The following message is a courtesy copy of an article that has been posted to bit.listserv.ibm-main,alt.folklore.computers as well.
[email protected] (P S) writes: > While we're fantasizing (boy, are WE geeks!), that would have been an > interesting way for the characters to have been ordered in ASCII or EBCDIC > ... think of how differently we might have done things! Of course, ORing > with x'40' to uppercase wouldn't work any more. But I guess you could OR > with x'01' instead, no? Or AND with x'FE' to lowercase? Hmm... > > /me wanders off to tinker with the time machine again; maybe this time it > will work! recent thread from a.f.c on ebcdic & ascii http://www.garlic.com/~lynn/2009k.html#26 A Complete History Of Mainframe Computing that has a low of URL references ... why 360 became EBCDIC and not ASCII EBCDIC and the P-BIT (The Biggest Computer Goof Ever) http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM other references from the same site: HOW ASCII CAME ABOUT http://www.bobbemer.com/ASCII.HTM HOW ASCII GOT ITS BACKSLASH http://www.bobbemer.com/BACSLASH.HTM SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES ON ASCII http://www.bobbemer.com/INSIDE-A.HTM ASCII and the Mark of the Beast http://www.bobbemer.com/666.HTM ORIGIN OF THE ISO REGISTER FOR ASCII-ALTERNATE SETS http://www.bobbemer.com/REGISTRY.HTM from "EBCDIC and the P-BIT" Who Goofed? The culprit was T. Vincent Learson. The only thing for his defense is that he had no idea of what he had done. It was when he was an IBM Vice President, prior to tenure as Chairman of the Board, those lofty positions where you believe that, if you order it done, it actually will be done. I've mentioned this fiasco elsewhere ... snip ... -- 40+yrs virtualization experience (since Jan68), online at home since Mar1970 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
