Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!uflorida!mephisto!mcnc!rti!bcw
From: bcw@rti.UUCP (Bruce Wright)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: character codes
Summary: Character codes
Message-ID: <3561@rti.UUCP>
Date: 12 Feb 90 20:24:27 GMT
References: <90021102075353@masnet.uucp>
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Lines: 37

In article <90021102075353@masnet.uucp>, dean.milner@canremote.uucp (DEAN MILNER) writes:
> Since I'm not using a 101 keyboard I can only answer to the query on
> character 124 in the IBM character set. this is indeed a broken vertical
> bar '|' and prints as such on every machine /printer combo I have seen
> using DOS 3.0 - 4.01.

The graphic for character code 124 has been variously represented as a
broken or a solid vertical bar.  The IBM-PC character set uses a broken
vertical bar for it, but this is, strictly speaking, nonstandard.

The ISO Latin-1 character set uses a solid vertical bar in character 
position 124, and a _broken_ vertical bar in character position 166 (IBM 
didn't follow the ISO standard _above_ character position 128, either).  
In IBM's defense is that the ISO standard had not been finalized when the
PC was introduced, though to their discredit it was in progress, and
they ignored it.

If you are interested in seeing the whole ISO character set you might
look at the character set used by Microsoft Windows, which follows the
ISO standard rather than the IBM-PC character set (at least for their
"default" character set, though the IBM-PC character set is available).

Other ISO character sets also exist for, for example, Greek and Russian;
and are in progress for various Eastern languages.

The keyboard you are using is, of course, irrelevant - it just generates
the character, not the graphic (that's the function of the display
adapter or the printer).

This whole subject reminds me of an old IBM joke, remembering the EBCDIC
character set that they used on their mainframes:

	ASCII, n.  An obsolete standard.

:-)

						Bruce C. Wright