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From: ForthNet@willett.pgh.pa.us (ForthNet articles from GEnie)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.forth
Subject: Input/Output
Message-ID: <2945.UUL1.3#5129@willett.pgh.pa.us>
Date: 30 Jun 91 20:12:11 GMT
Organization: (n.) to be organized.  But that's not important right now.
Lines: 43

Category 10,  Topic 23
Message 14        Sun Jun 30, 1991
B.RODRIGUEZ2 [Brad]          at 12:11 EDT
 
To Dennis Ruffer:

a) the paragraph I was responding to said
 > the 'character' *data type* is capable of representing numbers
 > from 0 to at least 255.  (because: 4.0120 says at least 8 bits,
 > 5.1 says char is a subrange of positive numbers, and all the
 > allowed number representations can (and do) represent 0-255 with
 > the low order 8 bits).

It was this phrase "the allowed number representations" that caught my eye.  I
was not aware that such a list existed, but IF it does, and IF the above
paragraph is a corrrect interpretation of the BASIS, then BCD must not be
allowed (because BCD cannot represent numbers "from 0 to at least 255" in a
byte).  Or was the above paragraph wrong?

Upon second reading, however, I see that BCD can meet these requirements, as
long as a "character" is three BCD digits.  Is this the intent of the
committee?  Clarification please.

b) I'll need to print out BASIS17 to quote applicable sections, but I seem to
recall several paragraphs (e.g. EMIT) which to all intents would mandate the
ASCII/ISO character set.  (At least, Baudot and EBCDIC would not satisfy the
requirements!)  And I believe that the character set was made a "normative"
annex -- but I'm not sure, which is why I asked the question.

c) Actually, storing flags in character variables was portable in the 79
Standard.  The 83 Standard invalidated the practice.

- Brad
 Brad Rodriguez        | brad%candice@maccs.uucp      (God willing)
 B.RODRIGUEZ2 on GEnie | brad%candice@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca
 "Shoes for industry!" | bradford@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca  (archaic)


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