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        *** ASCII-on-the-Mac.doc ***


      When the Macintosh stoops to converse with the rest
of the world on the email (= electronic mail) network the
Macintosh user has to adapt to the old ASCII system
(=American Standard for Computer Information Interchange of 1963).
Since, on the Macintosh, ASCII is neither clearly delimited
nor optimally implemented, some learning and adaptation on
the part of the user is required.  The following comments
may help.

     Leaving aside details of little interest, one can say
that under the ASCII regime the Mac user is simply required
to use only TEXT files and therein use only the characters

 9 (tab), 13 (carriage return), 32 (space)
 and 33 -- 126, which are :
 !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@
 ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`
 abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~
         
Roughly speaking, these are the common unaccented caracters
and diacritics of American typewriters the early 20th
century.  Unfortunately there are problems:

  (A) The following common diacritics are not ASCII and
must not be used although they may be marked on the keyboard:

   section (= \S in TeX)
   degree
   dieresis
   pound sign
   yen


  (B) The following ASCII characters are often somewhat
inaccessible (depending on your Mac model and software!)

   \ | @ # 

You do well to hunt them down and mark them somehow.

  (C) The following characters are marked but on
"dead-keys" (=keys that give bo result on first being struck)
   ` ^ ~ and perhaps ' "

On early Macs the dead keys were typed by double-striking
them.  From the coming of the ADB (=Apple Desktop Bus)
keyboards in 1987(?), dead keys became spooky; the
double strike to obtain the dead-key character was
invalidated and replaced by the dead-key followed by
spacebar. For many users that takes twice as long as the 
original double strike.

     In 1988 Fabien Samuel wrote at my request a low level
system patch (for the KeyTrans ROM routine) to restore the
original behavior of dead-keys.  It comes in the form of an
INIT file called KeyTransPatchInit to be put in your system
folder.  It is given immediately below in binhex coded
form. Put the binhex code and preamble in a TEXT file on
the Mac and decode with BinHeX or CompactPro or Stuffit
to obtain the INIT file.
     
(This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0)
:(%YPH94bB@jc8'&dBfK*EQPd+'4PB@3YDf9jFbN!58j*9%CK8f%K!!!!!!!!!!2
-%1d!!!!!!3!!!!-"!!!#!3!!!-[!!B!2i!'!(r!"J"ji!B!m2!'!1"`"J(!i!B"
`1!'!i"a,CAP8FQ&ZFe"KG'0S5@jTG#KNC@&N,@YPHA-T,3)!!!"*6NP84Q&6B5!
!rmF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!+,YU3d!!!!!!!!$c)!!!!+!!!!#J!!!!S+
UUS+!!!!#L!!!)S!!!!+)!!!LJ!!!!SJ!!#+!!!!#L!!!)S!!!!+)!!!LJ!!!!SJ
!!#+!!!!#L!!!)S!!!!*rrrrm!!!!J!$rr`!"rrq!!rrr`!Iqrq!2r(r`(qaRq$r
%4rara%Iqrd4(rrj%4rrq4%IrrN3!!!")B!3!!!!!)&mLAc!I)Km[#%j@!!")ja!
J*%P#J`J!!!GQ!LB53UF[!6m!,`NJH[r86T!!,9m!##)$C`BN[!!!!!"-h`3)6Pj
1G3!!!!3!!!")!!!"!2rrrrq!!!!"[R2[4D+)L%@LL)Kp[[L)4D#)L%@JL)p&J!!
!!Irrrrq!!!!"QUUUUB!!!!'9999CJ!!!!CUUUUQ!!!!"KArr8B!!!!'!!!!"rrr
rri!!!!(rrrrrrrrrr`!rq!!!!i!!!!%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!rrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!$r
i!!!$J!!!!3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!F4Q&6B3!!!!&'8N9'!!!
!!!#!5801)`!!!!!!J!!!!!G*6NP8!!!!!!!!0M!i!9S-3!3!DbT#Tbmm5h43-8*
RUD!LAb!*CaJ[#DQ5-$`"`k&')P%M5!!#-$`"`b"*S%G1G3!!!%"#5f9j9(*KER0
3BA4MD#"*EQPd)#dJ3fp`HA*TCfKd)%CKBQPPEL"6B@eeC@`J-6Ni1#!J)#!J)#!
J)#!J)#!J!!!"!!!!!`%!!!)"!!!!b`!+JB`6'J!!!"`!UJ!'5h43-3!!!$TcHA0
k!!!!4NP$6L-!!!"53Nj%6!!!!&j'8N9'!!!!DNCK8f%!!!"f58j*9!!!!))!!!!
!8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1)!!!6!!!!!!!J2rr*!!!9!!!!!!!J2rr)!!"@!!!!!!!J2r
r!!!"H!!!!!!!!2rr)!!"[3!+JA`!!!!@%!!"J`!!!!!05f9j9(*KER03BA4MD!G
,G("6DATP#NYdF%PZFh4KE'bcL`:


     There is still a minor bug or two in the patch; perhaps
someone will take up the challenge to fix it?

     With the above patch, the Mac on its own types and 
displays ASCII reasonably well with almost any Mac prose font.
But the situation may take a turn for the worse once the Mac
is connected to the net.  The "terminal program" often fails to
establish full ASCII communication between the Macintosh
and the host computer on the net.


NCSATelnet

     One bad example still widely used is the NCSATelnet program
(non-TCP form); it allows the Mac to be a Telnet node on a local
network, usually ethernet or Apple's Local Talk. The most
freindly versions seem to be 2.2 and 2.3. About ten ASCII
characters become inaccessible and have to be replaced by
command keys on the numerical keypad: Command 0, ... Command 9.
     
     The following seems a suitable arrangement

             7 `       8 <      9 >

             4 {       5 |      6 }

             1 ~       2 #      3 \

             0 @

To retain these from one session to the next one should 
add to the configuration file the following lines:

key0= "@"
key1= "~"
key2= "#"
key3= "\\"
key4= "{"
key5= "|"
key6= "}"
key7= "`"
key8= "<"
key9= ">"

     This is just one terminal program of recent times. Expect
similar problems with others.  That being so, the Mac user is
well advised to collect means that let him survive with a
crippled keyboard. The device of copying from and pasting to the
terminal program window is one of the most powerful.  It permits
one to do essentially all typing and editing in one's favorite
text editor.

     Another helpful item is the KeyFinder desk accessory
available from sumex.stanford.edu.  It lets one type with the
mouse.

     This collection of "helpful hints" for Macs in the ASCII
world is highly subjective.  Readers are most welcome to suggest 
useful additions.

     Larry S <lcs@matups.matups.fr>