Character Encoding
The early computer software and hardware had very little support for alphabets other than the Latin. As a result of this it was difficult or impossible to represent languages based on other scripts. The ASCII character encoding, created in the 1960s, only supported 256 different characters. With the use of additional software it was possible to provide support for some languages, for instance those based on the Cyrillic alphabet. However, complex-script languages like Chinese or Japanese need more characters than the 256 limit imposed by ASCII. Some computers created in the former USSR had native support for the Cyrillic alphabet.
The wide adoption of Unicode, and UTF-8 on the web, resolved most of these historical limitations. ASCII remains the de facto standard for command interpreters, programming languages and text-based communication protocols.
- Mojibake - Common mistakes
Read more about this topic: English In Computing
Famous quotes containing the word character:
“Sometimes apparent resemblances of character will bring two men together and for a certain time unite them. But their mistake gradually becomes evident, and they are astonished to find themselves not only far apart, but even repelled, in some sort, at all their points of contact.”
—Sébastien-Roch Nicolas De Chamfort (1741–1794)