Re: clueless in New York

.----- On 18 Dec 1998 02:41:01 GMT, A3APA3A posted:
|
|I have a question- when you hold alt on the keyboard and enter a combination
|of numbers on the numeric pad on the right, you get different characters. Say,
|alt+ 658 produces � and alt + 654 produces �.
|Are those ASCII characters? What's the history behind this way of entering
|symbols?
'-------------------------

From our FAQ list....

1.  What is ASCII art?
----------------------

    ASCII art is any kind of artwork -- pictures, charts, cartoons,
    whatever -- drawn with the characters in the ASCII character set.

    The ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange)
    character set is a set of 128 characters (0 to 127) which are
    standard on almost all types of computer. The only characters used
    in ASCII art are those with the values 32 to 126, which are shown
    below, and 13, which represents a carriage return (new line).
    The other characters in the ASCII character set (0-12, 13-31, and
    127) are control codes for representing things such as `end of file'
    and `backspace'; they should not be used in ASCII art.

    032 [space] 048 0   064 @   080 P   096 `   112 p
    033 !       049 1   065 A   081 Q   097 a   113 q
    034 "       050 2   066 B   082 R   098 b   114 r
    035 #       051 3   067 C   083 S   099 c   115 s
    036 $       052 4   068 D   084 T   100 d   116 t
    037 %       053 5   069 E   085 U   101 e   117 u
    038 &       054 6   070 F   086 V   102 f   118 v
    039 '       055 7   071 G   087 W   103 g   119 w
    040 (       056 8   072 H   088 X   104 h   120 x
    041 )       057 9   073 I   089 Y   105 i   121 y
    042 *       058 :   074 J   090 Z   106 j   122 z
    043 +       059 ;   075 K   091 [   107 k   123 {
    044 ,       060 <   076 L   092 \   108 l   124 |
    045 -       061 =   077 M   093 ]   109 m   125 }
    046 .       062 >   078 N   094 ^   110 n   126 ~
    047 /       063 ?   079 O   095 _   111 o
     
    These characters are almost completely standard, except for a few
    slight variations which you should keep in mind when drawing and
    viewing ASCII art:

    # (hash/pound): 
         a hash symbol on most computers, a pound (currency) symbol on
         some British ones 
    | (bar): 
         a vertical line in most fonts, but in some it is split in the
         middle 
    ^ (caret): 
         differs in size depending on the font used 
    ~ (tilde): 
         appears in the middle of the line in some fonts, at the top in
         others
    ' (apostrophe/single quote): 
         tilts southwest-northeast in some fonts, is vertical in others
         (this also applies to the comma (,)).

    Here's a small example of ASCII art using some of these variable
    characters: a snow-scene paperweight, drawn by Joan Stark. How good
    it looks will depend to some extent on which font and computer
    system you are using to view it.
               ____
            .-" +' "-.
           /.'.'A_'*`.\
          |:.*'/\-\. ':|
          |:.'.||"|.'*:|
           \:~^~^~^~^:/
            /`-....-'\
       jgs /          \
           `-.,____,.-'

    People use ASCII art for a variety of reasons, some of which are:
    *   it is the most universal computer art form in the world --
        every computer system capable of displaying multi-line text can
        display ASCII art, without needing to have a graphics mode or
        support a particular graphics file format;
    *   an ASCII picture is also hundreds of times smaller in file size
        than its GIF or BMP equivalent, while still giving a good idea
        of what something looks like;
    *   it is easy to copy from one file to another;
    *   it's fun to do! 

2.  What isn't ASCII art?
-------------------------

    The following specialized artforms are not ASCII art and are not
    welcome in the ASCII art discussion groups.

    *   ANSI or `extended ASCII' art. Many computer systems have an
        extended character set of 256 or more characters, based on the
        ANSI or Unicode character sets and having the first 128
        characters identical to ASCII. These characters should not be
        used in ASCII art because many types of computer system do not
        support them, and even those that do may not display them in a
        standard way (for example, the Windows ANSI character set is
        different from the Mac ANSI character set).

    *   HTML art. HTML, the language used in Web pages, can be used to
        add special effects such as colours, font size, and (ugh)
        blinking text to ascii art, and HTML can be read by some
        newsreaders. However, the key word here is `some'. To many
        newsreaders, HTML art will just appear as a jumble of <TAGS> and
        will be totally unrecognizable.
        
        If you want to create HTML art, do so by all means, but put it
        on a Web page and post the page address (URL) to the appropriate
        discussion group. Advice on how to do this can be found at
        http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9334/asciionpage.htm.
        
    *   ASCII art animated using JavaScript. This relies not only on the
        newsreader being able to display HTML, but also being able to
        run JavaScript. As with HTML art, put it on a Web page and post
        the address to news:alt.ascii-art.animation.


See the first star-point in section two? That's what you're inserting if you
press alt+somethreedigitnumber.

-------------------THE ASCII ART FAQ TEN COMMANDMENTS-------------------

           \\\\`///
           /  _  _|                  1. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
          (\'('\/')                  2. Thou shalt not remove the
    ______/(    >(__                     initials from any ASCII art.
   /`-    \ \_=__| `\                3. Thou shalt not claim ownership
  /       /__(  _____\  _____            of someone else's ASCII art.
 /_ \.____    ,"     "."     ",__    4. Thou shalt read the FAQ.
|    /   _\__/_       -       /  \   5. Thou shalt ask permission
\/      /____  \ASCII ART FAQ  ///       before using someone else's
 )     / /   \__\     -        |         ASCII art.
 '-.__|_/    ///| I      VI    |     6. Thou shalt not sell someone
      \_     |        |        |         else's ASCII art.
        |    |   II      VII   |     7. Thou shalt read the darn FAQ.
         \   |        |        |     8. Thou shalt not post post someone
         /   |  III      VIII  |         else's ASCII art without making
         \   |        |        |         clear that you didn't make it.
          \_ |   IV      IX    |     9. Thou shalt not assume that
            \|        |        |         ASCII art isn't art at all.
             |    V      X     |     10. Thou shalt read the FAQing FAQ.
             |______b'ger______|
             
-----------[Joris Bellinger, Colin Douthwaite, Matthew Thomas]----------


-Martin
(A.A-A FAQ is by Matthew Thomas)
 ___________________                          ____      \
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| |+    /\        | |              | \  / |  |    ____/___\
| | +  /__\-"""""-| |              |  \/  |  |    |   /   \
| |  + /`.\ o o o | |             /        \_\____/  /     \
| | + /____\ ' '  | |      __-]=-' - -  ------------------------->
| |+  /. ' \ _____| |    _/             Martin Atkins
| |  /______\     | |   /        mart.atkins at bigfoot.com
| |_______________| |\_/     http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/
|                :: |            ASCII Gallery asciiart.htm
|___________________|-------------------------------------------->  
   |_____________|
  /_______________\  Merry Christmas to All!
  |_______________|  and a happy new year too....
If you are new to the newsgroup, please read our FAQ list - 
             posted weekly and on the web at
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