3 perlebcdic - Considerations for running Perl on EBCDIC platforms
7 An exploration of some of the issues facing Perl programmers
8 on EBCDIC based computers. We do not cover localization,
9 internationalization, or multi byte character set issues other
10 than some discussion of UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC.
12 Portions that are still incomplete are marked with XXX.
14 =head1 COMMON CHARACTER CODE SETS
18 The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a set of
19 integers running from 0 to 127 (decimal) that imply character
20 interpretation by the display and other system(s) of computers.
21 The range 0..127 can be covered by setting the bits in a 7-bit binary
22 digit, hence the set is sometimes referred to as a "7-bit ASCII".
23 ASCII was described by the American National Standards Institute
24 document ANSI X3.4-1986. It was also described by ISO 646:1991
25 (with localization for currency symbols). The full ASCII set is
26 given in the table below as the first 128 elements. Languages that
27 can be written adequately with the characters in ASCII include
28 English, Hawaiian, Indonesian, Swahili and some Native American
31 There are many character sets that extend the range of integers
32 from 0..2**7-1 up to 2**8-1, or 8 bit bytes (octets if you prefer).
33 One common one is the ISO 8859-1 character set.
37 The ISO 8859-$n are a collection of character code sets from the
38 International Organization for Standardization (ISO) each of which
39 adds characters to the ASCII set that are typically found in European
40 languages many of which are based on the Roman, or Latin, alphabet.
42 =head2 Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1)
44 A particular 8-bit extension to ASCII that includes grave and acute
45 accented Latin characters. Languages that can employ ISO 8859-1
46 include all the languages covered by ASCII as well as Afrikaans,
47 Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Faroese, Finnish, Norwegian,
48 Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Dutch is covered albeit without
49 the ij ligature. French is covered too but without the oe ligature.
50 German can use ISO 8859-1 but must do so without German-style
51 quotation marks. This set is based on Western European extensions
52 to ASCII and is commonly encountered in world wide web work.
53 In IBM character code set identification terminology ISO 8859-1 is
54 also known as CCSID 819 (or sometimes 0819 or even 00819).
58 The Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code refers to a
59 large collection of slightly different single and multi byte
60 coded character sets that are different from ASCII or ISO 8859-1
61 and typically run on host computers. The EBCDIC encodings derive
62 from 8 bit byte extensions of Hollerith punched card encodings.
63 The layout on the cards was such that high bits were set for the
64 upper and lower case alphabet characters [a-z] and [A-Z], but there
65 were gaps within each latin alphabet range.
67 Some IBM EBCDIC character sets may be known by character code set
68 identification numbers (CCSID numbers) or code page numbers. Leading
69 zero digits in CCSID numbers within this document are insignificant.
70 E.g. CCSID 0037 may be referred to as 37 in places.
72 =head2 13 variant characters
74 Among IBM EBCDIC character code sets there are 13 characters that
75 are often mapped to different integer values. Those characters
76 are known as the 13 "variant" characters and are:
78 \ [ ] { } ^ ~ ! # | $ @ `
82 Character code set ID 0037 is a mapping of the ASCII plus Latin-1
83 characters (i.e. ISO 8859-1) to an EBCDIC set. 0037 is used
84 in North American English locales on the OS/400 operating system
85 that runs on AS/400 computers. CCSID 37 differs from ISO 8859-1
86 in 237 places, in other words they agree on only 19 code point values.
90 Character code set ID 1047 is also a mapping of the ASCII plus
91 Latin-1 characters (i.e. ISO 8859-1) to an EBCDIC set. 1047 is
92 used under Unix System Services for OS/390 or z/OS, and OpenEdition
93 for VM/ESA. CCSID 1047 differs from CCSID 0037 in eight places.
97 The EBCDIC code page in use on Siemens' BS2000 system is distinct from
98 1047 and 0037. It is identified below as the POSIX-BC set.
100 =head2 Unicode and UTF
102 UTF is a Unicode Transformation Format. UTF-8 is a Unicode conforming
103 representation of the Unicode standard that looks very much like ASCII.
104 UTF-EBCDIC is an attempt to represent Unicode characters in an EBCDIC
107 =head1 SINGLE OCTET TABLES
109 The following tables list the ASCII and Latin 1 ordered sets including
110 the subsets: C0 controls (0..31), ASCII graphics (32..7e), delete (7f),
111 C1 controls (80..9f), and Latin-1 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-1) (a0..ff). In the
112 table non-printing control character names as well as the Latin 1
113 extensions to ASCII have been labelled with character names roughly
114 corresponding to I<The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0> albeit with
115 substitutions such as s/LATIN// and s/VULGAR// in all cases,
116 s/CAPITAL LETTER// in some cases, and s/SMALL LETTER ([A-Z])/\l$1/
117 in some other cases (the C<charnames> pragma names unfortunately do
118 not list explicit names for the C0 or C1 control characters). The
119 "names" of the C1 control set (128..159 in ISO 8859-1) listed here are
120 somewhat arbitrary. The differences between the 0037 and 1047 sets are
121 flagged with ***. The differences between the 1047 and POSIX-BC sets
122 are flagged with ###. All ord() numbers listed are decimal. If you
123 would rather see this table listing octal values then run the table
124 (that is, the pod version of this document since this recipe may not
125 work with a pod2_other_format translation) through:
133 perl -ne 'if(/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/)' \
134 -e '{printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
136 If you want to retain the UTF-x code points then in script form you
145 open(FH,"<perlebcdic.pod") or die "Could not open perlebcdic.pod: $!";
147 if (/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)/) {
148 if ($7 ne '' && $9 ne '') {
149 printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-3o.%-5o%-3o.%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9);
152 printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-3o.%-5o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8);
155 printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$8);
160 If you would rather see this table listing hexadecimal values then
161 run the table through:
169 perl -ne 'if(/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/)' \
170 -e '{printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
172 Or, in order to retain the UTF-x code points in hexadecimal:
180 open(FH,"<perlebcdic.pod") or die "Could not open perlebcdic.pod: $!";
182 if (/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)/) {
183 if ($7 ne '' && $9 ne '') {
184 printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-2X.%-6X%-2X.%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9);
187 printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-2X.%-6X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8);
190 printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$8);
198 chr 0819 0037 1047 POSIX-BC UTF-8 UTF-EBCDIC
199 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
201 <START OF HEADING> 1 1 1 1 1 1
202 <START OF TEXT> 2 2 2 2 2 2
203 <END OF TEXT> 3 3 3 3 3 3
204 <END OF TRANSMISSION> 4 55 55 55 4 55
205 <ENQUIRY> 5 45 45 45 5 45
206 <ACKNOWLEDGE> 6 46 46 46 6 46
207 <BELL> 7 47 47 47 7 47
208 <BACKSPACE> 8 22 22 22 8 22
209 <HORIZONTAL TABULATION> 9 5 5 5 9 5
210 <LINE FEED> 10 37 21 21 10 21 ***
211 <VERTICAL TABULATION> 11 11 11 11 11 11
212 <FORM FEED> 12 12 12 12 12 12
213 <CARRIAGE RETURN> 13 13 13 13 13 13
214 <SHIFT OUT> 14 14 14 14 14 14
215 <SHIFT IN> 15 15 15 15 15 15
216 <DATA LINK ESCAPE> 16 16 16 16 16 16
217 <DEVICE CONTROL ONE> 17 17 17 17 17 17
218 <DEVICE CONTROL TWO> 18 18 18 18 18 18
219 <DEVICE CONTROL THREE> 19 19 19 19 19 19
220 <DEVICE CONTROL FOUR> 20 60 60 60 20 60
221 <NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE> 21 61 61 61 21 61
222 <SYNCHRONOUS IDLE> 22 50 50 50 22 50
223 <END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK> 23 38 38 38 23 38
224 <CANCEL> 24 24 24 24 24 24
225 <END OF MEDIUM> 25 25 25 25 25 25
226 <SUBSTITUTE> 26 63 63 63 26 63
227 <ESCAPE> 27 39 39 39 27 39
228 <FILE SEPARATOR> 28 28 28 28 28 28
229 <GROUP SEPARATOR> 29 29 29 29 29 29
230 <RECORD SEPARATOR> 30 30 30 30 30 30
231 <UNIT SEPARATOR> 31 31 31 31 31 31
232 <SPACE> 32 64 64 64 32 64
234 " 34 127 127 127 34 127
235 # 35 123 123 123 35 123
237 % 37 108 108 108 37 108
239 ' 39 125 125 125 39 125
244 , 44 107 107 107 44 107
248 0 48 240 240 240 48 240
249 1 49 241 241 241 49 241
250 2 50 242 242 242 50 242
251 3 51 243 243 243 51 243
252 4 52 244 244 244 52 244
253 5 53 245 245 245 53 245
254 6 54 246 246 246 54 246
255 7 55 247 247 247 55 247
256 8 56 248 248 248 56 248
257 9 57 249 249 249 57 249
258 : 58 122 122 122 58 122
261 = 61 126 126 126 61 126
262 > 62 110 110 110 62 110
263 ? 63 111 111 111 63 111
264 @ 64 124 124 124 64 124
265 A 65 193 193 193 65 193
266 B 66 194 194 194 66 194
267 C 67 195 195 195 67 195
268 D 68 196 196 196 68 196
269 E 69 197 197 197 69 197
270 F 70 198 198 198 70 198
271 G 71 199 199 199 71 199
272 H 72 200 200 200 72 200
273 I 73 201 201 201 73 201
274 J 74 209 209 209 74 209
275 K 75 210 210 210 75 210
276 L 76 211 211 211 76 211
277 M 77 212 212 212 77 212
278 N 78 213 213 213 78 213
279 O 79 214 214 214 79 214
280 P 80 215 215 215 80 215
281 Q 81 216 216 216 81 216
282 R 82 217 217 217 82 217
283 S 83 226 226 226 83 226
284 T 84 227 227 227 84 227
285 U 85 228 228 228 85 228
286 V 86 229 229 229 86 229
287 W 87 230 230 230 87 230
288 X 88 231 231 231 88 231
289 Y 89 232 232 232 89 232
290 Z 90 233 233 233 90 233
291 [ 91 186 173 187 91 173 *** ###
292 \ 92 224 224 188 92 224 ###
293 ] 93 187 189 189 93 189 ***
294 ^ 94 176 95 106 94 95 *** ###
295 _ 95 109 109 109 95 109
296 ` 96 121 121 74 96 121 ###
297 a 97 129 129 129 97 129
298 b 98 130 130 130 98 130
299 c 99 131 131 131 99 131
300 d 100 132 132 132 100 132
301 e 101 133 133 133 101 133
302 f 102 134 134 134 102 134
303 g 103 135 135 135 103 135
304 h 104 136 136 136 104 136
305 i 105 137 137 137 105 137
306 j 106 145 145 145 106 145
307 k 107 146 146 146 107 146
308 l 108 147 147 147 108 147
309 m 109 148 148 148 109 148
310 n 110 149 149 149 110 149
311 o 111 150 150 150 111 150
312 p 112 151 151 151 112 151
313 q 113 152 152 152 113 152
314 r 114 153 153 153 114 153
315 s 115 162 162 162 115 162
316 t 116 163 163 163 116 163
317 u 117 164 164 164 117 164
318 v 118 165 165 165 118 165
319 w 119 166 166 166 119 166
320 x 120 167 167 167 120 167
321 y 121 168 168 168 121 168
322 z 122 169 169 169 122 169
323 { 123 192 192 251 123 192 ###
324 | 124 79 79 79 124 79
325 } 125 208 208 253 125 208 ###
326 ~ 126 161 161 255 126 161 ###
327 <DELETE> 127 7 7 7 127 7
328 <C1 0> 128 32 32 32 194.128 32
329 <C1 1> 129 33 33 33 194.129 33
330 <C1 2> 130 34 34 34 194.130 34
331 <C1 3> 131 35 35 35 194.131 35
332 <C1 4> 132 36 36 36 194.132 36
333 <C1 5> 133 21 37 37 194.133 37 ***
334 <C1 6> 134 6 6 6 194.134 6
335 <C1 7> 135 23 23 23 194.135 23
336 <C1 8> 136 40 40 40 194.136 40
337 <C1 9> 137 41 41 41 194.137 41
338 <C1 10> 138 42 42 42 194.138 42
339 <C1 11> 139 43 43 43 194.139 43
340 <C1 12> 140 44 44 44 194.140 44
341 <C1 13> 141 9 9 9 194.141 9
342 <C1 14> 142 10 10 10 194.142 10
343 <C1 15> 143 27 27 27 194.143 27
344 <C1 16> 144 48 48 48 194.144 48
345 <C1 17> 145 49 49 49 194.145 49
346 <C1 18> 146 26 26 26 194.146 26
347 <C1 19> 147 51 51 51 194.147 51
348 <C1 20> 148 52 52 52 194.148 52
349 <C1 21> 149 53 53 53 194.149 53
350 <C1 22> 150 54 54 54 194.150 54
351 <C1 23> 151 8 8 8 194.151 8
352 <C1 24> 152 56 56 56 194.152 56
353 <C1 25> 153 57 57 57 194.153 57
354 <C1 26> 154 58 58 58 194.154 58
355 <C1 27> 155 59 59 59 194.155 59
356 <C1 28> 156 4 4 4 194.156 4
357 <C1 29> 157 20 20 20 194.157 20
358 <C1 30> 158 62 62 62 194.158 62
359 <C1 31> 159 255 255 95 194.159 255 ###
360 <NON-BREAKING SPACE> 160 65 65 65 194.160 128.65
361 <INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK> 161 170 170 170 194.161 128.66
362 <CENT SIGN> 162 74 74 176 194.162 128.67 ###
363 <POUND SIGN> 163 177 177 177 194.163 128.68
364 <CURRENCY SIGN> 164 159 159 159 194.164 128.69
365 <YEN SIGN> 165 178 178 178 194.165 128.70
366 <BROKEN BAR> 166 106 106 208 194.166 128.71 ###
367 <SECTION SIGN> 167 181 181 181 194.167 128.72
368 <DIAERESIS> 168 189 187 121 194.168 128.73 *** ###
369 <COPYRIGHT SIGN> 169 180 180 180 194.169 128.74
370 <FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR> 170 154 154 154 194.170 128.81
371 <LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET> 171 138 138 138 194.171 128.82
372 <NOT SIGN> 172 95 176 186 194.172 128.83 *** ###
373 <SOFT HYPHEN> 173 202 202 202 194.173 128.84
374 <REGISTERED TRADE MARK SIGN> 174 175 175 175 194.174 128.85
375 <MACRON> 175 188 188 161 194.175 128.86 ###
376 <DEGREE SIGN> 176 144 144 144 194.176 128.87
377 <PLUS-OR-MINUS SIGN> 177 143 143 143 194.177 128.88
378 <SUPERSCRIPT TWO> 178 234 234 234 194.178 128.89
379 <SUPERSCRIPT THREE> 179 250 250 250 194.179 128.98
380 <ACUTE ACCENT> 180 190 190 190 194.180 128.99
381 <MICRO SIGN> 181 160 160 160 194.181 128.100
382 <PARAGRAPH SIGN> 182 182 182 182 194.182 128.101
383 <MIDDLE DOT> 183 179 179 179 194.183 128.102
384 <CEDILLA> 184 157 157 157 194.184 128.103
385 <SUPERSCRIPT ONE> 185 218 218 218 194.185 128.104
386 <MASC. ORDINAL INDICATOR> 186 155 155 155 194.186 128.105
387 <RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET> 187 139 139 139 194.187 128.106
388 <FRACTION ONE QUARTER> 188 183 183 183 194.188 128.112
389 <FRACTION ONE HALF> 189 184 184 184 194.189 128.113
390 <FRACTION THREE QUARTERS> 190 185 185 185 194.190 128.114
391 <INVERTED QUESTION MARK> 191 171 171 171 194.191 128.115
392 <A WITH GRAVE> 192 100 100 100 195.128 138.65
393 <A WITH ACUTE> 193 101 101 101 195.129 138.66
394 <A WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 194 98 98 98 195.130 138.67
395 <A WITH TILDE> 195 102 102 102 195.131 138.68
396 <A WITH DIAERESIS> 196 99 99 99 195.132 138.69
397 <A WITH RING ABOVE> 197 103 103 103 195.133 138.70
398 <CAPITAL LIGATURE AE> 198 158 158 158 195.134 138.71
399 <C WITH CEDILLA> 199 104 104 104 195.135 138.72
400 <E WITH GRAVE> 200 116 116 116 195.136 138.73
401 <E WITH ACUTE> 201 113 113 113 195.137 138.74
402 <E WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 202 114 114 114 195.138 138.81
403 <E WITH DIAERESIS> 203 115 115 115 195.139 138.82
404 <I WITH GRAVE> 204 120 120 120 195.140 138.83
405 <I WITH ACUTE> 205 117 117 117 195.141 138.84
406 <I WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 206 118 118 118 195.142 138.85
407 <I WITH DIAERESIS> 207 119 119 119 195.143 138.86
408 <CAPITAL LETTER ETH> 208 172 172 172 195.144 138.87
409 <N WITH TILDE> 209 105 105 105 195.145 138.88
410 <O WITH GRAVE> 210 237 237 237 195.146 138.89
411 <O WITH ACUTE> 211 238 238 238 195.147 138.98
412 <O WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 212 235 235 235 195.148 138.99
413 <O WITH TILDE> 213 239 239 239 195.149 138.100
414 <O WITH DIAERESIS> 214 236 236 236 195.150 138.101
415 <MULTIPLICATION SIGN> 215 191 191 191 195.151 138.102
416 <O WITH STROKE> 216 128 128 128 195.152 138.103
417 <U WITH GRAVE> 217 253 253 224 195.153 138.104 ###
418 <U WITH ACUTE> 218 254 254 254 195.154 138.105
419 <U WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 219 251 251 221 195.155 138.106 ###
420 <U WITH DIAERESIS> 220 252 252 252 195.156 138.112
421 <Y WITH ACUTE> 221 173 186 173 195.157 138.113 *** ###
422 <CAPITAL LETTER THORN> 222 174 174 174 195.158 138.114
423 <SMALL LETTER SHARP S> 223 89 89 89 195.159 138.115
424 <a WITH GRAVE> 224 68 68 68 195.160 139.65
425 <a WITH ACUTE> 225 69 69 69 195.161 139.66
426 <a WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 226 66 66 66 195.162 139.67
427 <a WITH TILDE> 227 70 70 70 195.163 139.68
428 <a WITH DIAERESIS> 228 67 67 67 195.164 139.69
429 <a WITH RING ABOVE> 229 71 71 71 195.165 139.70
430 <SMALL LIGATURE ae> 230 156 156 156 195.166 139.71
431 <c WITH CEDILLA> 231 72 72 72 195.167 139.72
432 <e WITH GRAVE> 232 84 84 84 195.168 139.73
433 <e WITH ACUTE> 233 81 81 81 195.169 139.74
434 <e WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 234 82 82 82 195.170 139.81
435 <e WITH DIAERESIS> 235 83 83 83 195.171 139.82
436 <i WITH GRAVE> 236 88 88 88 195.172 139.83
437 <i WITH ACUTE> 237 85 85 85 195.173 139.84
438 <i WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 238 86 86 86 195.174 139.85
439 <i WITH DIAERESIS> 239 87 87 87 195.175 139.86
440 <SMALL LETTER eth> 240 140 140 140 195.176 139.87
441 <n WITH TILDE> 241 73 73 73 195.177 139.88
442 <o WITH GRAVE> 242 205 205 205 195.178 139.89
443 <o WITH ACUTE> 243 206 206 206 195.179 139.98
444 <o WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 244 203 203 203 195.180 139.99
445 <o WITH TILDE> 245 207 207 207 195.181 139.100
446 <o WITH DIAERESIS> 246 204 204 204 195.182 139.101
447 <DIVISION SIGN> 247 225 225 225 195.183 139.102
448 <o WITH STROKE> 248 112 112 112 195.184 139.103
449 <u WITH GRAVE> 249 221 221 192 195.185 139.104 ###
450 <u WITH ACUTE> 250 222 222 222 195.186 139.105
451 <u WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 251 219 219 219 195.187 139.106
452 <u WITH DIAERESIS> 252 220 220 220 195.188 139.112
453 <y WITH ACUTE> 253 141 141 141 195.189 139.113
454 <SMALL LETTER thorn> 254 142 142 142 195.190 139.114
455 <y WITH DIAERESIS> 255 223 223 223 195.191 139.115
457 If you would rather see the above table in CCSID 0037 order rather than
458 ASCII + Latin-1 order then run the table through:
466 perl -ne 'if(/.{33}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}/)'\
468 -e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
469 -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
470 -e ' map{[$_,substr($_,42,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
472 If you would rather see it in CCSID 1047 order then change the digit
473 42 in the last line to 51, like this:
481 perl -ne 'if(/.{33}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}/)'\
483 -e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
484 -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
485 -e ' map{[$_,substr($_,51,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
487 If you would rather see it in POSIX-BC order then change the digit
488 51 in the last line to 60, like this:
496 perl -ne 'if(/.{33}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}/)'\
498 -e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
499 -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
500 -e ' map{[$_,substr($_,60,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
503 =head1 IDENTIFYING CHARACTER CODE SETS
505 To determine the character set you are running under from perl one
506 could use the return value of ord() or chr() to test one or more
507 character values. For example:
509 $is_ascii = "A" eq chr(65);
510 $is_ebcdic = "A" eq chr(193);
512 Also, "\t" is a C<HORIZONTAL TABULATION> character so that:
514 $is_ascii = ord("\t") == 9;
515 $is_ebcdic = ord("\t") == 5;
517 To distinguish EBCDIC code pages try looking at one or more of
518 the characters that differ between them. For example:
520 $is_ebcdic_37 = "\n" eq chr(37);
521 $is_ebcdic_1047 = "\n" eq chr(21);
523 Or better still choose a character that is uniquely encoded in any
524 of the code sets, e.g.:
526 $is_ascii = ord('[') == 91;
527 $is_ebcdic_37 = ord('[') == 186;
528 $is_ebcdic_1047 = ord('[') == 173;
529 $is_ebcdic_POSIX_BC = ord('[') == 187;
531 However, it would be unwise to write tests such as:
533 $is_ascii = "\r" ne chr(13); # WRONG
534 $is_ascii = "\n" ne chr(10); # ILL ADVISED
536 Obviously the first of these will fail to distinguish most ASCII machines
537 from either a CCSID 0037, a 1047, or a POSIX-BC EBCDIC machine since "\r" eq
538 chr(13) under all of those coded character sets. But note too that
539 because "\n" is chr(13) and "\r" is chr(10) on the MacIntosh (which is an
540 ASCII machine) the second C<$is_ascii> test will lead to trouble there.
542 To determine whether or not perl was built under an EBCDIC
543 code page you can use the Config module like so:
546 $is_ebcdic = $Config{'ebcdic'} eq 'define';
552 In order to convert a string of characters from one character set to
553 another a simple list of numbers, such as in the right columns in the
554 above table, along with perl's tr/// operator is all that is needed.
555 The data in the table are in ASCII order hence the EBCDIC columns
556 provide easy to use ASCII to EBCDIC operations that are also easily
559 For example, to convert ASCII to code page 037 take the output of the second
560 column from the output of recipe 0 (modified to add \\ characters) and use
564 '\000\001\002\003\234\011\206\177\227\215\216\013\014\015\016\017' .
565 '\020\021\022\023\235\205\010\207\030\031\222\217\034\035\036\037' .
566 '\200\201\202\203\204\012\027\033\210\211\212\213\214\005\006\007' .
567 '\220\221\026\223\224\225\226\004\230\231\232\233\024\025\236\032' .
568 '\040\240\342\344\340\341\343\345\347\361\242\056\074\050\053\174' .
569 '\046\351\352\353\350\355\356\357\354\337\041\044\052\051\073\254' .
570 '\055\057\302\304\300\301\303\305\307\321\246\054\045\137\076\077' .
571 '\370\311\312\313\310\315\316\317\314\140\072\043\100\047\075\042' .
572 '\330\141\142\143\144\145\146\147\150\151\253\273\360\375\376\261' .
573 '\260\152\153\154\155\156\157\160\161\162\252\272\346\270\306\244' .
574 '\265\176\163\164\165\166\167\170\171\172\241\277\320\335\336\256' .
575 '\136\243\245\267\251\247\266\274\275\276\133\135\257\250\264\327' .
576 '\173\101\102\103\104\105\106\107\110\111\255\364\366\362\363\365' .
577 '\175\112\113\114\115\116\117\120\121\122\271\373\374\371\372\377' .
578 '\134\367\123\124\125\126\127\130\131\132\262\324\326\322\323\325' .
579 '\060\061\062\063\064\065\066\067\070\071\263\333\334\331\332\237' ;
581 my $ebcdic_string = $ascii_string;
582 eval '$ebcdic_string =~ tr/\000-\377/' . $cp_037 . '/';
584 To convert from EBCDIC 037 to ASCII just reverse the order of the tr///
587 my $ascii_string = $ebcdic_string;
588 eval '$ascii_string = tr/' . $cp_037 . '/\000-\377/';
590 Similarly one could take the output of the third column from recipe 0 to
591 obtain a C<$cp_1047> table. The fourth column of the output from recipe
592 0 could provide a C<$cp_posix_bc> table suitable for transcoding as well.
596 XPG operability often implies the presence of an I<iconv> utility
597 available from the shell or from the C library. Consult your system's
598 documentation for information on iconv.
600 On OS/390 or z/OS see the iconv(1) manpage. One way to invoke the iconv
601 shell utility from within perl would be to:
603 # OS/390 or z/OS example
604 $ascii_data = `echo '$ebcdic_data'| iconv -f IBM-1047 -t ISO8859-1`
608 # OS/390 or z/OS example
609 $ebcdic_data = `echo '$ascii_data'| iconv -f ISO8859-1 -t IBM-1047`
611 For other perl based conversion options see the Convert::* modules on CPAN.
615 The OS/390 and z/OS C run time libraries provide _atoe() and _etoa() functions.
617 =head1 OPERATOR DIFFERENCES
619 The C<..> range operator treats certain character ranges with
620 care on EBCDIC machines. For example the following array
621 will have twenty six elements on either an EBCDIC machine
624 @alphabet = ('A'..'Z'); # $#alphabet == 25
626 The bitwise operators such as & ^ | may return different results
627 when operating on string or character data in a perl program running
628 on an EBCDIC machine than when run on an ASCII machine. Here is
629 an example adapted from the one in L<perlop>:
631 # EBCDIC-based examples
632 print "j p \n" ^ " a h"; # prints "JAPH\n"
633 print "JA" | " ph\n"; # prints "japh\n"
634 print "JAPH\nJunk" & "\277\277\277\277\277"; # prints "japh\n";
635 print 'p N$' ^ " E<H\n"; # prints "Perl\n";
637 An interesting property of the 32 C0 control characters
638 in the ASCII table is that they can "literally" be constructed
639 as control characters in perl, e.g. C<(chr(0) eq "\c@")>
640 C<(chr(1) eq "\cA")>, and so on. Perl on EBCDIC machines has been
641 ported to take "\c@" to chr(0) and "\cA" to chr(1) as well, but the
642 thirty three characters that result depend on which code page you are
643 using. The table below uses the character names from the previous table
644 but with substitutions such as s/START OF/S.O./; s/END OF /E.O./;
645 s/TRANSMISSION/TRANS./; s/TABULATION/TAB./; s/VERTICAL/VERT./;
646 s/HORIZONTAL/HORIZ./; s/DEVICE CONTROL/D.C./; s/SEPARATOR/SEP./;
647 s/NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE/NEG. ACK./;. The POSIX-BC and 1047 sets are
648 identical throughout this range and differ from the 0037 set at only
649 one spot (21 decimal). Note that the C<LINE FEED> character
650 may be generated by "\cJ" on ASCII machines but by "\cU" on 1047 or POSIX-BC
651 machines and cannot be generated as a C<"\c.letter."> control character on
652 0037 machines. Note also that "\c\\" maps to two characters
655 chr ord 8859-1 0037 1047 && POSIX-BC
656 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
657 "\c?" 127 <DELETE> " " ***><
658 "\c@" 0 <NULL> <NULL> <NULL> ***><
659 "\cA" 1 <S.O. HEADING> <S.O. HEADING> <S.O. HEADING>
660 "\cB" 2 <S.O. TEXT> <S.O. TEXT> <S.O. TEXT>
661 "\cC" 3 <E.O. TEXT> <E.O. TEXT> <E.O. TEXT>
662 "\cD" 4 <E.O. TRANS.> <C1 28> <C1 28>
663 "\cE" 5 <ENQUIRY> <HORIZ. TAB.> <HORIZ. TAB.>
664 "\cF" 6 <ACKNOWLEDGE> <C1 6> <C1 6>
665 "\cG" 7 <BELL> <DELETE> <DELETE>
666 "\cH" 8 <BACKSPACE> <C1 23> <C1 23>
667 "\cI" 9 <HORIZ. TAB.> <C1 13> <C1 13>
668 "\cJ" 10 <LINE FEED> <C1 14> <C1 14>
669 "\cK" 11 <VERT. TAB.> <VERT. TAB.> <VERT. TAB.>
670 "\cL" 12 <FORM FEED> <FORM FEED> <FORM FEED>
671 "\cM" 13 <CARRIAGE RETURN> <CARRIAGE RETURN> <CARRIAGE RETURN>
672 "\cN" 14 <SHIFT OUT> <SHIFT OUT> <SHIFT OUT>
673 "\cO" 15 <SHIFT IN> <SHIFT IN> <SHIFT IN>
674 "\cP" 16 <DATA LINK ESCAPE> <DATA LINK ESCAPE> <DATA LINK ESCAPE>
675 "\cQ" 17 <D.C. ONE> <D.C. ONE> <D.C. ONE>
676 "\cR" 18 <D.C. TWO> <D.C. TWO> <D.C. TWO>
677 "\cS" 19 <D.C. THREE> <D.C. THREE> <D.C. THREE>
678 "\cT" 20 <D.C. FOUR> <C1 29> <C1 29>
679 "\cU" 21 <NEG. ACK.> <C1 5> <LINE FEED> ***
680 "\cV" 22 <SYNCHRONOUS IDLE> <BACKSPACE> <BACKSPACE>
681 "\cW" 23 <E.O. TRANS. BLOCK> <C1 7> <C1 7>
682 "\cX" 24 <CANCEL> <CANCEL> <CANCEL>
683 "\cY" 25 <E.O. MEDIUM> <E.O. MEDIUM> <E.O. MEDIUM>
684 "\cZ" 26 <SUBSTITUTE> <C1 18> <C1 18>
685 "\c[" 27 <ESCAPE> <C1 15> <C1 15>
686 "\c\\" 28 <FILE SEP.>\ <FILE SEP.>\ <FILE SEP.>\
687 "\c]" 29 <GROUP SEP.> <GROUP SEP.> <GROUP SEP.>
688 "\c^" 30 <RECORD SEP.> <RECORD SEP.> <RECORD SEP.> ***><
689 "\c_" 31 <UNIT SEP.> <UNIT SEP.> <UNIT SEP.> ***><
692 =head1 FUNCTION DIFFERENCES
698 chr() must be given an EBCDIC code number argument to yield a desired
699 character return value on an EBCDIC machine. For example:
701 $CAPITAL_LETTER_A = chr(193);
705 ord() will return EBCDIC code number values on an EBCDIC machine.
708 $the_number_193 = ord("A");
712 The c and C templates for pack() are dependent upon character set
713 encoding. Examples of usage on EBCDIC include:
715 $foo = pack("CCCC",193,194,195,196);
717 $foo = pack("C4",193,194,195,196);
720 $foo = pack("ccxxcc",193,194,195,196);
725 One must be careful with scalars and strings that are passed to
726 print that contain ASCII encodings. One common place
727 for this to occur is in the output of the MIME type header for
728 CGI script writing. For example, many perl programming guides
729 recommend something similar to:
731 print "Content-type:\ttext/html\015\012\015\012";
732 # this may be wrong on EBCDIC
734 Under the IBM OS/390 USS Web Server or WebSphere on z/OS for example
735 you should instead write that as:
737 print "Content-type:\ttext/html\r\n\r\n"; # OK for DGW et alia
739 That is because the translation from EBCDIC to ASCII is done
740 by the web server in this case (such code will not be appropriate for
741 the Macintosh however). Consult your web server's documentation for
746 The formats that can convert characters to numbers and vice versa
747 will be different from their ASCII counterparts when executed
748 on an EBCDIC machine. Examples include:
750 printf("%c%c%c",193,194,195); # prints ABC
754 EBCDIC sort results may differ from ASCII sort results especially for
755 mixed case strings. This is discussed in more detail below.
759 See the discussion of printf() above. An example of the use
762 $CAPITAL_LETTER_A = sprintf("%c",193);
766 See the discussion of pack() above.
770 =head1 REGULAR EXPRESSION DIFFERENCES
772 As of perl 5.005_03 the letter range regular expression such as
773 [A-Z] and [a-z] have been especially coded to not pick up gap
774 characters. For example, characters such as E<ocirc> C<o WITH CIRCUMFLEX>
775 that lie between I and J would not be matched by the
776 regular expression range C</[H-K]/>.
778 If you do want to match the alphabet gap characters in a single octet
779 regular expression try matching the hex or octal code such
780 as C</\313/> on EBCDIC or C</\364/> on ASCII machines to
781 have your regular expression match C<o WITH CIRCUMFLEX>.
783 Another construct to be wary of is the inappropriate use of hex or
784 octal constants in regular expressions. Consider the following
788 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
789 $char =~ /[\000-\037]/;
793 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
794 $char =~ /[\040-\176]/;
798 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
803 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
804 $char =~ /[\200-\237]/;
808 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
809 $char =~ /[\240-\377]/;
812 The above would be adequate if the concern was only with numeric code points.
813 However, the concern may be with characters rather than code points
814 and on an EBCDIC machine it may be desirable for constructs such as
815 C<if (is_print_ascii("A")) {print "A is a printable character\n";}> to print
816 out the expected message. One way to represent the above collection
817 of character classification subs that is capable of working across the
818 four coded character sets discussed in this document is as follows:
821 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
822 if (ord('^')==94) { # ascii
823 return $char =~ /[\000-\037]/;
825 if (ord('^')==176) { # 37
826 return $char =~ /[\000-\003\067\055-\057\026\005\045\013-\023\074\075\062\046\030\031\077\047\034-\037]/;
828 if (ord('^')==95 || ord('^')==106) { # 1047 || posix-bc
829 return $char =~ /[\000-\003\067\055-\057\026\005\025\013-\023\074\075\062\046\030\031\077\047\034-\037]/;
834 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
835 $char =~ /[ !"\#\$%&'()*+,\-.\/0-9:;<=>?\@A-Z[\\\]^_`a-z{|}~]/;
839 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
840 if (ord('^')==94) { # ascii
841 return $char eq "\177";
844 return $char eq "\007";
849 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
850 if (ord('^')==94) { # ascii
851 return $char =~ /[\200-\237]/;
853 if (ord('^')==176) { # 37
854 return $char =~ /[\040-\044\025\006\027\050-\054\011\012\033\060\061\032\063-\066\010\070-\073\040\024\076\377]/;
856 if (ord('^')==95) { # 1047
857 return $char =~ /[\040-\045\006\027\050-\054\011\012\033\060\061\032\063-\066\010\070-\073\040\024\076\377]/;
859 if (ord('^')==106) { # posix-bc
861 /[\040-\045\006\027\050-\054\011\012\033\060\061\032\063-\066\010\070-\073\040\024\076\137]/;
866 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
867 if (ord('^')==94) { # ascii
868 return $char =~ /[\240-\377]/;
870 if (ord('^')==176) { # 37
872 /[\101\252\112\261\237\262\152\265\275\264\232\212\137\312\257\274\220\217\352\372\276\240\266\263\235\332\233\213\267\270\271\253\144\145\142\146\143\147\236\150\164\161-\163\170\165-\167\254\151\355\356\353\357\354\277\200\375\376\373\374\255\256\131\104\105\102\106\103\107\234\110\124\121-\123\130\125-\127\214\111\315\316\313\317\314\341\160\335\336\333\334\215\216\337]/;
874 if (ord('^')==95) { # 1047
876 /[\101\252\112\261\237\262\152\265\273\264\232\212\260\312\257\274\220\217\352\372\276\240\266\263\235\332\233\213\267\270\271\253\144\145\142\146\143\147\236\150\164\161-\163\170\165-\167\254\151\355\356\353\357\354\277\200\375\376\373\374\272\256\131\104\105\102\106\103\107\234\110\124\121-\123\130\125-\127\214\111\315\316\313\317\314\341\160\335\336\333\334\215\216\337]/;
878 if (ord('^')==106) { # posix-bc
880 /[\101\252\260\261\237\262\320\265\171\264\232\212\272\312\257\241\220\217\352\372\276\240\266\263\235\332\233\213\267\270\271\253\144\145\142\146\143\147\236\150\164\161-\163\170\165-\167\254\151\355\356\353\357\354\277\200\340\376\335\374\255\256\131\104\105\102\106\103\107\234\110\124\121-\123\130\125-\127\214\111\315\316\313\317\314\341\160\300\336\333\334\215\216\337]/;
884 Note however that only the C<Is_ascii_print()> sub is really independent
885 of coded character set. Another way to write C<Is_latin_1()> would be
886 to use the characters in the range explicitly:
889 my $char = substr(shift,0,1);
890 $char =~ /[ ¡¢£¤¥¦§¨©ª«¬®¯°±²³´µ¶·¸¹º»¼½¾¿ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖ×ØÙÚÛÜÝÞßàáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõö÷øùúûüýþÿ]/;
893 Although that form may run into trouble in network transit (due to the
894 presence of 8 bit characters) or on non ISO-Latin character sets.
898 Most socket programming assumes ASCII character encodings in network
899 byte order. Exceptions can include CGI script writing under a
900 host web server where the server may take care of translation for you.
901 Most host web servers convert EBCDIC data to ISO-8859-1 or Unicode on
906 One big difference between ASCII based character sets and EBCDIC ones
907 are the relative positions of upper and lower case letters and the
908 letters compared to the digits. If sorted on an ASCII based machine the
909 two letter abbreviation for a physician comes before the two letter
912 @sorted = sort(qw(Dr. dr.)); # @sorted holds ('Dr.','dr.') on ASCII,
913 # but ('dr.','Dr.') on EBCDIC
915 The property of lower case before uppercase letters in EBCDIC is
916 even carried to the Latin 1 EBCDIC pages such as 0037 and 1047.
917 An example would be that E<Euml> C<E WITH DIAERESIS> (203) comes
918 before E<euml> C<e WITH DIAERESIS> (235) on an ASCII machine, but
919 the latter (83) comes before the former (115) on an EBCDIC machine.
920 (Astute readers will note that the upper case version of E<szlig>
921 C<SMALL LETTER SHARP S> is simply "SS" and that the upper case version of
922 E<yuml> C<y WITH DIAERESIS> is not in the 0..255 range but it is
923 at U+x0178 in Unicode, or C<"\x{178}"> in a Unicode enabled Perl).
925 The sort order will cause differences between results obtained on
926 ASCII machines versus EBCDIC machines. What follows are some suggestions
927 on how to deal with these differences.
929 =head2 Ignore ASCII vs. EBCDIC sort differences.
931 This is the least computationally expensive strategy. It may require
934 =head2 MONO CASE then sort data.
936 In order to minimize the expense of mono casing mixed test try to
937 C<tr///> towards the character set case most employed within the data.
938 If the data are primarily UPPERCASE non Latin 1 then apply tr/[a-z]/[A-Z]/
939 then sort(). If the data are primarily lowercase non Latin 1 then
940 apply tr/[A-Z]/[a-z]/ before sorting. If the data are primarily UPPERCASE
941 and include Latin-1 characters then apply:
944 tr/[àáâãäåæçèéêëìíîïðñòóôõöøùúûüýþ]/[ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇÈÉÊËÌÍÎÏÐÑÒÓÔÕÖØÙÚÛÜÝÞ]/;
947 then sort(). Do note however that such Latin-1 manipulation does not
948 address the E<yuml> C<y WITH DIAERESIS> character that will remain at
949 code point 255 on ASCII machines, but 223 on most EBCDIC machines
950 where it will sort to a place less than the EBCDIC numerals. With a
951 Unicode enabled Perl you might try:
955 The strategy of mono casing data before sorting does not preserve the case
956 of the data and may not be acceptable for that reason.
958 =head2 Convert, sort data, then re convert.
960 This is the most expensive proposition that does not employ a network
963 =head2 Perform sorting on one type of machine only.
965 This strategy can employ a network connection. As such
966 it would be computationally expensive.
968 =head1 TRANSFORMATION FORMATS
970 There are a variety of ways of transforming data with an intra character set
971 mapping that serve a variety of purposes. Sorting was discussed in the
972 previous section and a few of the other more popular mapping techniques are
975 =head2 URL decoding and encoding
977 Note that some URLs have hexadecimal ASCII code points in them in an
978 attempt to overcome character or protocol limitation issues. For example
979 the tilde character is not on every keyboard hence a URL of the form:
981 http://www.pvhp.com/~pvhp/
983 may also be expressed as either of:
985 http://www.pvhp.com/%7Epvhp/
987 http://www.pvhp.com/%7epvhp/
989 where 7E is the hexadecimal ASCII code point for '~'. Here is an example
990 of decoding such a URL under CCSID 1047:
992 $url = 'http://www.pvhp.com/%7Epvhp/';
993 # this array assumes code page 1047
995 0, 1, 2, 3, 55, 45, 46, 47, 22, 5, 21, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
996 16, 17, 18, 19, 60, 61, 50, 38, 24, 25, 63, 39, 28, 29, 30, 31,
997 64, 90,127,123, 91,108, 80,125, 77, 93, 92, 78,107, 96, 75, 97,
998 240,241,242,243,244,245,246,247,248,249,122, 94, 76,126,110,111,
999 124,193,194,195,196,197,198,199,200,201,209,210,211,212,213,214,
1000 215,216,217,226,227,228,229,230,231,232,233,173,224,189, 95,109,
1001 121,129,130,131,132,133,134,135,136,137,145,146,147,148,149,150,
1002 151,152,153,162,163,164,165,166,167,168,169,192, 79,208,161, 7,
1003 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 6, 23, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 9, 10, 27,
1004 48, 49, 26, 51, 52, 53, 54, 8, 56, 57, 58, 59, 4, 20, 62,255,
1005 65,170, 74,177,159,178,106,181,187,180,154,138,176,202,175,188,
1006 144,143,234,250,190,160,182,179,157,218,155,139,183,184,185,171,
1007 100,101, 98,102, 99,103,158,104,116,113,114,115,120,117,118,119,
1008 172,105,237,238,235,239,236,191,128,253,254,251,252,186,174, 89,
1009 68, 69, 66, 70, 67, 71,156, 72, 84, 81, 82, 83, 88, 85, 86, 87,
1010 140, 73,205,206,203,207,204,225,112,221,222,219,220,141,142,223
1012 $url =~ s/%([0-9a-fA-F]{2})/pack("c",$a2e_1047[hex($1)])/ge;
1014 Conversely, here is a partial solution for the task of encoding such
1015 a URL under the 1047 code page:
1017 $url = 'http://www.pvhp.com/~pvhp/';
1018 # this array assumes code page 1047
1020 0, 1, 2, 3,156, 9,134,127,151,141,142, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
1021 16, 17, 18, 19,157, 10, 8,135, 24, 25,146,143, 28, 29, 30, 31,
1022 128,129,130,131,132,133, 23, 27,136,137,138,139,140, 5, 6, 7,
1023 144,145, 22,147,148,149,150, 4,152,153,154,155, 20, 21,158, 26,
1024 32,160,226,228,224,225,227,229,231,241,162, 46, 60, 40, 43,124,
1025 38,233,234,235,232,237,238,239,236,223, 33, 36, 42, 41, 59, 94,
1026 45, 47,194,196,192,193,195,197,199,209,166, 44, 37, 95, 62, 63,
1027 248,201,202,203,200,205,206,207,204, 96, 58, 35, 64, 39, 61, 34,
1028 216, 97, 98, 99,100,101,102,103,104,105,171,187,240,253,254,177,
1029 176,106,107,108,109,110,111,112,113,114,170,186,230,184,198,164,
1030 181,126,115,116,117,118,119,120,121,122,161,191,208, 91,222,174,
1031 172,163,165,183,169,167,182,188,189,190,221,168,175, 93,180,215,
1032 123, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73,173,244,246,242,243,245,
1033 125, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82,185,251,252,249,250,255,
1034 92,247, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90,178,212,214,210,211,213,
1035 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57,179,219,220,217,218,159
1037 # The following regular expression does not address the
1038 # mappings for: ('.' => '%2E', '/' => '%2F', ':' => '%3A')
1039 $url =~ s/([\t "#%&\(\),;<=>\?\@\[\\\]^`{|}~])/sprintf("%%%02X",$e2a_1047[ord($1)])/ge;
1041 where a more complete solution would split the URL into components
1042 and apply a full s/// substitution only to the appropriate parts.
1044 In the remaining examples a @e2a or @a2e array may be employed
1045 but the assignment will not be shown explicitly. For code page 1047
1046 you could use the @a2e_1047 or @e2a_1047 arrays just shown.
1048 =head2 uu encoding and decoding
1050 The C<u> template to pack() or unpack() will render EBCDIC data in EBCDIC
1051 characters equivalent to their ASCII counterparts. For example, the
1052 following will print "Yes indeed\n" on either an ASCII or EBCDIC computer:
1054 $all_byte_chrs = '';
1055 for (0..255) { $all_byte_chrs .= chr($_); }
1056 $uuencode_byte_chrs = pack('u', $all_byte_chrs);
1057 ($uu = <<'ENDOFHEREDOC') =~ s/^\s*//gm;
1058 M``$"`P0%!@<("0H+#`T.#Q`1$A,4%187&!D:&QP='A\@(2(C)"4F)R@I*BLL
1059 M+2XO,#$R,S0U-C<X.3H[/#T^/T!!0D-$149'2$E*2TQ-3D]045)35%565UA9
1060 M6EM<75Y?8&%B8V1E9F=H:6IK;&UN;W!Q<G-T=79W>'EZ>WQ]?G^`@8*#A(6&
1061 MAXB)BHN,C8Z/D)&2DY25EI>8F9J;G)V>GZ"AHJ.DI::GJ*FJJZRMKJ^PL;*S
1062 MM+6VM[BYNKN\O;Z_P,'"P\3%QL?(R<K+S,W.S]#1TM/4U=;7V-G:V]S=WM_@
1063 ?X>+CY.7FY^CIZNOL[>[O\/'R\_3U]O?X^?K[_/W^_P``
1065 if ($uuencode_byte_chrs eq $uu) {
1068 $uudecode_byte_chrs = unpack('u', $uuencode_byte_chrs);
1069 if ($uudecode_byte_chrs eq $all_byte_chrs) {
1073 Here is a very spartan uudecoder that will work on EBCDIC provided
1074 that the @e2a array is filled in appropriately:
1076 #!/usr/local/bin/perl
1077 @e2a = ( # this must be filled in
1079 $_ = <> until ($mode,$file) = /^begin\s*(\d*)\s*(\S*)/;
1080 open(OUT, "> $file") if $file ne "";
1084 next unless int(((($e2a[ord()] - 32 ) & 077) + 2) / 3) ==
1086 print OUT unpack("u", $_);
1089 chmod oct($mode), $file;
1092 =head2 Quoted-Printable encoding and decoding
1094 On ASCII encoded machines it is possible to strip characters outside of
1095 the printable set using:
1097 # This QP encoder works on ASCII only
1098 $qp_string =~ s/([=\x00-\x1F\x80-\xFF])/sprintf("=%02X",ord($1))/ge;
1100 Whereas a QP encoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC machines
1101 would look somewhat like the following (where the EBCDIC branch @e2a
1102 array is omitted for brevity):
1104 if (ord('A') == 65) { # ASCII
1105 $delete = "\x7F"; # ASCII
1106 @e2a = (0 .. 255) # ASCII to ASCII identity map
1109 $delete = "\x07"; # EBCDIC
1110 @e2a = # EBCDIC to ASCII map (as shown above)
1113 s/([^ !"\#\$%&'()*+,\-.\/0-9:;<>?\@A-Z[\\\]^_`a-z{|}~$delete])/sprintf("=%02X",$e2a[ord($1)])/ge;
1115 (although in production code the substitutions might be done
1116 in the EBCDIC branch with the @e2a array and separately in the
1117 ASCII branch without the expense of the identity map).
1119 Such QP strings can be decoded with:
1121 # This QP decoder is limited to ASCII only
1122 $string =~ s/=([0-9A-Fa-f][0-9A-Fa-f])/chr hex $1/ge;
1123 $string =~ s/=[\n\r]+$//;
1125 Whereas a QP decoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC machines
1126 would look somewhat like the following (where the @a2e array is
1127 omitted for brevity):
1129 $string =~ s/=([0-9A-Fa-f][0-9A-Fa-f])/chr $a2e[hex $1]/ge;
1130 $string =~ s/=[\n\r]+$//;
1132 =head2 Caesarian ciphers
1134 The practice of shifting an alphabet one or more characters for encipherment
1135 dates back thousands of years and was explicitly detailed by Gaius Julius
1136 Caesar in his B<Gallic Wars> text. A single alphabet shift is sometimes
1137 referred to as a rotation and the shift amount is given as a number $n after
1138 the string 'rot' or "rot$n". Rot0 and rot26 would designate identity maps
1139 on the 26 letter English version of the Latin alphabet. Rot13 has the
1140 interesting property that alternate subsequent invocations are identity maps
1141 (thus rot13 is its own non-trivial inverse in the group of 26 alphabet
1142 rotations). Hence the following is a rot13 encoder and decoder that will
1143 work on ASCII and EBCDIC machines:
1145 #!/usr/local/bin/perl
1148 tr/n-za-mN-ZA-M/a-zA-Z/;
1154 perl -ne 'tr/n-za-mN-ZA-M/a-zA-Z/;print'
1157 =head1 Hashing order and checksums
1159 To the extent that it is possible to write code that depends on
1160 hashing order there may be differences between hashes as stored
1161 on an ASCII based machine and hashes stored on an EBCDIC based machine.
1164 =head1 I18N AND L10N
1166 Internationalization(I18N) and localization(L10N) are supported at least
1167 in principle even on EBCDIC machines. The details are system dependent
1168 and discussed under the L<perlebcdic/OS ISSUES> section below.
1170 =head1 MULTI OCTET CHARACTER SETS
1172 Perl may work with an internal UTF-EBCDIC encoding form for wide characters
1173 on EBCDIC platforms in a manner analogous to the way that it works with
1174 the UTF-8 internal encoding form on ASCII based platforms.
1176 Legacy multi byte EBCDIC code pages XXX.
1180 There may be a few system dependent issues
1181 of concern to EBCDIC Perl programmers.
1185 The PASE environment.
1197 Perl runs under Unix Systems Services or USS.
1203 B<chcp> is supported as a shell utility for displaying and changing
1204 one's code page. See also L<chcp>.
1206 =item dataset access
1208 For sequential data set access try:
1210 my @ds_records = `cat //DSNAME`;
1214 my @ds_records = `cat //'HLQ.DSNAME'`;
1216 See also the OS390::Stdio module on CPAN.
1218 =item OS/390, z/OS iconv
1220 B<iconv> is supported as both a shell utility and a C RTL routine.
1221 See also the iconv(1) and iconv(3) manual pages.
1225 On OS/390 or z/OS see L<locale> for information on locales. The L10N files
1226 are in F</usr/nls/locale>. $Config{d_setlocale} is 'define' on OS/390
1241 This pod document contains literal Latin 1 characters and may encounter
1242 translation difficulties. In particular one popular nroff implementation
1243 was known to strip accented characters to their unaccented counterparts
1244 while attempting to view this document through the B<pod2man> program
1245 (for example, you may see a plain C<y> rather than one with a diaeresis
1246 as in E<yuml>). Another nroff truncated the resultant manpage at
1247 the first occurrence of 8 bit characters.
1249 Not all shells will allow multiple C<-e> string arguments to perl to
1250 be concatenated together properly as recipes 0, 2, 4, 5, and 6 might
1255 L<perllocale>, L<perlfunc>, L<perlunicode>, L<utf8>.
1259 http://anubis.dkuug.dk/i18n/charmaps
1261 http://www.unicode.org/
1263 http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/
1265 http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/
1266 B<ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Infiltration> Tom Jennings,
1269 B<The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0> The Unicode Consortium, Lisa Moore ed.,
1270 ISBN 0-201-61633-5, Addison Wesley Developers Press, February 2000.
1272 B<CDRA: IBM - Character Data Representation Architecture -
1273 Reference and Registry>, IBM SC09-2190-00, December 1996.
1275 "Demystifying Character Sets", Andrea Vine, Multilingual Computing
1276 & Technology, B<#26 Vol. 10 Issue 4>, August/September 1999;
1277 ISSN 1523-0309; Multilingual Computing Inc. Sandpoint ID, USA.
1279 B<Codes, Ciphers, and Other Cryptic and Clandestine Communication>
1280 Fred B. Wrixon, ISBN 1-57912-040-7, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers,
1283 http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM
1284 B<IBM - EBCDIC and the P-bit; The biggest Computer Goof Ever> Robert Bemer.
1288 15 April 2001: added UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC to main table, pvhp.
1292 Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com wrote this in 1999 and 2000
1293 with CCSID 0819 and 0037 help from Chris Leach and
1294 AndrE<eacute> Pirard A.Pirard@ulg.ac.be as well as POSIX-BC
1295 help from Thomas Dorner Thomas.Dorner@start.de.
1296 Thanks also to Vickie Cooper, Philip Newton, William Raffloer, and
1297 Joe Smith. Trademarks, registered trademarks, service marks and
1298 registered service marks used in this document are the property of
1299 their respective owners.