BROOKS@CSSS-A.PRIME.COM (David Brooks) (04/13/88)
From: BROOKS@CSSS-A.PRIME.COM (David Brooks)
(this may be a duplicate. I don't trust our mailers to figure out
longway.UUCP...)
[ Judging by the non-standard headers your mailer sent, it's no wonder....
See the next article for std-unix/comp.std.unix posting information. -mod ]
Maybe you can get a comment from the ANSI committee (X3L2). It labored
for some years to produce the 8-bit set, which was then accepted lock,
stock and barrel by ISO for 8859/1. ECMA was an intermediary.
I was following the ANSI deliberations from a distance; as a result the
Prime PT200 was, I think, the first terminal to implement the set. The
set is something of a compromise. The ugly inclusion of multiply and
divide amongst the "o"s is particularly weird; originally these
contained the OE diphthongs in deference to the French. But, to
everyone's surprise, the French didn't want them!
Nobody, but nobody, knows how to design eth and thorn. If any
Icelanders(?) would post a bitmap AND a PostScript definition of these
four glyphs, many of us would be grateful.
And there IS a standard way of invoking 8-bit characters in a 7-bit
environment: use Shift-out and Shift-in. These are control-N and
control-O respectively; they can't be typed directly in EMACS and would
confuse any software that assumes <one byte> = <one character position>,
but receiving terminals should do the right thing.
Assigning graphics to control characters is highly non-standard.
[ As someone just pointed out, apparently there is an obscure standard. -mod ]
IBM and Mac assign graphics to the control-1 set (hex 80 to 9F). Actually
I wish someone would properly implement the control-1 characters, like
reverse linefeed, halfline up and down, CSI...
__ __
/ ) / / ) /
/ / __ _ o __/ /--/ __ ________/_) _
/__/ (_(_|/ (__(_( /__/ / (_/_/ /_/ / \_/_)_
Internet: BROOKS@CSSS-A.PRIME.COM
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Standard disclaimer applies as appropriate.
Volume-Number: Volume 13, Number 54