Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!think!snorkelwacker!ira.uka.de!smurf!gopnbg!altger!doitcr!braaten!ed From: ed@braaten.doit.sub.org (Ed Braaten) Newsgroups: comp.sources.d Subject: Re: Why does 'stevie' mask the 8th bit ? Message-ID: <631@braaten.doit.sub.org> Date: 21 Mar 90 23:00:00 GMT References: <1577@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1581@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <14602@s.ms.uky.edu> Reply-To: ed@braaten.doit.sub.org (Ed Braaten) Organization: Systems Engineering, Intel GmbH, Munich, West Germany Lines: 36 In article <14602@s.ms.uky.edu> sean@ms.uky.edu (Sean Casey) writes: >einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) writes: > >>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. My I suggest: Buy a PC! ;-) Seriously though, 7-bit ASCII is nice in an English-speaking country; it's a real PAIN in many other countries. > >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. What do you consider the "rest of the world"??? >Perhaps you need a new standard with digraphs or something. You should take a course in some language with a non-Roman alphabet, such as Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, or Russian. Then sit down at your terminal and hack in a letter in one of these languages using a digraph "standard" of your choice. It probably wouldn't take you long to see the problem with 7-bit ASCII... ;-) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ed Braaten | "For the wages of sin is death, but the Work: ed@imuse.intel.com | gift of God is eternal life in Christ Home: ed@braaten.doit.sub.org | Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 --------------------------------------------------------------------------