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107 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
107 lines
4.7 KiB
HTML
<HTML>
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<TITLE>T E X T F I L E S</TITLE>
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<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT="#00FF00" LINK="#00FF00" ALINK="#00FF00"
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VLINK="#00FF00">
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<FONT FACE="Courier New" COLOR="#00FF00">
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<B>A QUICK EXPLANATION OF IBM ASCII</B>
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<P>
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Technically, ASCII only covers the first 128 characters of what most
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people refer to as the "ASCII Character Set". This first set contains
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pretty much all the characters we associate with ASCII: the alphabet
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(upper and lowercase), punctuation marks like !;., and the other
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standard characters used in modern communication, such as @#$%^&.
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<P>
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However, the nature of 8-bit computing is that there were 128 extra
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spaces in which to put other kinds of characters. (If you're new to
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this whole idea of thinking, then you should know that to see 128
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characters requires 7 bits, and 256 characters requires 8 bits. Some
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of you might recall the old days of setting your modem "7 or 8" bits,
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like 7-E-1 or 8-N-1. Now you know why.)
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<P>
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The plan of what to do with these extra characters fell upon each
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individual computer company; some simply re-used the first 128
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characters, while others added special characters not covered in the
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first set, such as letters with accents or umlats for languages like
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french or swedish. But a few, like IBM and Atari, used this extra
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space for characters that, if you squinted, could be used for
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graphics.
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<P>
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Now, obviously, you're not going to get the same kind of graphics
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that you expect these days, by using all sorts of odd frozen
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characters in a handful of letters. However, in the case of IBM
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character sets (now called OEM/IBM), there rose an interesting
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subset of users who gained a real artistry with the font, able to
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make stunning artwork and lettering by using hard-won techniques
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for arranging the upper 128 characters.
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<P>
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<B>AN EXAMPLE</B>
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<P>
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Here is the marked difference between seeing these ASCII files on
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a non-IBM terminal and an IBM terminal:
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<P>
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<B>WITHOUT</B>
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<P>
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<CENTER>
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<IMG SRC="../images/genesisb.jpg"><BR>
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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<B>WITH</B>
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<P>
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<CENTER>
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<IMG SRC="../images/genesisa.jpg">
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</CENTER>
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<P>
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The feeling can be like opening a treasure chest into a whole other
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world. The feeling can also be like scaling a peak of making this stuff
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viewable, and then seeing the next huge peak of trying to decipher what
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the thing is saying, even <I>WITH</I> the character set aimed the
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right way. Some of these files (especially in the
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<A HREF="http://textfiles.com/tags">tags</A> section) approach the level of intense
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Celtic art in how much information and arrangement they try to shove
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into an 80x25 screen. However, for me, this feeling is worth it.
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<P>
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In my own personal experience, I have been able to play with the "fixed"
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character set in Netscape and set it to a font that has these characters.
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I also use the "telnet" program and set the Font to "OEM/IBM" and gotten
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the same response. As I don't tend to use other methods, you might have
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to root around to make these images come alive for you.
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<P>
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As for other customized character sets, I don't know enough about the
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other sets to give you accurate information on them, but I can imagine
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the situation is very similar. Ah, standards!
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<P>
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<B>SOME OTHER RELATED THOUGHTS ON CHARACTER SETS</B>
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<P>
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Just some other related ideas to this subject, so that I know it's covered
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somewhere on the site.
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<P>
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When used in Conjunction with ANSI, these IBM Graphics characters take
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on a whole other life in themselves. With ANSI codes mixed in, you can
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see the characters in color, doing animation, and theoretically, make
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sounds or music, although this is actually rather rare. The very absolute
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best site to explain the wonders of ANSI and ASCII art in detail, as well
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as show examples that can be seen on any browser, is
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<A HREF="http://www.acheron.org/">ACHERON.ORG</A>, who have spent years
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building up cool programs that convert ANSI to graphics, and who keep up
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to the very latest news about ANSI and ASCII art (as well as RIP graphics,
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which I missed entirely). I can't reccomend this site enough if you want
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to experience that world.
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<P>
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Even if the upper 128 aren't used to make the text "graphics", there can
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still be a significant difference in how an IBM displays the lower 128
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compared to, say, Macs or UNIX boxes. One easy immediate fix is to use
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the "fixed" character set, whatever one you have, to view the files. In
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the case of textfiles.com, it is very likely your browser will do this
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for you automatically. But it might not.
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<P>
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Finally, while a lot of these ASCII graphics creations are stunning and
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glorious, a good percentage do in fact suck. So if you're looking at
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a file for a <I>very</I> long time, trying to see where the incredible
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image is buried within... well, there might not be one. Caveat Emptor.
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</FONT>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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