Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ukma!sean From: sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Why does 'stevie' mask the 8th bit ? Message-ID: <14602@s.ms.uky.edu> Date: 19 Mar 90 00:39:41 GMT References: <1577@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1581@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Organization: The Leaning Tower of Patterson Office @ The Univ. of KY Lines: 22 einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) writes: |I just forgot. Here in Iceland we can't (as yet) FTP around the world. |PROGRAMMERS: PLEASE DON'T *MASK* the 8th bit !!!!! Programmers are just trying to make their software work on *most* systems. For *most* systems out there, ascii only covers seven bits. There are usually good reasons for masking the eighth bit, the best being that *most* terminals go haywire when presented with 8 bit data. 7 bits is a very established way of doing things. What you guys in iceland need is not to require the rest of the world to accomodate you, but for you to accomodate the rest of the world. Perhaps you need a new standard with digraphs or something. Sean -- *** Sean Casey sean@ms.uky.edu, sean@ukma.bitnet, ukma!sean *** "Well, heck's farr, Jim, it gives mah computer sumthin' to do when *** Ah'm out brandin' capacitors." -DM