RE: Punched tape (was: "Re: American English translation of character names")

[Eric Scace]

   Your 7-bit paper tape system was rather unusual, actually, and was not a Telex 
system.

   Telex systems used what was then termed a "5-level code"; i.e., 5 bits.  The code 
was often called "baudot" but its formal name
was International Telegraph Alphabet #2 (ITA2).  It was standardized by the 
International Telegraph Union (now International
Telecommunications Union, the second-oldest international treaty body and now a 
specialty agency of the UN).  ITA2 provided 32 code
points.  Several of these were reserved for special functions: carriage return, line 
feed, "letters" (forced a shift into letters
case for subsequent characters), "figures" (forced a shift into figures and 
punctuation for subsequent characters), space and
"blank".  The remaining 26 code points represented A-Z (in letters case) and 
punctuation, digits, and other special symbols (vulgar
fractions, meteorological symbols, bell signal, etc depending on local conventions).  
These systems used paper tape with 2 holes, a
tractor hole for feeding the tape, and then 3 holes in a column; each of the 5 holes 
represented one of the bits in the 5-bit
encoding.

   Later, ASCII paper tape systems became common; many of these used 3 holes, a 
tractor hole, and 5 holes to represent 8-bit
encodings (including a parity bit).

   "7-level" tape systems were used in some special applications.   Some of the ones 
that I encountered were based on ASCII without
the 8th parity bit; others used special encodings to control typesetting equipment.

   Two-level tape systems were used throughout the first six decades of the 20th 
century to key submarine telegraph cables.

   All of these tape systems were mechanisms for storing information.  They aren't 
alphabets.

-- Eric Scace

-Original Message-
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Behalf Of Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin
Sent: 2004 January 6 15:05
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Punched tape (was: "Re: American English translation of
character names")


On 2003.12.19, 00:24, Carl W. Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Jill,
>
>> I'm a programmer, and I'm older than most programmers. I'm old enough
>> to remember punched paper tape ...
<...>
> Yes I worked with paper tape as well. I even worked on one machine
> that I would write programs on paper tape loops.

Well, I'm only 34 but I did work with one of these, on a telex machine
for terminal. I still keep some reels of tape, punched with my some of
high school stuff.

Anyway -- it was space for three wholes, the small whole for the tractor
wheel, and space for four more, IIRC.

|O OoOO  |
|O  oOOO |
| OOo O O|
|OO oOO  |
| O o  OO|
|OO o|
|O Oo OO |
|O  o|
| OOo OOO|
|O OoO   |
| OOo OOO|
|O  o OOO|

Any bells ringing? Wouldn't this be a nice "complete" set of chars to be
encoded, a la Braille patterns?...

--.
António MARTINS-Tuválkin |  ()|
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>||
Rua Alberto Bramão, 8-1º d.to |
PT-1700-132 LISBOA   Não me invejo de quem tem|
+351 934 821 700 carros, parelhas e montes|
http://www.tuvalkin.web.pt/bandeira/ só me invejo de quem bebe|
http://pagina.de/bandeiras/  a água em todas as fontes|

Re: Feedback Sought on Article Please

[jon]

Quoting Tim Greenwood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:

> 
> The link gives a 404 not found message.
>  > Entry-Level Unicode for XML
>  > 
>  > A “just enough education to perform” guide to Unicode and ISO 10646
>  > for authors
>  > of XML parsers and other software that process XML.
> 
Murphy's law kicked in and I noticed a mistake just after asking for feedback, 
you must have tried the link while I was uploading the correction. It should 
work now.

--
Jon Hanna

*Thought provoking quote goes here*

Feedback Sought on Article Please

[jon]

Entry-Level Unicode for XML

A “just enough education to perform” guide to Unicode and ISO 10646 for authors
of XML parsers and other software that process XML.

I'd be grateful for any feedback on this, especially is you spot a gaffe on my 
part before some poor soul reads it and gets misled.

--
Jon Hanna

*Thought provoking quote goes here*

RE: Punched tape (was: "Re: American English translation of chara cter names")

[Marco Cimarosti]

Anto'nio Martins-Tuva'lkin wrote:
> |O OoOO  |
> |O  oOOO |
> | OOo O O|
> |OO oOO  |
> | O o  OO|
> |OO o|
> |O Oo OO |
> |O  o|
> | OOo OOO|
> |O OoO   |
> | OOo OOO|
> |O  o OOO|

«\N5l#oVO7X7G»?

_ Marco