X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 10fd46,ceabeb7eb0795e30 X-Google-Attributes: gid10fd46,public X-Google-Thread: 110f55,68058ee5f04270a X-Google-Attributes: gid110f55,public X-Google-Thread: f996b,a83ceb3b47d2449 X-Google-Attributes: gidf996b,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 1994-11-21 11:04:02 PST Path: nntp.gmd.de!newsserver.jvnc.net!yale.edu!yale!yale!gumby!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!swrinde!pirates.cs.swt.edu!pirates.cs.swt.edu!joelh From: joelh@pollock.math.swt.edu (Holveck) Newsgroups: alt.config,alt.ascii-art,alt.binaries.pictures.ascii Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: alt.ansi-art Followup-To: alt.config,alt.ascii-art,alt.binaries.pictures.ascii Date: 21 Nov 1994 19:04:02 GMT Organization: Computer Science Department, Southwest Texas State University Lines: 66 Message-ID: References: <3ap5nq$b9q@southern.co.nz> Reply-To: joelh@pollock.math.swt.edu NNTP-Posting-Host: pollock.math.swt.edu In-reply-to: Colin_Douthwaite@equinox.gen.nz's message of 21 Nov 1994 03:55:38 GMT Full-name: Joel Ray Holveck Priority: First-class X-Attribution: The Brane BCC: joelh@dali Xref: nntp.gmd.de alt.config:46277 alt.ascii-art:17002 Was my SOY LOAF left out in th'RAIN? It tastes REAL GOOD!! >>>>> "Colin_Douthwaite" == Colin Douthwaite writes: >> I propose a group for IBM extended ascii and ANSI control >> character related art. There have been many requests on >> alt.ascii-art for extended and ansi art. If any one would like >> to discuss this further, my address is thanos@primenet.com > To avoid causing problems at the many global Internet sites all > postings containing Extended IBM Characters and ANSI characters > and ANSI Control Codes need to be UUENCODED. Failure to observe > this causes troubles as the material travels through the > Internet routes. I suggest instead we use RFC821 (SMTP) complicance for use with old mailers that aren't yet 8-bit clean, etc. This would remove the ability to send the 8-bit extended characters directly. However, uuencoding is most valuable when sending information that only makes sense in files, such as program distributions. It is rather unsuitable for normal mail. I suggest we use MIME, which is a readily availible standard suitable for the task. (Technophiles can get the scoop on MIME specs in RFCs 1521 and 1522. The use of the MIME encoding means that many mail handlers will DTRT and send the data as intended. The Content Transfer Encoding 8-bit exists for this purpose. I should point out that although RFC1036 does not mention any MIME headers, MIME did not come out until after the RFC was written. I do not know if the latest news propogation programs handle MIME or not. If 8-bit turns out to be unsuitable, we can instead use Base64 encoding. > This needs to be considered when any new newsgroup is being > proposed. > The existing newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.ascii could be used > but of course this groups title makes no mention of ANSI. Is > there a great difference between IBM Extensions of ASCII and > ANSI when they are used in pictures ? Yes. IBM's 8-bit graphics (specified as the IBM 437 font) are single characters that are simply glyphs for characters. ANSI is a set of terminal control codes that move the cursor, change colors, and all the other things that terminal control codes. It is essentially the same as the control code set used by DEC's vt100. Many mailers will not propogate the ESC code that prefixes all ANSI codes, and most explicitly strip the codes for security purposes. I should point out that IBM's is not the only 8-bit character set. There are international standards, rapidly becoming more popular in the Unix world. This is the set defined by ISO 8859, a character set designed for international usage. We may want to make new newsgroups: alt.binaries.pictures.ascii.8bit.ibm437 and alt.binaries.pictures.ascii.8bit.iso8859 for the purposes of sharing these pictures without wreaking havoc on the 7bitters. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Joel Ray Holveck, joelh@dali.math.swt.edu, KC5ACN The fourth law of computing: Anything that can go wr .signature: Segmentation violation -- core dumped