Chapter 8

Characters and Text

Peter Fenwick

Abstract

Characters are the most-visible aspect of computing. This chapter outlines the development of the EBCDIC codes (from card code), and ASCII (initially from paper tape), and the extension of these codes to include a full range of alphabets, to give UNICODE. Other topics include the collection of characters into text strings, and especially the problems of transmitting binary data over systems designed for handling text. Thus it describes UTF-8 and UTF-7 coding, as well as "punycode", for encoding Internet domain names with arbitrary alphabets.

Total Pages: 133-157 (25)

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