Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!isgate!krafla!frisk From: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Why does 'stevie' mask the 8th bit ? Message-ID: <1591@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Date: 21 Mar 90 09:01:37 GMT References: <1581@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <14602@s.ms.uky.edu> <3052@auspex.auspex.com> <14614@s.ms.uky.edu> Reply-To: frisk@rhi.hi.is (Fridrik Skulason) Organization: University of Iceland (RHI) Lines: 49 In article <14614@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: >What we don't need is 15 different groups of people using 15 different >character set standards complaining because US originated software doesn't >support 15 different character sets. The software does not have to support 15 different character set - it only has to allow 8 bit characters to be usable. Otherwise it is totally useless here in Iceland and in many other countries. It is as simple as that. Programs that mask the eight bit are, in my opinion, useless junk. Unfortunately a number of American programmers does not seem to have realized this yet. Even well-known PC programs like dBase are not flawless in this respect. Of course, if the programs are intended for use in the the USA only, there is no pressing need to make them allow the use of the eight bit, but at least they should not be distributed on Usenet which has a worldwide distribution. In the past I have made a nice sum of money converting 7-bit programs so they can be used. In the case of PC and especially Atari ST software this often involves patching the executable - maybe replacing a single AND AL,7FH instruction by AND AL,FF. >I'd *love* to have a world standard, and to have a set of guidelines for >meeting that standard. You have it already. It is called ISO 8859/1, 8859/2, 8859/3 etc. >Until then, my software is not allowing 8-bit data Then please keep your useless programs out of my way. I'm getting really annoyed over all the 7-bit programs out there. (In particular the 7-bit PC programs) >to be shoved at terminals because only a small percent of terminals are >going to be able to make sense out of it. Anyone wanting to display 8 bit characters can safely be assumed to have a terminal that is able to display the stuff. Making your software 8-bit transparent will not affect any "7-bit Americans", but it will make the software usable to a much bigger part of the world. -(an annoyed) frisk -- Fridrik Skulason University of Iceland | Technical Editor of the Virus Bulletin (UK) | Reserved for future expansion E-Mail: frisk@rhi.hi.is Fax: 354-1-28801 |