Re: 'Scripts' & Communications

From: Douglas A. Gwyn (DAGwyn_at_null.net)
Date: 04/13/04 

Date: Mon, 12 Apr 2004 23:33:17 -0400

John Berg wrote:
> ... ASCII was the standard for 2^6 bits ...

No, ASCII was a 7-bit code from the outset,
with an upper-case-only 6-bit subset implemented
on many terminals, and an optional 8th bit for
use as parity was allowed for in the first ASCII
standard.

> In 1964 IBM increased the standard computer character size to 2^8 bits (a
> byte) ...

IBM didn't "increase the standard computer character size".
In fact, although IBM participated in the development
of the ASCII standard, for their new machines such as
the System/360 they chose to introduce a new code of
their own, EBCDIC, based on (but not fully compatible
with) their early BCD codes that ultimately derived
from punched-card conventions. It is true that the
System/360 had 8-bit bytes supported in hardware,
but so did other contemporary machines. Word sizes
that are a power of two have some natural advantages
in computer architecture, and 8 is the smallest power
of two capable of encoding a character set large enough
for data-processing purposes.

Anyway, character encoding, ISO 10646 or not, is only
a tiny part of the general linguistic issue.

> Will an "artificial language" developed for communication with
> computers become a universal language for all?

No.

> Could an artificial computer language support more exact
> laws and legal language?

In what way? And for what purpose?

That whole posting seems to be mired back in the 1950s
when the public first started to become aware of "giant
brains" etc.

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