From: michael@chpc.utexas.edu (Michael Lemke) Subject: Re: 8 bit clean implies what? Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1993 21:39:01 GMT
In article <1993Feb7.183016.23290@kodak.kodak.com> scott@inferno.Kodak.COM (Kevin Scott) writes:
>For what it's worth, here is my OPINION on what 8-bit clean means:
>
>1) you can use an 8-bit-clean text editor to edit non-text files
> (such as .EXE files or .COM files or binary data files). This
> would be of occasional use to hack in changes in any embedded text
> in the file you are editing. I have been able to use the Turbo C
> editor (ver 1.0) to do this type of thing (or perhaps it was a
> Turbo Pascal editor; I forget; the timeframe was 1987 or so).
> Of course, if you are editing a file that is not intended to be
> text, the editor must not have any restriction on line length or
> requirement that non-empty files end with a newline (sequence).
>
>2) it is perfectly OK to represent non-printable characters as a
> multicharacter sequence (such as ^A for ASCII code 1). What is
> "printable" vs. "non-printable" is determined by the environment.
>
>3) it is possible to enter any 8-bit character from the keyboard on
> any IBM-PC compatible system. Just hold down Alt while typing the
> desired character code on the numeric keypad.
This I would call a *binary* editor. A 8-bit clean text editor allows
me to enter any *printable* character from my keyboard, which is done
with the compose key in my current set up. Don't restrict your views
to PCs. As I said in an other post in this thread, it also means the
editor knows how to capitalize åNgSTrÖm as Ångström.
The thing I am using right now does not allow me to do either of these
but I can enter the characters numerically in a similar fashion as you
describe above. Not really 8bit clean but quite a pain.
Michael
-- Michael Lemke Astronomy, UT Austin, Texas (michael@io.as.utexas.edu or UTSPAN::UTADNX::IO::MICHAEL [SPAN])