Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!samsung!olivea!mintaka!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!isgate!krafla!einari From: einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: ALED goes to the wastebasket here in Iceland Message-ID: <3271@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Date: 18 Jun 91 21:08:07 GMT References: <3245@krafla.rhi.hi.is> <1991Jun15.124052.17827@cbfsb.att.com> <3257@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Reply-To: einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) Organization: University of Iceland (RHI) Lines: 47 In article nelson@clutx.clarkson.edu (aka NELSON@CLUTX.BITNET) writes: >In article <3257@krafla.rhi.hi.is> einari@rhi.hi.is (Einar Indridason) writes: > > > By the way, the stream of 7-bit programs from the USA gives me a poor > impression of the intelligence of USA programmers. > > Some products are great and works fine. BUT then there are those > morons that *insist* on masking that bl*ody 8th bit!! > >Excuse me. I had thought that, since the 8th bit was unused by USASCII, >there would be no trouble using it for marking purposes, etc. Now I >find that it causes trouble with non-english alphabets. Why am I a moron >when I tried to make my program simpler and hence more reliable? Using the 8th bit for something is ok by me as long as the resulting product is limited in distribution to the USA. I, however, can't stand it when I see a program. It is a nice program doing exacly what I needed, but for one thing: It does *not allow* me to use my national characters! That means either patching it, (using 'debug' or some other low level method), or discard it all together. I somewhere heard the phrase: "the straw that broke the camels back" I think that ALED was that straw in my case. May I put forward one question? Why is your program simpler if you use the 8th bit for yourself? (for internal purposes?) instead of just leaving it alone? And you touch uppon another part of the problem. ASCII. We know what that stands for: American standard code for information interchange? Notice that 'American' word. ASCII is 7bit. I can admit that. But that is no excuse for masking the 8th bit. My advice is: don't mask the 8th bit but handle it as you would any other character. This posting is not ment as a flame. Only as an observation, (even if I don't sound like that :-) -- Internet: einari@rhi.hi.is | "Just give me my command line and drag UUCP: ..!mcsun!isgate!rhi!einari | the GUIs to the waste basket!!!!" Surgeon Generals warning: Masking the 8th bit can seriously damage your brain!!