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From: rlk@think.COM (Robert Krawitz)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: What is a byte
Message-ID: <7427@think.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Aug-87 09:13:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: think.7427
Posted: Tue Aug 11 09:13:00 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Aug-87 02:08:00 EDT
Sender: news@think.UUCP
Reply-To: rlk@THINK.COM
Organization: Thinking Machines Corporation, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 41

In article <1804@vice.TEK.COM> dougg@vice.TEK.COM (Doug Grant) writes:

]	24 bits - character
]	 8 bits - font
]	 8 bits - size
]	 8 bits - color
]	 4 bits - intensity (boldness)
]	 2 bits - blink rate (00 = don't blink)
]	 1 bit  - normal/reverse
]	 8 bits - sync
]	 1 bit  - left over - any suggestions?

8 bits really isn't enough for color, and it may not be enough for
font.  There's plenty of screens out there with 24 bit planes.  You
don't really want to lock out these folks, do you?

]	The eighth bit of the first byte received would be used as an
]	ASCII/extended character set flag.  If it is zero, the character
]	is normal 7-bit ascii.  If it is 1, the next seven bytes are used
]	to complete the eight-byte character.  Only the eighth bit of the first
]	byte is set to one - the eighth bit of the remaining seven bytes
]	is set to zero, thus assuring that when "Extended Character Set"
]	characters come in, their bytes can be kept in sync.

This is worse!  Now you have only 7 bits available.  And why do you
need the sync byte?  The hardware should take care of that!

]	For those who say "but too much bandwidth would be used for
]	64-bit characters!" I say hang on - fiber optic communications
]	are coming!

Well, I suppose memory is cheap these days.  Still, we're only gaining
a factor of 4 every 3 years or so in memory capacity, and even less in
disk storage.

]	I'd sure like to see one standard character set that can
]	accomodate the whole world!

What next, GASCII (Galactic Standard Code for Information
Interchange)?  Can't afford to be parochial about such things.
Robert^Z