Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!faline!thumper!ulysses!andante!mit-eddie!husc6!purdue!decwrl!video.dec.com!lasko From: lasko@video.dec.com.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.std.internat Subject: RE: ISO 8859 Message-ID: <8805122042.AA21976@decwrl.dec.com> Date: 12 May 88 23:19:00 GMT Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 55 Posted: Thu May 12 19:19:00 1988 In response to: Richard Lee (rlee@ads.com) ISO 8859 consists of several parts, each part specifying a set of up to 191 graphic characters and the coded representations thereof by means of a single 8-bit byte. The use of control functions for the coded representation of composite characters (like o [backspace] /) is prohibited. Another major feature of each of the parts is that the "left hand" part, or the lower 94 graphic characters, is exactly the same as ASCII. The "right hand" part, or the higher-order 96 characters, are a mix of characters and symbols (paragraph sign, fractions, special punctuation, etc.) useful for the region covered by the part of the standard. Note that bit combinations A0 hex and FF hex constitute valid graphic characters (not control characters) in this character code. The parts of 8859 are simply character sets, they don't define keyboards, code extension mechanisms, or anything else. The character codes are based on the July 1986 version of ISO 4873 which specifies rules for eight-bit character codes, similar to the ISO 646 standard, which specified basic rules for seven-bit character codes. Each part of ISO 8859 is intended for use with a different set of languages or scripts: Part Name Status* Language/Region/Script 1 Latin Alphabet No 1 IS Feb 87 "Western European" 2 Latin Alphabet No 2 IS Feb 87 "Eastern European" 3 Latin Alphabet No 3 IS Mar 88 "Southern European" + S. Africa 4 Latin Alphabet No 4 IS Mar 88 Majority Scandinavian 5 Latin-Cyrillic Alphabet tbp IS 88 ASCII + Cyrillic characters 6 Latin-Arabic Alphabet IS Aug 87 ASCII + Arabic characters* 7 Latin-Greek Alphabet IS Nov 87 ASCII + Greek characters 8 Latin-Hebrew Alphabet tbp IS 88 ASCII + Hebrew characters 9 Latin Alphabet No 5 proposed modification of pt. 3 by Turkey * Status key: IS - approved international standard published at indicated date tbp IS - standard is approved, but not yet published proposed - draft text hasn't yet entered ISO ballot cycle The repertoires of parts 5 through 8 have been worked out with relevant experts in the affected countries, and in many cases form national standards as well. ISO 8859/1, Latin Alphabet No 1, is probably the one most U.S. manufacturers will want to be concerned with, since it covers the repertoires for the following languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Faeroese, Finnish, French, German, Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish [Flemish, too if you consider it a separate language; it doesn't include Welsh]. That's probably more than you needed...let me know if you'd like more details. ================== Tim Lasko, Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, MA "There are no temporary workarounds..." lasko@video.dec.com lasko%video.dec@decwrl decwrl!video.dec.com!lasko