[fpc-devel] EBCDIC (was On a port of Free Pascal to the IBM 370)

[rvmartin2 at ntlworld.com]

Daniël Mantione <daniel.mantione at freepascal.org> wrote the following on 30/01/12 16:29:27:
> 
> 
> Op Mon, 30 Jan 2012, schreef rvmartin2 at ntlworld.com:
> 
> > michael.vancanneyt at wisa.be wrote the following on 30/01/12 14:49:53:
> >
> >> I think the reason for producing an ASCII version first is very simple:
> >> All FPC sources - including the compiler - are in ASCII encoding.
> >
> > I don't understand this statement - ASCII and EBCDIC are just human representations of a computer's internal code.
> 
> ... which can be ASCII or EBCDIC encoded, right?
> 
> So if the compiler source files are ASCII encoded... then the compiler has 
> to read ASCII to be able to compile itself.
> 
> > I write my programs in the Latin (or Roman) alphabet and the computer 
> > does the rest.
> 
> So the compiler has to care about ASCII/EBCDIC encoding, right?

No!!  If I write my name and address - in the roman alphabet of course - on a PC the computer stores it as ASCII, but when I display it on the monitor it is displayed as human-readable roman alphabet (at least in my part of the world).
If I then email it from the PC to a 370 the computer stores it as EBCDIC, but displaying it on a monitor it is the same human-readable roman alphabet.
Human beings do not read or write ASCII or EBCDIC.
Pascal source code can be encoded as ASCII or EBCDIC depending on what sort of computer it is stored on, but we see "human code".