Displaying Letters
Hexadecimal digits can be displayed on seven-segment displays. A particular combination of uppercase and lowercase letters are used for A–F; this is done to obtain a unique, unambiguous shape for each letter (otherwise, a capital D would look identical to an 0 and a capital B would look identical to an 8). Also the digit 6 must be displayed with the top bar lit to avoid ambiguity with the letter b)
| Digit | gfedcba | abcdefg | a | b | c | d | e | f | g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0×3F | 0×7E | on | on | on | on | on | on | off |
| 1 | 0×06 | 0×30 | off | on | on | off | off | off | off |
| 2 | 0×5B | 0×6D | on | on | off | on | on | off | on |
| 3 | 0×4F | 0×79 | on | on | on | on | off | off | on |
| 4 | 0×66 | 0×33 | off | on | on | off | off | on | on |
| 5 | 0×6D | 0×5B | on | off | on | on | off | on | on |
| 6 | 0×7D | 0×5F | on | off | on | on | on | on | on |
| 7 | 0×07 | 0×70 | on | on | on | off | off | off | off |
| 8 | 0×7F | 0×7F | on | on | on | on | on | on | on |
| 9 | 0×6F | 0×7B | on | on | on | on | off | on | on |
| A | 0×77 | 0×77 | on | on | on | off | on | on | on |
| b | 0×7C | 0×1F | off | off | on | on | on | on | on |
| C | 0×39 | 0×4E | on | off | off | on | on | on | off |
| d | 0×5E | 0×3D | off | on | on | on | on | off | on |
| E | 0×79 | 0×4F | on | off | off | on | on | on | on |
| F | 0×71 | 0×47 | on | off | off | off | on | on | on |
In addition, seven segment displays can be used to show various other letters of the latin, Cyrillic and Greek alphabets including punctuation, but few representations are unambiguous and intuitive at the same time. Short messages giving status information (e.g. "no disc" on a CD player) are also commonly represented on 7-segment displays. In the case of such messages it is not necessary for every letter to be unambiguous, merely for the words as a whole to be readable.
Similar displays with fourteen or sixteen segments are available allowing less-ambiguous representations of the alphabet.
Using a restricted range of letters that look like (upside-down) digits, seven-segment displays are commonly used by school children to form words and phrases using a technique known as "calculator spelling".
Read more about this topic: 7seg
Famous quotes containing the words displaying and/or letters:
“One of the grotesqueries of present-day American life is the amount of reasoning that goes into displaying the wisdom secreted in bad movies while proving that modern art is meaningless.... They have put into practise the notion that a bad art work cleverly interpreted according to some obscure Method is more rewarding than a masterpiece wrapped in silence.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“How do we know, then, when a code’s been cracked? ... when we are right? ... when do we know if we have even received a message? Why, naturally, when, upon one set of substitutions, sense emerges like the outline under a rubbing; when a single tentative construal leads to several; when all the sullen letters of the code cry TEAM! after YEA! has been, by several hands, uncovered.”
—William Gass (b. 1924)