ASCII and EBCDIC are character encoding sets for computers. ASCII is praised for its simplicity and adaptability, while EBCDIC is considered an anachronism designed for outdated punch cards. Both are based on Baudot code, but ASCII is designed for modern computing while EBCDIC is specific to IBM mainframes. EBCDIC has a larger range of check characters but lacks parity checking and documentation. ASCII is well documented and widely available, and software can convert between the two sets. ASCII’s de facto encoding system status is expected to become de jure.
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII), also known as ANSI X3.4, and the Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code (EBCDIC) are character encoding sets for computers. While there are numerous variants of ASCII, all are essentially the same, and the encoding system is often praised by computer scientists for its simplicity and adaptability. EBCDIC is considered an anachronism in the computer world as it was designed for the outdated punch cards. ASCII, on the other hand, was developed in the 1960s and is designed to be used in the modern computing world.
Both ASCII and EBCDIC are based on the Baudot code, an alternative 19th century Morse code, but they were designed for different purposes and purposes. Essentially a seven-bit code, ASCII allows for the eighth most significant bit (MSB) for error checking, but most contemporary computer systems use codes greater than 19 for large character sets. Whereas this is a common character encoding set on a number of different computer systems, EBCDIC is a character set specific to IBM mainframes.
EBCDIC uses the quota of eight available bits and thus gives up parity checking, but has a larger range of check characters. However, the benefits of this character encoding set are limited to this larger scope of control characters and EBCDIC’s suitability for its use on punched cards. It also includes the US cent character (¢) which ASCII omits, although it usually omits these other characters: ( ) { } ^ ~ and ¦.
Some of the characters missing from EBCDIC and found in ASCII are in the UU encoding range, resulting in Internet mail attachments often being corrupted. Also, there are many variants of EBCDIC, and among these variants there are types that are incompatible with each other. This problem is exacerbated because documentation for this character set is difficult to obtain from IBM, unlike ASCII, which is well documented and widely available.
There are pieces of software that allow users to convert between the two sets. However, it seems only a matter of time before ASCII’s de facto encoding system status becomes de jure among computer users.
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