Original Usenet thread from alt.ascii-art, started 18 Dec 1998.
clueless in New York
alt.ascii-art
· 6 messages · 18 Dec 1998 - 24 Dec 1998
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?
>Message-id: <199...@ng35.aol.com> >I have a question- when you hold alt on the keyboard and enter a combination >of numbers on the numeric pad >Are those ASCII characters? What's the history behind this way of entering No, they are not ASCII... and pictures with them should not be posted here.. They are not universal from system to system... which means that it might look like one thing on your computer and it'll look like something else on someone else's computer... It sure can mess up a pic that you would like to share with others! -joan -- \ / ((^\ -= * =- joan stark \\ \() / \ spu...@juno.com >>/(_.' ((/\\ ASCII ART GALLERY: jgs /| http://www.ascii-art.com ``
.----- 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)
___________________ ____ \
| _______________ | |\ /| / | \
| |+ /\ | | | \ / | | ____/___\
| | + /__\-"""""-| | | \/ | | | / \
| | + /`.\ 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
http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm
Martin Atkins wrote: > .-------------------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]---------- Here comes that "Bellinger" again... ^ ???-------' I though we cleared this up. :( -- `, ,\, # |/ ? | ~ )\ /_ /\ \____ joris bellenger (b'ger) / \_/ \ e-mail: svz...@xs4all.nl http://www.xs4all.nl/~svzanten/joris/ascii/main.html / < ______ _> \ /___/ ,___/____) |\/
hehe.. cool using NJstar alt+ 658 and alt +654 are the characters for NI and TO. This is Japanese btw. The characters you refer to, since I am assuming you are living in America using our computers, are actually the same as 146 and 142 I believe... The character set we use is 8 bit/1 byte and has 256 assigned characters in it. Humm side note but I wonder what ROGUE looks like in other countries? humm... you can only produce characters form the 256, typing 666 or the like will only cause the computer to do math and give you the character 154. Countries like China and Japan, since they don't use the Roman alphabet and have 2000-3000 characters unlike our 26 they need 2/bytes to represent their character sets. which could actually represent 65536.... humm... X -------------------------------------taken from whatis.com------------- ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) <Picture>ASCII is the most common format for text files in computers and on the Internet. In an ASCII file, each alphabetic, numeric, or special character is represented with a 7-bit binary number (a string of seven 0s or 1s). 128 possible characters are defined. UNIX and DOS-based operating systems (except for Windows NT) use ASCII for text files. Windows NT uses a newer code, Unicode. IBM's System 390 servers use a proprietary 8-bit code called EBCDIC. Conversion programs allow different operating systems to change a file from one code to another. ASCII was developed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). --------------------------taken from www.whatis.com -------------------- On 18 Dec 1998, A3APA3A wrote: > > 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 Æ and alt + 654 produces Ä. > Are those ASCII characters? What's the history behind this way of entering > symbols? > >
.----- On Sat, 19 Dec 1998 13:09:43 +0100, joris bellenger posted:
|
|
|Martin Atkins wrote:
|
|> .-------------------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]----------
|
|Here comes that "Bellinger" again... ^
| ???-------'
|
|I thought we cleared this up.
|:(
'-------------------------------
Sorry Joris... I have an old version of the FAQ obvoiusly. It`s now fixed.
Sorry....
-Martin
___________________ ____ \
| _______________ | |\ /| / | \
| |+ /\ | | | \ / | | ____/___\
| | + /__\-"""""-| | | \/ | | | / \
| | + /`.\ 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
http://vibes.vossnet.co.uk/i/ighaig/ascfaq.htm
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