From: Robin Rosenberg Message-ID: <19991031.25200@ratata.dewire.net> Subject: The history of ascii X-Priority: 3 (Normal) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.internet X-Newsreader: Mozilla/3.0 (compatible; StarOffice/5.1; Linux) Lines: 13 Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 23:09:56 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.178.167.27 X-Complaints-To: news@bahnhof.se X-Trace: dummy.bahnhof.se 941324996 195.178.167.27 (Sun, 31 Oct 1999 01:09:56 MET DST) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 31 Oct 1999 01:09:56 MET DST Organization: Bahnhof Customer News Posting Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!news-ge.switch.ch!feed2.news.luth.se!luth.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!newsfeed.bahnhof.se!dummy.bahnhof.se!not-for-mail I've been trying to find some information on the history of ASCII. How did it happen?=20 Was there a big discussion? [guess: yes] Were there conferences? I guess there must have been. But, I want to *know*. -- robin ###### From: deanh61@my-deja.com Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.internet Subject: Re: The history of ascii Date: Sat, 30 Oct 1999 20:24:05 -0400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <19991031.25200@ratata.dewire.net> X-Posted-Path-Was: not-for-mail X-Accept-Language: en,ru,zh-CN Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-ELN-Date: 31 Oct 1999 00:29:01 GMT X-ELN-Insert-Date: Sat Oct 30 17:35:05 1999 Organization: University of Maryland: Graduate School of Management and Technology Lines: 27 Mime-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Host: ip126.baltimore20.md.pub-ip.psi.net Message-ID: <381B8C25.B6A6E645@polaris.umuc.edu> X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; U) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsswitch.lcs.mit.edu!netnews.com!newsfeed1.earthlink.net!nntp.earthlink.net!posted-from-earthlink!not-for-mail Robin Rosenberg wrote: > > I've been trying to find some information on the history of ASCII. > > How did it happen? > Was there a big discussion? [guess: yes] > Were there conferences? I guess there must have been. > > But, I want to *know*. > > -- robin it was developed by the ANSI, i think as part of ARPA net development. go to http://www.google.com enter 'ascii history' in the search term window. the first link returned is this one: http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:9055296&dq=cache:www.wps.com/IO/ASCII/chart/ (use the 'cached') link proably contains more detail than anybody could ever want.. enjoy ###### From: richard@ix.cs.uoregon.edu (Michael D Richard) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.internet Subject: Re: The history of ascii Followup-To: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.internet Date: 31 Oct 1999 02:49:07 GMT Organization: University of Oregon Computer Science Department Lines: 17 Message-ID: <7vgan3$meh$1@helix.cs.uoregon.edu> References: <19991031.25200@ratata.dewire.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: ix.cs.uoregon.edu X-Trace: helix.cs.uoregon.edu 941338147 22993 128.223.4.21 (31 Oct 1999 02:49:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: news@cs.uoregon.edu NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Oct 1999 02:49:07 GMT X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!news-out.cwix.com!newsfeed.cwix.com!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!enews.sgi.com!news.sgi.com!news.cs.uoregon.edu!ix.cs.uoregon.edu!richard Robin Rosenberg (robin@rosenbergit.se) wrote: : I've been trying to find some information on the history of ASCII. The E.I.A. (Electronic Industries Association) worked on a 7 bit code in the late fifties, recognizing the need for a common format. The A.S.A. (American Standards Association) established the X3 Committee, which formed the X3.2 Subcommitte and was charged with developing a standard code, used the E.I.A.'s work as a starting point. The code they developed was named ASCII and approved as a standard in 1963. The acronym USASCII was created in 1966. For the rest of the decade the code found its way into ECMA-6, the ISO 7-bit code, JISCII and CCITT #5. They had different grphic symbols. from _Coded Character Sets, History and Development_ C.E. MacKenzie (which does great with the devo and not so well with the history, i.e. good descriptions of evolution but not too many dates) ###### From: Eric Fischer Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers,alt.folklore.internet Subject: Re: The history of ascii Date: 31 Oct 1999 18:51:22 GMT Organization: EnterAct Corp Turbo-Elite News Server Lines: 18 Message-ID: <7vi33a$m87$1@eve.enteract.com> References: <19991031.25200@ratata.dewire.net> <7vgan3$meh$1@helix.cs.uoregon.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: 207.229.143.42 X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test72 (19 April 1999) Originator: enf@enteract.com (Eric Fischer) Path: chonsp.franklin.ch!pfaff.ethz.ch!news-zh.switch.ch!newsfeed-zh.ip-plus.net!news.ip-plus.net!News.Amsterdam.UnisourceCS!newspeer.te.net!news.indigo.ie!diablo.theplanet.net!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.enteract.com!news.enteract.com!not-for-mail Michael D Richard wrote: > from _Coded Character Sets, History and Development_ C.E. MacKenzie > (which does great with the devo and not so well with the history, > i.e. good descriptions of evolution but not too many dates) This is probably the most easily available source of information on the history of ASCII, but be aware that in the sections about the interactions between IBM and the X3.2 committee you are only hearing one side of the story. There are other places, too, where in my opinion things he presents as facts are contradicted by the archival records. Probably the best account of the history of ASCII that has been published to date is Robert Bemer's article, "A View of the History of the ISO Character Code," Honeywell Computer Journal, vol. 6, no. 4, 1972. The article may not be too easy to find a copy of, though. eric