|
Taking Unicode out of the picture, the 'better than' proposition probably has something to do with usage. IBM (and I think Bull used to) is the user of EBCDIC - all others use ASCII. And even IBM doesn't use EBCDIC on pSeries and xSeries - just i and z. So, while Betamax may be better than VHS... On 10/31/06, Neil Palmer <neilpalmer400mr@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
Vern, You should write to him and/or the Computerworld editor and call him out on this. :-) Neil Palmer, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada (This account not monitored for personal mail, remove the last two letters before @ for that) ----- Original Message ---- From: "vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx" <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Tuesday, October 31, 2006 6:48:33 PM Subject: Re: Computerworld editorial: ASCII is better than EBCDIC Frank Hayes has, according to the article, "has covered IT for more than 20 years." It seems he has not been around long enough to make the statement he does. And this very statement is patently ridiculous on the face of it:: ASCII. A big improvement over IBM’s proprietary EBCDIC character set in the 1960s. But today we do business globally, and ASCII can’t even handle euro or yen signs. Original ASCII came from telexes, my cohort across the aisle says, and was 7-bit - plus various stop and parity stuff. EBCDIC is related to our favorite Hollerith cards. Who knows the whys and wherefores behind the design decisions. As to handling euro and yen, the writer seems not to know that there are several ASCII code pages. As to superiority, which one has more control codes? Of course, are they needed? The statement seems more about acceptance than about true improvements. My cohort also said that IBM made EBCDIC public long ago. And the 2 systems were probably developed in parallel - different origins. This is just another unfortunate silly example of something that people will accept without examining it for credulity. And I am probably off the mark, but I hope not so bad as that writer!! ;-) Vern -------------- Original message -------------- From: AGlauser@xxxxxxxxxxxx > For those who are interested, I believe this is the article in question: > http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleI > d=269598 > > -- This is the Midrange Systems Technical Discussion (MIDRANGE-L) mailing list To post a message email: MIDRANGE-L@xxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe, unsubscribe, or change list options, visit: http://lists.midrange.com/mailman/listinfo/midrange-l or email: MIDRANGE-L-request@xxxxxxxxxxxx Before posting, please take a moment to review the archives at http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l.
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
This mailing list archive is Copyright 1997-2024 by midrange.com and David Gibbs as a compilation work. Use of the archive is restricted to research of a business or technical nature. Any other uses are prohibited. Full details are available on our policy page. If you have questions about this, please contact [javascript protected email address].
Operating expenses for this site are earned using the Amazon Associate program and Google Adsense.