Re: 8 bits in citations (Was: Re: sgnus -> rgnus -> qgnus?)

[Mats Löfdahl <lofdahl@sag.space.lockheed.com>]

Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen <larsi@ifi.uio.no> writes:

> 
> Mats Löfdahl <lofdahl@sag.space.lockheed.com> writes:
>
> > ...The "v" is an "ö" where the eighth bit has been zeroed, and I
> > guess the two backslashes is an escape sequence that should tell
> > you that that is what has happened.
> 
> Right.  I haven't seen that kind of encoding before.  What's it
> called?

As I tried to make apparent, I don't know very much about these
things, but I think the only place I've seen it is when my last name
has been corrupted in mail headers.  Maybe one could write some code
that scans the headers (or just the From header?) and replaces all
\\<x> sequences to \\<sethighbit(x)>.  But I guess one would like some
safe-guard against false hits.  Or maybe, as Per Abrahamsen pointed
out, one should try to encourage people to get software that doesn't
do the corrupting in the first place.  Anyway, this is really a very
small problem that I can easily live with.

> The normal 7-bit representation of "Löfdahl" (with ISO-646-SE) is
> "L|fdahl", I think.

Yes, that is what is sometimes called Swedish ASCII.  There is a
number of swedish people (me included) who read text without problem,
where }{|][\ are used for a-ring, a-twodots, o-twodots, A-ring,
A-twodots, O-twodots.

-- 
  Mats Löfdahl, Research Scientist -- Temp. phone number:  +1 415/424-4001
  Lockheed Martin, Advanced Technology Center
  c/o O/H1-12, B/252, 3251 Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 94304
  lofdahl@sag.space.lockheed.com, mlofdahl@solar.stanford.edu