Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!gatech!mcnc!rock!boyd From: boyd@cs.unca.edu (Mark Boyd) Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: Why Freemacs uses the 8th bit. Message-ID: <1991Jun23.174824.21869@rock.concert.net> Date: 23 Jun 91 17:48:24 GMT References: <3287@krafla.rhi.hi.is> Sender: news@rock.concert.net Organization: University of North Carolina at Asheville Lines: 9 This discussion of why freemacs uses the 8th bit for meta characters reminded me of the file size limit in MicroEmacs. On a IBM PC clone with 550,000 bytes of memory available, MicroEmacs 3.10 will load about 200,000 characters. The executable takes about 150K of memory, so that leaves about 400,000 bytes for the buffer. All of these numbers are approximate, but they do show the dramatic effect of 16 bits per character. Mark