Re: i am confused!

And so spake Michael Villeneuve:
: In a previous posting, Daniel Yeh (dan...@red.seas.upenn.edu) writes:
: > Shannon Bovey (bh8...@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) wrote:
: > : help! i am confused! what is the differance between ansi and ascii???
: > ascii stands for american standard code for information interchange. It 
: > basically determines some number to be assigned to a character. 
: > 	e.g the letter A is character #65.
: > ansi is organization which sets safety standards for stuff such as bicycle 
: > helmuts and ranges to other weird stuff like setting a standardized 
: > 'library' for C++ programs. 
: i do not think she meant that kind of ansi. i think ansi has something to
: do with graphics or something you can make neet litle deisgns with on
: computer, i am not sure exactly, but i know what yu are talking about
: Shannon.

Pardon me, but I was in the area and couldn't help but overhear.  Dan is right
but incomplete.  ASCII is the code used by computers to represent 128
"characters", which include the letters, digits, punctuation, some symbols,
and a few codes normally reserved as control codes (they tell computers to do
stuff; like code 7 is control-G and usually rings the bell).  Pretty much
everything you see on the Internet is ASCII because it is one of the few
standards that is actually standard.  You may have noticed "binary" files that
are uuencoded or bin-hexed.  That just means that files that use 8 bit
characters, like programs and graphics, have been altered to only use 7 bit
characters (ASCII), because not every machine handles 8 bit characters the
same.

Then there's ANSI.  In this context, it is a reference to the ANSI codes used
to control a terminal.  On a PC, many people load ANSI.SYS, which is a driver
that lets ANSI codes control your screen.  The codes are actually several
characters long and are prefixed by an escape (ASCII code 27, or control-[).
Such a string is referred to as an "escape sequence."  The ANSI sequences let
you do things like move the cursor, clear the screen, set colors, reprogram
keys, etc.  I can send you the codes for a PC if you email me (I don't
frequent this group).

As if this weren't enough, Digital's venerable VT terminals have a code
similar, but different, to ANSI.  So you may see animation sequences in ANSI
or VT100 format.

HTH

-Dave

--
\_\_Wm. David Belew \_\_\_\_\_\_\_e-mail: w.d...@larc.nasa.gov \_\_/_/_/
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