Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

Read this. Or at least take a look for some historical insight. It is both dry and interesting.

An annotated history of some character codes or ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Infiltration

http://worldpowersystems.com/J/codes/

It describes how we got here in excruciating detail, starting with Morse. Military communication systems had great influence. Before the ASCII, as we know it today, there was an "ASCII-1963" that was a bit different.

The long and winding path: Morse Baudot Murray ITA2 FIELDATA ASCII-1963 ASCII-1967




Join us for AI Startup School this June 16-17 in San Francisco!

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: