On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 13:09:53 -0500 (GMT-05:00), Dennis McCarthy <nihil_obstat@mindspring.com> wrote: | | A technical question: | | Exactly what characters make up 7-bit ascii? I presume it is 128 (2 to the 7th power). So logically any character I can generate by typing Alt+0000 thro' Alt+0127 (in MS Windows) is kosher in a 7-bit ASCII text. | | Specifically I want to know if I can us "|" (the character made by hitting Shift+backslash on a standard US keyboard, or Alt+0124). | | Generally, are the following (Alt+0000 thro' Alt+0127) always okay? | ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ? @ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z [ \ ] ^ _ ` a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z { | } ~ Not everyone used Windoze there are some 500 8 bit character sets in use, but many are obsolete/obsolescent. See http://www.asciitable.com/ Decimal 0 to 31 are control characters and unusable in text. They may be many other things besides control characters. Decimal 32 is space. Decimal 33 to 126 are usable in 7 bit ASCII text as listed in the URL Decimal 127 is unusable. Decimal 128 and above may be absolutely anything, to use these one must state which of the 500 character sets you are using. One persons standard sends the next person insane :-( -- Dave F