ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (pronounced ôask-eeö) is a binary code for computer generated text, as well as for communications
and printer control. It is used for most computer communications and is the
standard in all personal computers and most minicomputers.
ASCII is a 7-bit code providing 128 character combinations, the first 32 of
which are control (nonprinting) characters. Since the common storage unit is an
8-bit byte (which yields 256 combinations), the extra bit is used differently depending
on the computer. The PC uses the additional values for foreign language and
graphics symbols, while the Macintosh lets the user define the additional values.
ASCII, EBCDIC, and Unicode are the codes most used to represent character data.