From: Doug Ewell (doug@ewellic.org)
Date: Sat Apr 11 2009 - 15:52:57 CDT
Jonathan Rosenne <jr at qsm dot co dot il> wrote:
>> Actually, I was under the impression that ASCII was defined in terms
>> of 7-bit code units, whereas there are virtually no computers or
>> users today who think in terms of 7-bit code units.
>
> There weren't such computers then, it was a communication code and 7
> bits were used for communication.
There never were computers with a 7-bit architecture, but there
certainly were computers that could use ASCII as an storage and
processing code as well as a communications code.
The history of ASCII is well documented and I don't want to run the risk
of misstating or misquoting something, but I continue to believe the
difference between "ASCII characters" and "Unicode characters" is
analogous to the difference between "flutes" and "musical instruments."
-- Doug Ewell * Thornton, Colorado, USA * RFC 4645 * UTN #14 http://www.ewellic.org http://www1.ietf.org/html.charters/ltru-charter.html http://www.alvestrand.no/mailman/listinfo/ietf-languages ˆ
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