Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site weitek.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!gamma!epsilon!zeta!sabre!petrus!bellcore!decvax!decwrl!pyramid!pesnta!amd!amdcad!cae780!weitek!neal From: neal@weitek.UUCP (Neal Bedard) Newsgroups: net.info-terms Subject: Re: ASCII and ANSI terminals, what is the difference?? Message-ID: <346@weitek.UUCP> Date: Tue, 17-Dec-85 00:35:57 EST Article-I.D.: weitek.346 Posted: Tue Dec 17 00:35:57 1985 Date-Received: Fri, 20-Dec-85 01:32:38 EST References: <491@sdcc12.UUCP> <138@rruxo.UUCP> Organization: Weitek Corporation, Sunnyvale Lines: 56 In article <138@rruxo.UUCP>, vch@rruxo.UUCP (Kerro Panille) writes: > >Can someone please explain the difference between ASCII and ANSI protocol > >terminals? Do ANSI terminals not use the ACSII character set and > >encoding? > > ANSI is an acronym (I'm not sure what), but it's a standard like ASCII, ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange ASCII codes are the binary values for a predefined 128-character set. ANSI = American National Standards Institute (i.e., the organization that promulagates the standard, not the stanard itself.) The actual standard(s) in question are ANSI X3.64-1977 and ANSI X3.41-1974. The ANSI *protocol* referred to is a command set of built out of ASCII characters (is ASCII actually spelled out in the ANSI standard, or is the character set arbitrary?) I've never seen a non-ASCII `ANSI' terminal, anyway... Actually, the ANSI command set is basically a major subset of that for a VT100 (there are a few `DEC private' codes.) `VT100-compatible' terminals are sometimes referred to as `ANSI' terminals (probably to avoid having to state that VT is a DEC trademark... :-)) There are other commonly used terminal command protocols, but I believe the VT100 set (and therefore ANSI) is the most popular among ASCII terminal vendors. The ANSI protocol centers around a `control sequence introducer' (CSI), a string of decimal parameters and a `final character'. For example, to move the cursor forward a ten spaces on a VT100, the sequence is: [10C (`' is the ASCII character `escape', value 27 decimal) `[' is the CSI, `10' is a numeric parameter, `C' is the final character. Note that the terminal doesn't really know what to do until it processes the final character. If the final character were instead `D', the cursor would move *backward* by the same amount. A complete desciption of the ANSI protocol may be obtained by contacting: Sales Department American National Standards Institute 1430 Broadway New York, New York 10018 or just rip off someone's VT100 manual :-) Hope this helps. -Neal -- 55. It's a law we can do away with. UUCP: {turtlevax, resonex, cae780}!weitek!neal