ASCII extension and expansion and their impact on data communications

During the past several years, a subcommittee within the American National Standard Institute Committee on Computers and Information Processing has been working on a standard that will impact computer communications. The proposed Standard is on: An Eight-Bit Code for General Information Interchange and Code Extension Procedures for 7 and 8-Bit Codes. This paper presents the historical background to this effort, the current proposals before the subcommittee and the potential impact on data communications of the proposed standardization. Also discussed is one view point of how this proposed standard and other standards (proposed and extant) interrelate with one another in a computer based communications system.