Gemini User’s Manual
The ASCII Code
Every letter, numeral, and other character that is sent from the computer to Gemini is transmitted in the form of a number code. A standardcode was agreed upon to allow greater compatibility among the hundreds of different types of computers and peripherals. This
Please turn to Appendix K and you will see each character printed by Gemini and a corresponding ASCII code. The decimal number “65”is the code representing the uppercase letter “AI’The lowercase “a”is represented by “971’For every character, there is a corresponding code number.
The ASCII code numbers for the uppercase letters, numerals, and punctuation marks are fairly well standardized. Thus, most computers share the same ASCII codes between 32 and 127. Unfortunately, the rest of the codes (128 through 255) are nowhere near standardization in all computer systems.
Nofe:This is a timely opportunity for you to review the manual that accompanied your computer and to compare your computer’s ASCII character codes with Gemini’s. Somewhere in the back of your computer manual, you should find a table or chart of ASCII character codes. Compare the chart with Appendix H at the back of this manual. Mark the characters that are different, for future reference.
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Function Codes
Besides letters and numerals, you can send special commands to functionally control printing operations. These codes are identified variously as “function:’ “control;’ and “command” codes, but they serve the same purpose. In this manual, we call them function codes and they are listed in Appendix M and in the
Chapter 9 explains what these codes accomplish. For now, you need only note that some codes are repetitions of others. Because not all computers can send all the ASCII codes, Gemini accepts any of several function codes to cause the same effect.
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