Um, I'm not sure what your point is there. If you use those characters you *are* adhering to the standards. X12.6 (section 3.3.2 Extended Character Set) mentions a list of "select language characters" which includes all the samples sent in Mr. Kammerer's note.
With respect to the discussion of EBCDIC<->ASCII translations, one of the biggest things to keep in mind (and I suspect is frequently ignored/forgotten) is the concept of code pages. There isn't a single one-for-one transformation in either direction between EBCDIC and ASCII. It depends on the code pages that are used. Seems to me that ISO 8859 has somewhere around 15 flavors that are based on national language groups. If anyone's wondering about the code page concept, the best way I can think to summarize it is: a mapping of character pictures (such as letters and numbers and symbols) to bit patterns. Although many characters are common among all the code pages (0-9, A-Z, a-z), not all are the same and not all even share common bit patterns across the spectrum. Frankly, I would think it better if the data could be transmitted un-converted from originator to receiver so that only two parties need to agree on character sets and code pages. Unfortunately, that's not the way most do it. I've never seen a completely comprehensive display of code pages on the web, but IBM has one that's pretty good if you take a look here: http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/software/globalization/codepages.html. Unfortunately, the listings aren't consistent with respect to their relationship to EBCDIC and ASCII. Best regards, Bill Chessman Inovis(tm) -----Original Message----- From: Dan Mehlhorn [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 11:46 AM To: EDI-L Listserv Subject: RE: [EDI-L] Non-ASCII characters William, If you don't adhere to the specified standards, are they really standards? -----Original Message----- From: William J. Kammerer You mean you'd tell Nestl� and Banco de M�xico or Hydro-Qu�bec or Petr�leos de Venezuela or Rh�ne-Poulenc or Peugeot Citro�n to take their business elsewhere just because you can't handle a few diacritics? If free e-mail can handle ordinary Latin characters, why not expensive half-million dollar EDI systems? William J. Kammerer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dan Mehlhorn" This is one issue I've fought within the Electric Supply industry. One problem was when IBM AS400 machines would translate from EBCDIC to ASCII, some characters would not translate to anything usable. Some TPs insisted on using nonprintable characters within their defined as alphanumeric data fields. I can't recall how many times I've sent out the X12 12.6 table to new TPs, but they do listen when you tell them you can't do business if they keep using the barred characters. Dan Mehlhorn Crescent Electric Supply Co. . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
