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From: ts@cup.portal.com (Tim W Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.editors
Subject: Re: vi and emacs
Message-ID: <40012@cup.portal.com>
Date: 10 Mar 91 13:10:31 GMT
References: <1991Jan30.224717.6150@bradley.bradley.edu>
  <1991Mar3.071231.29271@cs.ucla.edu> <39861@cup.portal.com>
  <WNX9YN7@xds13.ferranti.com>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 17

>> Because the vast majority of programmers have no need to know the ASCII
>> code.
>
>Exactly right. The vast majority of programmers are coding in COBOL on
>machines that use EBCDIC.

No, the vast majority are using modern languages where the compiler
handles translating things like 'a' into the appropriate ASCII code
(or EBCDIC code if that's what the machine uses).

Unless you program like this:

	unsigned char main[] = { 12, 17, 97, 243, 122 };

you rarely need to know ASCII codes.

						Tim Smith