of patterns are unused. As the name
>implies this is standard code that can be used to transmit data to all
>systems that accept this standard.
here is an important piece of ASCII related administrivia for the
readership:
ASCII originally was a 7bit character code with 128 possible characters
(not all of them displayable.) 8bit ASCII is an extension which is _not_
universially supported. digest readers sending in postings _must_ use 7bit
ASCII if they want their posting to reach the list. this is a list policy
which has been automatically enforced by majordomo ever since the move to
the new server.
richard
------------------------------
End of bmw-digest V9 #634
*************************