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Chapter 1: Problem 15

What is the purpose of ASCII?

Short Answer

Expert verified
#Short Answer# ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) is a character encoding standard that represents text and control characters in computers and other devices. It was created to provide a consistent way for devices to represent and exchange text, enabling seamless communication between different systems. ASCII assigns numerical values to specific characters, such as letters, digits, and punctuation marks, which allows for easy understanding and processing of text. While it has been largely superseded by more complex encoding methods like Unicode, ASCII still forms the basis for many modern character encoding systems and remains widely used today.

Step by step solution

01

Definition of ASCII

ASCII, or American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard that represents text and control characters in computers, communication equipment, and other devices that use text.
02

Purpose of ASCII

The purpose of ASCII is to provide a consistent way for computers and other devices to represent and exchange text in an efficient and understandable format. This allows for easy communication between different computer systems and devices.
03

How ASCII Works

ASCII uses a fixed number of bits (usually 7 or 8) to represent each character. These bits correspond to numerical values that are assigned to specific characters, such as the letters of the alphabet, digits, and punctuation marks. For example, the ASCII code for the capital letter "A" is 65 in decimal (or 01000001 in binary), while the code for the lowercase letter "a" is 97 in decimal (or 01100001 in binary).
04

Importance of ASCII

ASCII was crucial in the early days of computing and communication technology because it standardized how text is represented, enabling seamless communication between different systems and devices. It is still widely used today, as it provides a foundation for more complex character encoding methods, such as Unicode, which supports a greater variety of characters, including those from non-Latin scripts.

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