Re: ASCII

["..." yesss@xxxxxxxx]

I've tried to stay out of this, but if I may supplement
Adriano Ortile's on-target comments: I think the confusion
arises from the fact that the ASCII standards committee
provided for a 256-char (7-bit) set, but defined only
the first 128. To wit:

			The standard ASCII character encoding
		for computer characters [...] defines only
		the first 128 of the possible 256 characters.
		The meaning of the last 128 characters was
		left undefined by the ASCII standards committee.
		Presumably the rigors of agreeing on 128
		characters exhausted the committee, and they
		decided that manufacturers should be free to use
		the last 128 however the manufacturers saw fit.

			This has led to a proliferation of non-standards.
		IBM uses these character positions for line
		graphics, Apple uses them for foreign characters,
		and Adobe leaves them mostly unused. Other computer
		and printer vendors have their own proprietary
		encodings, no two of which are alike. Of course,
		we should be grateful for the standardization
		even of the first 128 characters.
			--Jim Von Ehr, introduction to
			 "Font encoding vector compatibility,"
			 Stephen F. Roth, ed.: "Real World PostScript"
			 (Addison-Wesley, 1988; ISBN 0-201-06663-7)
			 (a/k/a The Orange Book; regretably OOP)

So of course as vessels chars 128-255 are ASCII, but their
definitions are proprietary--thus the "IBM extended ASCII
character set" we all know and love, further refined I guess
as the code pages. (And thus the dubious pleasure of vector
encoding PostScript prologs for the chars missing from
the IBM extended ASCII character set but available in
the various Type 1 fonts, strangely parallel to the Apple
extended ASCII character set.) And anybody who's ever
programmed in a high-level compiled language knows those
256 chars are 7 bit. In C each is an unsigned variable. ...
OK, guys? ... Ciao. 				--a

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