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G0TEZ > PC 29.10.06 01:50l 66 Lines 2654 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 2479-GB7FCR
Read: GUEST DC9BM
Subj: ASCII when & why ?
Path: DB0FHN<DB0MRW<DB0PV<OE5XBL<OE2XUM<OE5XBR<OE1XAB<HG8LXL<I0TVL<TU5EX<
SR1BSZ<CE8FGC<ZS0MEE<GB7FCR
Sent: 061028/2343Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:2479 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:2479-GB7F
From: G0TEZ@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : PC@WW
I expect there are some people out there with similar experience of
computers to me.
I have mentioned the earliest computers I used but they arent really
relevant. I was thinking more of the mainframes like the ICL 1903 I used
in 1974.
According to what sort of job we were running, we could choose the
language
e.g. Fortran for scientific work, Algol, PL1 and COBOL for buisness work.
COBOL was very wordy and things like 2 . 2 = 4 took several sheets of
tractor feed paper to display a result.
The scientific languages were suited for that. With them, you could
display
all the Greek alphabet as well as some of the Hebrew alphabet and other
symbols like the arithmetic operators and the long 'f' for integral
calculus. Obviously, trying to divide by 0 was NOT a good idea:-)
Memory or 'storage as we called it back then was a tiny fraction of that
of a modern PC.With all the internal memory and the tape storage in use,
we probably had a megabyte.
I sit here now with my slightly out of date computer, running a 1.8 GHz,
1/2 GB memory and 40 GB HDD yet I can't switch languages,I have to make do
with the American Standard Character Set for Information Interchange.
No mathematical symbols, no Greek letter. G4XNH and his version of the
derivation of 'Biblos' and mention of 'papyrus' triggered this.
With an old, 1970s programme, I could spell Biblos and papuros with Greek
characters. Yet, with Winpack and ASCII there is no chance.
John,G8MNY can do some fantastic things with character page 850 to give an
idea of circuit diagrams but why should he have to ?
Can't we just dump ASCII and have some programme involving the maths
character sets, a modern FORTRAN, if you like ? After all, we've plenty of
memory now. I'm sure it would be possible to have a character set which
would work throughout the English using world. The ICL1903 was connected
by modem to colleges and universities all over the world, so they must
have been able to see what we saw on our printers and, occasionally,
monitors.
If it could be done in 1970, why not now?
I used a lot of home computers from 1979 - 1990 when I first began to use
packet and,later, internet, so I don't know when ASCII appeared with all
it's limitations.That was my first PC and ASCII was well established by
then. What is the story - anybody know ?
p.s. I can't even send the € sign on Winpack though it does work with
e-mails. I generally use 'Eu' instead, just as I use UKP instead of œ.
I didn't need to do that with the ICL.
73 - Ian, G0TEZ @ GB7FCR
Message timed: 18:02 GMT on 2006-Oct-28
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