Notes on  EBCDIC 

[abbreviation, Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code] An
alleged character set used on IBM DINOSAURs. It exists in at least
six mutually incompatible versions, all featuring such delights as
non-contiguous letter sequences and the absence of several ASCII
punctuation characters fairly important for modern computer languages
(exactly which characters are absent varies according to which
version of EBCDIC you're looking at). IBM adapted EBCDIC from
PUNCHED CARD code in the early 1960s and promulgated it as a
customer-control tactic (see CONNECTOR CONSPIRACY), spurning the
already established ASCII standard. Today, IBM claims to be an
open-systems company, but IBM's own description of the EBCDIC
variants and how to convert between them is still internally
classified top-secret, burn-before-reading. Hackers blanch at the
very name of EBCDIC and consider it a manifestation of purest EVIL.
See also FEAR AND LOATHING.

J3N Research Labs

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