🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <149@ecrcvax.UUCP>, pete@ecrcvax.UUCP (Pete Delaney) writes:
> Perhaps we could start with the issue of character sets.  It seems that ATT
> is intent on 7-bit ASCII whereas from my discussions with Eric Brunner,
> a major contributer to XOPEN, it sounds like 8-bit ascii if far more
> reasonable.  If 7 bit ASCII is used utilities must know how to deal with
> double byte character sequences. If these excaped characters are maped to
> 8 bit ACSII the utilities need not be changed. 

Neither representation of national characters (escaped vs. 8 bit) is
going to make a transition from an American ASCII to a different national
character set easy. Many programs utilise or mask the 7th bit routinely.
Even if the high bit of ASCII characters is preserved, the numerical
ordering is most definitely not going to agree with most national needs.
A change in computer character set is always going to cause major changes
in current operating and utility software, regardless of how the change
is implemented.

						Thomas.