An exploration of some of the issues facing Perl programmers
on EBCDIC based computers. We do not cover localization,
-internationalization, or multi byte character set issues (yet).
+internationalization, or multi byte character set issues other
+than some discussion of UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC.
Portions that are still incomplete are marked with XXX.
=head2 ASCII
-The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a set of
+The American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII or US-ASCII) is a
+set of
integers running from 0 to 127 (decimal) that imply character
-interpretation by the display and other system(s) of computers.
+interpretation by the display and other systems of computers.
The range 0..127 can be covered by setting the bits in a 7-bit binary
digit, hence the set is sometimes referred to as a "7-bit ASCII".
ASCII was described by the American National Standards Institute
accented Latin characters. Languages that can employ ISO 8859-1
include all the languages covered by ASCII as well as Afrikaans,
Albanian, Basque, Catalan, Danish, Faroese, Finnish, Norwegian,
-Portugese, Spanish, and Swedish. Dutch is covered albeit without
+Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Dutch is covered albeit without
the ij ligature. French is covered too but without the oe ligature.
German can use ISO 8859-1 but must do so without German-style
quotation marks. This set is based on Western European extensions
=head2 EBCDIC
-The Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code refers to a
+The Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code refers to a
large collection of slightly different single and multi byte
coded character sets that are different from ASCII or ISO 8859-1
and typically run on host computers. The EBCDIC encodings derive
from 8 bit byte extensions of Hollerith punched card encodings.
The layout on the cards was such that high bits were set for the
upper and lower case alphabet characters [a-z] and [A-Z], but there
-were gaps within each latin alphabet range.
+were gaps within each Latin alphabet range.
Some IBM EBCDIC character sets may be known by character code set
identification numbers (CCSID numbers) or code page numbers. Leading
zero digits in CCSID numbers within this document are insignificant.
E.g. CCSID 0037 may be referred to as 37 in places.
-=head2 13 variant characters
+Perl can be compiled on platforms that run any of three commonly used EBCDIC
+character sets, listed below.
+
+=head2 The 13 variant characters
Among IBM EBCDIC character code sets there are 13 characters that
are often mapped to different integer values. Those characters
\ [ ] { } ^ ~ ! # | $ @ `
+When Perl is compiled for a platform, it looks at some of these characters to
+guess which EBCDIC character set the platform uses, and adapts itself
+accordingly to that platform. If the platform uses a character set that is not
+one of the three Perl knows about, Perl will either fail to compile, or
+mistakenly and silently choose one of the three.
+They are:
+
=head2 0037
Character code set ID 0037 is a mapping of the ASCII plus Latin-1
Character code set ID 1047 is also a mapping of the ASCII plus
Latin-1 characters (i.e. ISO 8859-1) to an EBCDIC set. 1047 is
-used under Unix System Services for OS/390, and OpenEdition for VM/ESA.
-CCSID 1047 differs from CCSID 0037 in eight places.
+used under Unix System Services for OS/390 or z/OS, and OpenEdition
+for VM/ESA. CCSID 1047 differs from CCSID 0037 in eight places.
=head2 POSIX-BC
The EBCDIC code page in use on Siemens' BS2000 system is distinct from
1047 and 0037. It is identified below as the POSIX-BC set.
+=head2 Unicode code points versus EBCDIC code points
+
+In Unicode terminology a I<code point> is the number assigned to a
+character: for example, in EBCDIC the character "A" is usually assigned
+the number 193. In Unicode the character "A" is assigned the number 65.
+This causes a problem with the semantics of the pack/unpack "U", which
+are supposed to pack Unicode code points to characters and back to numbers.
+The problem is: which code points to use for code points less than 256?
+(for 256 and over there's no problem: Unicode code points are used)
+In EBCDIC, for the low 256 the EBCDIC code points are used. This
+means that the equivalences
+
+ pack("U", ord($character)) eq $character
+ unpack("U", $character) == ord $character
+
+will hold. (If Unicode code points were applied consistently over
+all the possible code points, pack("U",ord("A")) would in EBCDIC
+equal I<A with acute> or chr(101), and unpack("U", "A") would equal
+65, or I<non-breaking space>, not 193, or ord "A".)
+
+=head2 Remaining Perl Unicode problems in EBCDIC
+
+=over 4
+
+=item *
+
+Many of the remaining problems seem to be related to case-insensitive matching
+
+=item *
+
+The extensions Unicode::Collate and Unicode::Normalized are not
+supported under EBCDIC, likewise for the encoding pragma.
+
+=back
+
+=head2 Unicode and UTF
+
+UTF stands for C<Unicode Transformation Format>.
+UTF-8 is an encoding of Unicode into a sequence of 8-bit byte chunks, based on
+ASCII and Latin-1.
+The length of a sequence required to represent a Unicode code point
+depends on the ordinal number of that code point,
+with larger numbers requiring more bytes.
+UTF-EBCDIC is like UTF-8, but based on EBCDIC.
+
+You may see the term C<invariant> character or code point.
+This simply means that the character has the same numeric
+value when encoded as when not.
+(Note that this is a very different concept from L</The 13 variant characters>
+mentioned above.)
+For example, the ordinal value of 'A' is 193 in most EBCDIC code pages,
+and also is 193 when encoded in UTF-EBCDIC.
+All other code points occupy at least two bytes when encoded.
+In UTF-8, the code points corresponding to the lowest 128
+ordinal numbers (0 - 127: the ASCII characters) are invariant.
+In UTF-EBCDIC, there are 160 invariant characters.
+(If you care, the EBCDIC invariants are those characters
+which have ASCII equivalents, plus those that correspond to
+the C1 controls (80..9f on ASCII platforms).)
+
+A string encoded in UTF-EBCDIC may be longer (but never shorter) than
+one encoded in UTF-8.
+
+=head2 Using Encode
+
+Starting from Perl 5.8 you can use the standard new module Encode
+to translate from EBCDIC to Latin-1 code points.
+Encode knows about more EBCDIC character sets than Perl can currently
+be compiled to run on.
+
+ use Encode 'from_to';
+
+ my %ebcdic = ( 176 => 'cp37', 95 => 'cp1047', 106 => 'posix-bc' );
+
+ # $a is in EBCDIC code points
+ from_to($a, $ebcdic{ord '^'}, 'latin1');
+ # $a is ISO 8859-1 code points
+
+and from Latin-1 code points to EBCDIC code points
+
+ use Encode 'from_to';
+
+ my %ebcdic = ( 176 => 'cp37', 95 => 'cp1047', 106 => 'posix-bc' );
+
+ # $a is ISO 8859-1 code points
+ from_to($a, 'latin1', $ebcdic{ord '^'});
+ # $a is in EBCDIC code points
+
+For doing I/O it is suggested that you use the autotranslating features
+of PerlIO, see L<perluniintro>.
+
+Since version 5.8 Perl uses the new PerlIO I/O library. This enables
+you to use different encodings per IO channel. For example you may use
+
+ use Encode;
+ open($f, ">:encoding(ascii)", "test.ascii");
+ print $f "Hello World!\n";
+ open($f, ">:encoding(cp37)", "test.ebcdic");
+ print $f "Hello World!\n";
+ open($f, ">:encoding(latin1)", "test.latin1");
+ print $f "Hello World!\n";
+ open($f, ">:encoding(utf8)", "test.utf8");
+ print $f "Hello World!\n";
+
+to get four files containing "Hello World!\n" in ASCII, CP 37 EBCDIC,
+ISO 8859-1 (Latin-1) (in this example identical to ASCII since only ASCII
+characters were printed), and
+UTF-EBCDIC (in this example identical to normal EBCDIC since only characters
+that don't differ between EBCDIC and UTF-EBCDIC were printed). See the
+documentation of Encode::PerlIO for details.
+
+As the PerlIO layer uses raw IO (bytes) internally, all this totally
+ignores things like the type of your filesystem (ASCII or EBCDIC).
+
=head1 SINGLE OCTET TABLES
The following tables list the ASCII and Latin 1 ordered sets including
C1 controls (80..9f), and Latin-1 (a.k.a. ISO 8859-1) (a0..ff). In the
table non-printing control character names as well as the Latin 1
extensions to ASCII have been labelled with character names roughly
-corresponding to I<The Unicode Standard, Version 2.0> albeit with
+corresponding to I<The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0> albeit with
substitutions such as s/LATIN// and s/VULGAR// in all cases,
s/CAPITAL LETTER// in some cases, and s/SMALL LETTER ([A-Z])/\l$1/
in some other cases (the C<charnames> pragma names unfortunately do
=back
perl -ne 'if(/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/)' \
- -e '{printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
+ -e '{printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
+
+If you want to retain the UTF-x code points then in script form you
+might want to write:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item recipe 1
+
+=back
+
+ open(FH,"<perlebcdic.pod") or die "Could not open perlebcdic.pod: $!";
+ while (<FH>) {
+ if (/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)/) {
+ if ($7 ne '' && $9 ne '') {
+ printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-3o.%-5o%-3o.%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9);
+ }
+ elsif ($7 ne '') {
+ printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-3o.%-5o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8);
+ }
+ else {
+ printf("%s%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%-9o%o\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$8);
+ }
+ }
+ }
If you would rather see this table listing hexadecimal values then
run the table through:
=over 4
-=item recipe 1
+=item recipe 2
=back
perl -ne 'if(/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)/)' \
- -e '{printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
-
-
- 8859-1
- chr 0819 0037 1047 POSIX-BC
- ----------------------------------------------------------------
- <NULL> 0 0 0 0
- <START OF HEADING> 1 1 1 1
- <START OF TEXT> 2 2 2 2
- <END OF TEXT> 3 3 3 3
- <END OF TRANSMISSION> 4 55 55 55
- <ENQUIRY> 5 45 45 45
- <ACKNOWLEDGE> 6 46 46 46
- <BELL> 7 47 47 47
- <BACKSPACE> 8 22 22 22
- <HORIZONTAL TABULATION> 9 5 5 5
- <LINE FEED> 10 37 21 21 ***
- <VERTICAL TABULATION> 11 11 11 11
- <FORM FEED> 12 12 12 12
- <CARRIAGE RETURN> 13 13 13 13
- <SHIFT OUT> 14 14 14 14
- <SHIFT IN> 15 15 15 15
- <DATA LINK ESCAPE> 16 16 16 16
- <DEVICE CONTROL ONE> 17 17 17 17
- <DEVICE CONTROL TWO> 18 18 18 18
- <DEVICE CONTROL THREE> 19 19 19 19
- <DEVICE CONTROL FOUR> 20 60 60 60
- <NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE> 21 61 61 61
- <SYNCHRONOUS IDLE> 22 50 50 50
- <END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK> 23 38 38 38
- <CANCEL> 24 24 24 24
- <END OF MEDIUM> 25 25 25 25
- <SUBSTITUTE> 26 63 63 63
- <ESCAPE> 27 39 39 39
- <FILE SEPARATOR> 28 28 28 28
- <GROUP SEPARATOR> 29 29 29 29
- <RECORD SEPARATOR> 30 30 30 30
- <UNIT SEPARATOR> 31 31 31 31
- <SPACE> 32 64 64 64
- ! 33 90 90 90
- " 34 127 127 127
- # 35 123 123 123
- $ 36 91 91 91
- % 37 108 108 108
- & 38 80 80 80
- ' 39 125 125 125
- ( 40 77 77 77
- ) 41 93 93 93
- * 42 92 92 92
- + 43 78 78 78
- , 44 107 107 107
- - 45 96 96 96
- . 46 75 75 75
- / 47 97 97 97
- 0 48 240 240 240
- 1 49 241 241 241
- 2 50 242 242 242
- 3 51 243 243 243
- 4 52 244 244 244
- 5 53 245 245 245
- 6 54 246 246 246
- 7 55 247 247 247
- 8 56 248 248 248
- 9 57 249 249 249
- : 58 122 122 122
- ; 59 94 94 94
- < 60 76 76 76
- = 61 126 126 126
- > 62 110 110 110
- ? 63 111 111 111
- @ 64 124 124 124
- A 65 193 193 193
- B 66 194 194 194
- C 67 195 195 195
- D 68 196 196 196
- E 69 197 197 197
- F 70 198 198 198
- G 71 199 199 199
- H 72 200 200 200
- I 73 201 201 201
- J 74 209 209 209
- K 75 210 210 210
- L 76 211 211 211
- M 77 212 212 212
- N 78 213 213 213
- O 79 214 214 214
- P 80 215 215 215
- Q 81 216 216 216
- R 82 217 217 217
- S 83 226 226 226
- T 84 227 227 227
- U 85 228 228 228
- V 86 229 229 229
- W 87 230 230 230
- X 88 231 231 231
- Y 89 232 232 232
- Z 90 233 233 233
- [ 91 186 173 187 *** ###
- \ 92 224 224 188 ###
- ] 93 187 189 189 ***
- ^ 94 176 95 106 *** ###
- _ 95 109 109 109
- ` 96 121 121 74 ###
- a 97 129 129 129
- b 98 130 130 130
- c 99 131 131 131
- d 100 132 132 132
- e 101 133 133 133
- f 102 134 134 134
- g 103 135 135 135
- h 104 136 136 136
- i 105 137 137 137
- j 106 145 145 145
- k 107 146 146 146
- l 108 147 147 147
- m 109 148 148 148
- n 110 149 149 149
- o 111 150 150 150
- p 112 151 151 151
- q 113 152 152 152
- r 114 153 153 153
- s 115 162 162 162
- t 116 163 163 163
- u 117 164 164 164
- v 118 165 165 165
- w 119 166 166 166
- x 120 167 167 167
- y 121 168 168 168
- z 122 169 169 169
- { 123 192 192 251 ###
- | 124 79 79 79
- } 125 208 208 253 ###
- ~ 126 161 161 255 ###
- <DELETE> 127 7 7 7
- <C1 0> 128 32 32 32
- <C1 1> 129 33 33 33
- <C1 2> 130 34 34 34
- <C1 3> 131 35 35 35
- <C1 4> 132 36 36 36
- <C1 5> 133 21 37 37 ***
- <C1 6> 134 6 6 6
- <C1 7> 135 23 23 23
- <C1 8> 136 40 40 40
- <C1 9> 137 41 41 41
- <C1 10> 138 42 42 42
- <C1 11> 139 43 43 43
- <C1 12> 140 44 44 44
- <C1 13> 141 9 9 9
- <C1 14> 142 10 10 10
- <C1 15> 143 27 27 27
- <C1 16> 144 48 48 48
- <C1 17> 145 49 49 49
- <C1 18> 146 26 26 26
- <C1 19> 147 51 51 51
- <C1 20> 148 52 52 52
- <C1 21> 149 53 53 53
- <C1 22> 150 54 54 54
- <C1 23> 151 8 8 8
- <C1 24> 152 56 56 56
- <C1 25> 153 57 57 57
- <C1 26> 154 58 58 58
- <C1 27> 155 59 59 59
- <C1 28> 156 4 4 4
- <C1 29> 157 20 20 20
- <C1 30> 158 62 62 62
- <C1 31> 159 255 255 95 ###
- <NON-BREAKING SPACE> 160 65 65 65
- <INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK> 161 170 170 170
- <CENT SIGN> 162 74 74 176 ###
- <POUND SIGN> 163 177 177 177
- <CURRENCY SIGN> 164 159 159 159
- <YEN SIGN> 165 178 178 178
- <BROKEN BAR> 166 106 106 208 ###
- <SECTION SIGN> 167 181 181 181
- <DIAERESIS> 168 189 187 121 *** ###
- <COPYRIGHT SIGN> 169 180 180 180
- <FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR> 170 154 154 154
- <LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET> 171 138 138 138
- <NOT SIGN> 172 95 176 186 *** ###
- <SOFT HYPHEN> 173 202 202 202
- <REGISTERED TRADE MARK SIGN> 174 175 175 175
- <MACRON> 175 188 188 161 ###
- <DEGREE SIGN> 176 144 144 144
- <PLUS-OR-MINUS SIGN> 177 143 143 143
- <SUPERSCRIPT TWO> 178 234 234 234
- <SUPERSCRIPT THREE> 179 250 250 250
- <ACUTE ACCENT> 180 190 190 190
- <MICRO SIGN> 181 160 160 160
- <PARAGRAPH SIGN> 182 182 182 182
- <MIDDLE DOT> 183 179 179 179
- <CEDILLA> 184 157 157 157
- <SUPERSCRIPT ONE> 185 218 218 218
- <MASC. ORDINAL INDICATOR> 186 155 155 155
- <RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET> 187 139 139 139
- <FRACTION ONE QUARTER> 188 183 183 183
- <FRACTION ONE HALF> 189 184 184 184
- <FRACTION THREE QUARTERS> 190 185 185 185
- <INVERTED QUESTION MARK> 191 171 171 171
- <A WITH GRAVE> 192 100 100 100
- <A WITH ACUTE> 193 101 101 101
- <A WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 194 98 98 98
- <A WITH TILDE> 195 102 102 102
- <A WITH DIAERESIS> 196 99 99 99
- <A WITH RING ABOVE> 197 103 103 103
- <CAPITAL LIGATURE AE> 198 158 158 158
- <C WITH CEDILLA> 199 104 104 104
- <E WITH GRAVE> 200 116 116 116
- <E WITH ACUTE> 201 113 113 113
- <E WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 202 114 114 114
- <E WITH DIAERESIS> 203 115 115 115
- <I WITH GRAVE> 204 120 120 120
- <I WITH ACUTE> 205 117 117 117
- <I WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 206 118 118 118
- <I WITH DIAERESIS> 207 119 119 119
- <CAPITAL LETTER ETH> 208 172 172 172
- <N WITH TILDE> 209 105 105 105
- <O WITH GRAVE> 210 237 237 237
- <O WITH ACUTE> 211 238 238 238
- <O WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 212 235 235 235
- <O WITH TILDE> 213 239 239 239
- <O WITH DIAERESIS> 214 236 236 236
- <MULTIPLICATION SIGN> 215 191 191 191
- <O WITH STROKE> 216 128 128 128
- <U WITH GRAVE> 217 253 253 224 ###
- <U WITH ACUTE> 218 254 254 254
- <U WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 219 251 251 221 ###
- <U WITH DIAERESIS> 220 252 252 252
- <Y WITH ACUTE> 221 173 186 173 *** ###
- <CAPITAL LETTER THORN> 222 174 174 174
- <SMALL LETTER SHARP S> 223 89 89 89
- <a WITH GRAVE> 224 68 68 68
- <a WITH ACUTE> 225 69 69 69
- <a WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 226 66 66 66
- <a WITH TILDE> 227 70 70 70
- <a WITH DIAERESIS> 228 67 67 67
- <a WITH RING ABOVE> 229 71 71 71
- <SMALL LIGATURE ae> 230 156 156 156
- <c WITH CEDILLA> 231 72 72 72
- <e WITH GRAVE> 232 84 84 84
- <e WITH ACUTE> 233 81 81 81
- <e WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 234 82 82 82
- <e WITH DIAERESIS> 235 83 83 83
- <i WITH GRAVE> 236 88 88 88
- <i WITH ACUTE> 237 85 85 85
- <i WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 238 86 86 86
- <i WITH DIAERESIS> 239 87 87 87
- <SMALL LETTER eth> 240 140 140 140
- <n WITH TILDE> 241 73 73 73
- <o WITH GRAVE> 242 205 205 205
- <o WITH ACUTE> 243 206 206 206
- <o WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 244 203 203 203
- <o WITH TILDE> 245 207 207 207
- <o WITH DIAERESIS> 246 204 204 204
- <DIVISION SIGN> 247 225 225 225
- <o WITH STROKE> 248 112 112 112
- <u WITH GRAVE> 249 221 221 192 ###
- <u WITH ACUTE> 250 222 222 222
- <u WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 251 219 219 219
- <u WITH DIAERESIS> 252 220 220 220
- <y WITH ACUTE> 253 141 141 141
- <SMALL LETTER thorn> 254 142 142 142
- <y WITH DIAERESIS> 255 223 223 223
+ -e '{printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5)}' perlebcdic.pod
+
+Or, in order to retain the UTF-x code points in hexadecimal:
+
+=over 4
+
+=item recipe 3
+
+=back
+
+ open(FH,"<perlebcdic.pod") or die "Could not open perlebcdic.pod: $!";
+ while (<FH>) {
+ if (/(.{33})(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)\s+(\d+)\.?(\d*)/) {
+ if ($7 ne '' && $9 ne '') {
+ printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-2X.%-6X%-2X.%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8,$9);
+ }
+ elsif ($7 ne '') {
+ printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-2X.%-6X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$7,$8);
+ }
+ else {
+ printf("%s%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%-9X%X\n",$1,$2,$3,$4,$5,$6,$8);
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+
+ incomp- incomp-
+ 8859-1 lete lete
+ chr 0819 0037 1047 POSIX-BC UTF-8 UTF-EBCDIC
+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ <NULL> 0 0 0 0 0 0
+ <START OF HEADING> 1 1 1 1 1 1
+ <START OF TEXT> 2 2 2 2 2 2
+ <END OF TEXT> 3 3 3 3 3 3
+ <END OF TRANSMISSION> 4 55 55 55 4 55
+ <ENQUIRY> 5 45 45 45 5 45
+ <ACKNOWLEDGE> 6 46 46 46 6 46
+ <BELL> 7 47 47 47 7 47
+ <BACKSPACE> 8 22 22 22 8 22
+ <HORIZONTAL TABULATION> 9 5 5 5 9 5
+ <LINE FEED> 10 37 21 21 10 21 ***
+ <VERTICAL TABULATION> 11 11 11 11 11 11
+ <FORM FEED> 12 12 12 12 12 12
+ <CARRIAGE RETURN> 13 13 13 13 13 13
+ <SHIFT OUT> 14 14 14 14 14 14
+ <SHIFT IN> 15 15 15 15 15 15
+ <DATA LINK ESCAPE> 16 16 16 16 16 16
+ <DEVICE CONTROL ONE> 17 17 17 17 17 17
+ <DEVICE CONTROL TWO> 18 18 18 18 18 18
+ <DEVICE CONTROL THREE> 19 19 19 19 19 19
+ <DEVICE CONTROL FOUR> 20 60 60 60 20 60
+ <NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE> 21 61 61 61 21 61
+ <SYNCHRONOUS IDLE> 22 50 50 50 22 50
+ <END OF TRANSMISSION BLOCK> 23 38 38 38 23 38
+ <CANCEL> 24 24 24 24 24 24
+ <END OF MEDIUM> 25 25 25 25 25 25
+ <SUBSTITUTE> 26 63 63 63 26 63
+ <ESCAPE> 27 39 39 39 27 39
+ <FILE SEPARATOR> 28 28 28 28 28 28
+ <GROUP SEPARATOR> 29 29 29 29 29 29
+ <RECORD SEPARATOR> 30 30 30 30 30 30
+ <UNIT SEPARATOR> 31 31 31 31 31 31
+ <SPACE> 32 64 64 64 32 64
+ ! 33 90 90 90 33 90
+ " 34 127 127 127 34 127
+ # 35 123 123 123 35 123
+ $ 36 91 91 91 36 91
+ % 37 108 108 108 37 108
+ & 38 80 80 80 38 80
+ ' 39 125 125 125 39 125
+ ( 40 77 77 77 40 77
+ ) 41 93 93 93 41 93
+ * 42 92 92 92 42 92
+ + 43 78 78 78 43 78
+ , 44 107 107 107 44 107
+ - 45 96 96 96 45 96
+ . 46 75 75 75 46 75
+ / 47 97 97 97 47 97
+ 0 48 240 240 240 48 240
+ 1 49 241 241 241 49 241
+ 2 50 242 242 242 50 242
+ 3 51 243 243 243 51 243
+ 4 52 244 244 244 52 244
+ 5 53 245 245 245 53 245
+ 6 54 246 246 246 54 246
+ 7 55 247 247 247 55 247
+ 8 56 248 248 248 56 248
+ 9 57 249 249 249 57 249
+ : 58 122 122 122 58 122
+ ; 59 94 94 94 59 94
+ < 60 76 76 76 60 76
+ = 61 126 126 126 61 126
+ > 62 110 110 110 62 110
+ ? 63 111 111 111 63 111
+ @ 64 124 124 124 64 124
+ A 65 193 193 193 65 193
+ B 66 194 194 194 66 194
+ C 67 195 195 195 67 195
+ D 68 196 196 196 68 196
+ E 69 197 197 197 69 197
+ F 70 198 198 198 70 198
+ G 71 199 199 199 71 199
+ H 72 200 200 200 72 200
+ I 73 201 201 201 73 201
+ J 74 209 209 209 74 209
+ K 75 210 210 210 75 210
+ L 76 211 211 211 76 211
+ M 77 212 212 212 77 212
+ N 78 213 213 213 78 213
+ O 79 214 214 214 79 214
+ P 80 215 215 215 80 215
+ Q 81 216 216 216 81 216
+ R 82 217 217 217 82 217
+ S 83 226 226 226 83 226
+ T 84 227 227 227 84 227
+ U 85 228 228 228 85 228
+ V 86 229 229 229 86 229
+ W 87 230 230 230 87 230
+ X 88 231 231 231 88 231
+ Y 89 232 232 232 89 232
+ Z 90 233 233 233 90 233
+ [ 91 186 173 187 91 173 *** ###
+ \ 92 224 224 188 92 224 ###
+ ] 93 187 189 189 93 189 ***
+ ^ 94 176 95 106 94 95 *** ###
+ _ 95 109 109 109 95 109
+ ` 96 121 121 74 96 121 ###
+ a 97 129 129 129 97 129
+ b 98 130 130 130 98 130
+ c 99 131 131 131 99 131
+ d 100 132 132 132 100 132
+ e 101 133 133 133 101 133
+ f 102 134 134 134 102 134
+ g 103 135 135 135 103 135
+ h 104 136 136 136 104 136
+ i 105 137 137 137 105 137
+ j 106 145 145 145 106 145
+ k 107 146 146 146 107 146
+ l 108 147 147 147 108 147
+ m 109 148 148 148 109 148
+ n 110 149 149 149 110 149
+ o 111 150 150 150 111 150
+ p 112 151 151 151 112 151
+ q 113 152 152 152 113 152
+ r 114 153 153 153 114 153
+ s 115 162 162 162 115 162
+ t 116 163 163 163 116 163
+ u 117 164 164 164 117 164
+ v 118 165 165 165 118 165
+ w 119 166 166 166 119 166
+ x 120 167 167 167 120 167
+ y 121 168 168 168 121 168
+ z 122 169 169 169 122 169
+ { 123 192 192 251 123 192 ###
+ | 124 79 79 79 124 79
+ } 125 208 208 253 125 208 ###
+ ~ 126 161 161 255 126 161 ###
+ <DELETE> 127 7 7 7 127 7
+ <C1 0> 128 32 32 32 194.128 32
+ <C1 1> 129 33 33 33 194.129 33
+ <C1 2> 130 34 34 34 194.130 34
+ <C1 3> 131 35 35 35 194.131 35
+ <C1 4> 132 36 36 36 194.132 36
+ <C1 5> 133 21 37 37 194.133 37 ***
+ <C1 6> 134 6 6 6 194.134 6
+ <C1 7> 135 23 23 23 194.135 23
+ <C1 8> 136 40 40 40 194.136 40
+ <C1 9> 137 41 41 41 194.137 41
+ <C1 10> 138 42 42 42 194.138 42
+ <C1 11> 139 43 43 43 194.139 43
+ <C1 12> 140 44 44 44 194.140 44
+ <C1 13> 141 9 9 9 194.141 9
+ <C1 14> 142 10 10 10 194.142 10
+ <C1 15> 143 27 27 27 194.143 27
+ <C1 16> 144 48 48 48 194.144 48
+ <C1 17> 145 49 49 49 194.145 49
+ <C1 18> 146 26 26 26 194.146 26
+ <C1 19> 147 51 51 51 194.147 51
+ <C1 20> 148 52 52 52 194.148 52
+ <C1 21> 149 53 53 53 194.149 53
+ <C1 22> 150 54 54 54 194.150 54
+ <C1 23> 151 8 8 8 194.151 8
+ <C1 24> 152 56 56 56 194.152 56
+ <C1 25> 153 57 57 57 194.153 57
+ <C1 26> 154 58 58 58 194.154 58
+ <C1 27> 155 59 59 59 194.155 59
+ <C1 28> 156 4 4 4 194.156 4
+ <C1 29> 157 20 20 20 194.157 20
+ <C1 30> 158 62 62 62 194.158 62
+ <C1 31> 159 255 255 95 194.159 255 ###
+ <NON-BREAKING SPACE> 160 65 65 65 194.160 128.65
+ <INVERTED EXCLAMATION MARK> 161 170 170 170 194.161 128.66
+ <CENT SIGN> 162 74 74 176 194.162 128.67 ###
+ <POUND SIGN> 163 177 177 177 194.163 128.68
+ <CURRENCY SIGN> 164 159 159 159 194.164 128.69
+ <YEN SIGN> 165 178 178 178 194.165 128.70
+ <BROKEN BAR> 166 106 106 208 194.166 128.71 ###
+ <SECTION SIGN> 167 181 181 181 194.167 128.72
+ <DIAERESIS> 168 189 187 121 194.168 128.73 *** ###
+ <COPYRIGHT SIGN> 169 180 180 180 194.169 128.74
+ <FEMININE ORDINAL INDICATOR> 170 154 154 154 194.170 128.81
+ <LEFT POINTING GUILLEMET> 171 138 138 138 194.171 128.82
+ <NOT SIGN> 172 95 176 186 194.172 128.83 *** ###
+ <SOFT HYPHEN> 173 202 202 202 194.173 128.84
+ <REGISTERED TRADE MARK SIGN> 174 175 175 175 194.174 128.85
+ <MACRON> 175 188 188 161 194.175 128.86 ###
+ <DEGREE SIGN> 176 144 144 144 194.176 128.87
+ <PLUS-OR-MINUS SIGN> 177 143 143 143 194.177 128.88
+ <SUPERSCRIPT TWO> 178 234 234 234 194.178 128.89
+ <SUPERSCRIPT THREE> 179 250 250 250 194.179 128.98
+ <ACUTE ACCENT> 180 190 190 190 194.180 128.99
+ <MICRO SIGN> 181 160 160 160 194.181 128.100
+ <PARAGRAPH SIGN> 182 182 182 182 194.182 128.101
+ <MIDDLE DOT> 183 179 179 179 194.183 128.102
+ <CEDILLA> 184 157 157 157 194.184 128.103
+ <SUPERSCRIPT ONE> 185 218 218 218 194.185 128.104
+ <MASC. ORDINAL INDICATOR> 186 155 155 155 194.186 128.105
+ <RIGHT POINTING GUILLEMET> 187 139 139 139 194.187 128.106
+ <FRACTION ONE QUARTER> 188 183 183 183 194.188 128.112
+ <FRACTION ONE HALF> 189 184 184 184 194.189 128.113
+ <FRACTION THREE QUARTERS> 190 185 185 185 194.190 128.114
+ <INVERTED QUESTION MARK> 191 171 171 171 194.191 128.115
+ <A WITH GRAVE> 192 100 100 100 195.128 138.65
+ <A WITH ACUTE> 193 101 101 101 195.129 138.66
+ <A WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 194 98 98 98 195.130 138.67
+ <A WITH TILDE> 195 102 102 102 195.131 138.68
+ <A WITH DIAERESIS> 196 99 99 99 195.132 138.69
+ <A WITH RING ABOVE> 197 103 103 103 195.133 138.70
+ <CAPITAL LIGATURE AE> 198 158 158 158 195.134 138.71
+ <C WITH CEDILLA> 199 104 104 104 195.135 138.72
+ <E WITH GRAVE> 200 116 116 116 195.136 138.73
+ <E WITH ACUTE> 201 113 113 113 195.137 138.74
+ <E WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 202 114 114 114 195.138 138.81
+ <E WITH DIAERESIS> 203 115 115 115 195.139 138.82
+ <I WITH GRAVE> 204 120 120 120 195.140 138.83
+ <I WITH ACUTE> 205 117 117 117 195.141 138.84
+ <I WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 206 118 118 118 195.142 138.85
+ <I WITH DIAERESIS> 207 119 119 119 195.143 138.86
+ <CAPITAL LETTER ETH> 208 172 172 172 195.144 138.87
+ <N WITH TILDE> 209 105 105 105 195.145 138.88
+ <O WITH GRAVE> 210 237 237 237 195.146 138.89
+ <O WITH ACUTE> 211 238 238 238 195.147 138.98
+ <O WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 212 235 235 235 195.148 138.99
+ <O WITH TILDE> 213 239 239 239 195.149 138.100
+ <O WITH DIAERESIS> 214 236 236 236 195.150 138.101
+ <MULTIPLICATION SIGN> 215 191 191 191 195.151 138.102
+ <O WITH STROKE> 216 128 128 128 195.152 138.103
+ <U WITH GRAVE> 217 253 253 224 195.153 138.104 ###
+ <U WITH ACUTE> 218 254 254 254 195.154 138.105
+ <U WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 219 251 251 221 195.155 138.106 ###
+ <U WITH DIAERESIS> 220 252 252 252 195.156 138.112
+ <Y WITH ACUTE> 221 173 186 173 195.157 138.113 *** ###
+ <CAPITAL LETTER THORN> 222 174 174 174 195.158 138.114
+ <SMALL LETTER SHARP S> 223 89 89 89 195.159 138.115
+ <a WITH GRAVE> 224 68 68 68 195.160 139.65
+ <a WITH ACUTE> 225 69 69 69 195.161 139.66
+ <a WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 226 66 66 66 195.162 139.67
+ <a WITH TILDE> 227 70 70 70 195.163 139.68
+ <a WITH DIAERESIS> 228 67 67 67 195.164 139.69
+ <a WITH RING ABOVE> 229 71 71 71 195.165 139.70
+ <SMALL LIGATURE ae> 230 156 156 156 195.166 139.71
+ <c WITH CEDILLA> 231 72 72 72 195.167 139.72
+ <e WITH GRAVE> 232 84 84 84 195.168 139.73
+ <e WITH ACUTE> 233 81 81 81 195.169 139.74
+ <e WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 234 82 82 82 195.170 139.81
+ <e WITH DIAERESIS> 235 83 83 83 195.171 139.82
+ <i WITH GRAVE> 236 88 88 88 195.172 139.83
+ <i WITH ACUTE> 237 85 85 85 195.173 139.84
+ <i WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 238 86 86 86 195.174 139.85
+ <i WITH DIAERESIS> 239 87 87 87 195.175 139.86
+ <SMALL LETTER eth> 240 140 140 140 195.176 139.87
+ <n WITH TILDE> 241 73 73 73 195.177 139.88
+ <o WITH GRAVE> 242 205 205 205 195.178 139.89
+ <o WITH ACUTE> 243 206 206 206 195.179 139.98
+ <o WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 244 203 203 203 195.180 139.99
+ <o WITH TILDE> 245 207 207 207 195.181 139.100
+ <o WITH DIAERESIS> 246 204 204 204 195.182 139.101
+ <DIVISION SIGN> 247 225 225 225 195.183 139.102
+ <o WITH STROKE> 248 112 112 112 195.184 139.103
+ <u WITH GRAVE> 249 221 221 192 195.185 139.104 ###
+ <u WITH ACUTE> 250 222 222 222 195.186 139.105
+ <u WITH CIRCUMFLEX> 251 219 219 219 195.187 139.106
+ <u WITH DIAERESIS> 252 220 220 220 195.188 139.112
+ <y WITH ACUTE> 253 141 141 141 195.189 139.113
+ <SMALL LETTER thorn> 254 142 142 142 195.190 139.114
+ <y WITH DIAERESIS> 255 223 223 223 195.191 139.115
If you would rather see the above table in CCSID 0037 order rather than
ASCII + Latin-1 order then run the table through:
=over 4
-=item recipe 2
+=item recipe 4
=back
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}/)'\
-e '{push(@l,$_)}' \
-e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
- -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
+ -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
-e ' map{[$_,substr($_,42,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
If you would rather see it in CCSID 1047 order then change the digit
=over 4
-=item recipe 3
+=item recipe 5
=back
perl -ne 'if(/.{33}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}/)'\
-e '{push(@l,$_)}' \
-e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
- -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
+ -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
-e ' map{[$_,substr($_,51,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
If you would rather see it in POSIX-BC order then change the digit
=over 4
-=item recipe 4
+=item recipe 6
=back
perl -ne 'if(/.{33}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}\s{6,8}\d{1,3}/)'\
-e '{push(@l,$_)}' \
-e 'END{print map{$_->[0]}' \
- -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
+ -e ' sort{$a->[1] <=> $b->[1]}' \
-e ' map{[$_,substr($_,60,3)]}@l;}' perlebcdic.pod
$is_ascii = "\r" ne chr(13); # WRONG
$is_ascii = "\n" ne chr(10); # ILL ADVISED
-Obviously the first of these will fail to distinguish most ASCII machines
-from either a CCSID 0037, a 1047, or a POSIX-BC EBCDIC machine since "\r" eq
+Obviously the first of these will fail to distinguish most ASCII platforms
+from either a CCSID 0037, a 1047, or a POSIX-BC EBCDIC platform since "\r" eq
chr(13) under all of those coded character sets. But note too that
because "\n" is chr(13) and "\r" is chr(10) on the MacIntosh (which is an
-ASCII machine) the second C<$is_ascii> test will lead to trouble there.
+ASCII platform) the second C<$is_ascii> test will lead to trouble there.
To determine whether or not perl was built under an EBCDIC
code page you can use the Config module like so:
'\060\061\062\063\064\065\066\067\070\071\263\333\334\331\332\237' ;
my $ebcdic_string = $ascii_string;
- eval '$ebcdic_string =~ tr/\000-\377/' . $cp_037 . '/';
+ eval '$ebcdic_string =~ tr/' . $cp_037 . '/\000-\377/';
To convert from EBCDIC 037 to ASCII just reverse the order of the tr///
arguments like so:
my $ascii_string = $ebcdic_string;
- eval '$ascii_string = tr/' . $cp_037 . '/\000-\377/';
+ eval '$ascii_string =~ tr/\000-\377/' . $cp_037 . '/';
Similarly one could take the output of the third column from recipe 0 to
obtain a C<$cp_1047> table. The fourth column of the output from recipe
available from the shell or from the C library. Consult your system's
documentation for information on iconv.
-On OS/390 see the iconv(1) man page. One way to invoke the iconv
+On OS/390 or z/OS see the iconv(1) manpage. One way to invoke the iconv
shell utility from within perl would be to:
- # OS/390 example
+ # OS/390 or z/OS example
$ascii_data = `echo '$ebcdic_data'| iconv -f IBM-1047 -t ISO8859-1`
or the inverse map:
- # OS/390 example
+ # OS/390 or z/OS example
$ebcdic_data = `echo '$ascii_data'| iconv -f ISO8859-1 -t IBM-1047`
For other perl based conversion options see the Convert::* modules on CPAN.
=head2 C RTL
-The OS/390 C run time library provides _atoe() and _etoa() functions.
+The OS/390 and z/OS C run time libraries provide _atoe() and _etoa() functions.
=head1 OPERATOR DIFFERENCES
The C<..> range operator treats certain character ranges with
-care on EBCDIC machines. For example the following array
-will have twenty six elements on either an EBCDIC machine
-or an ASCII machine:
+care on EBCDIC platforms. For example the following array
+will have twenty six elements on either an EBCDIC platform
+or an ASCII platform:
@alphabet = ('A'..'Z'); # $#alphabet == 25
The bitwise operators such as & ^ | may return different results
when operating on string or character data in a perl program running
-on an EBCDIC machine than when run on an ASCII machine. Here is
+on an EBCDIC platform than when run on an ASCII platform. Here is
an example adapted from the one in L<perlop>:
# EBCDIC-based examples
An interesting property of the 32 C0 control characters
in the ASCII table is that they can "literally" be constructed
as control characters in perl, e.g. C<(chr(0) eq "\c@")>
-C<(chr(1) eq "\cA")>, and so on. Perl on EBCDIC machines has been
+C<(chr(1) eq "\cA")>, and so on. Perl on EBCDIC platforms has been
ported to take "\c@" to chr(0) and "\cA" to chr(1) as well, but the
thirty three characters that result depend on which code page you are
using. The table below uses the character names from the previous table
s/NEGATIVE ACKNOWLEDGE/NEG. ACK./;. The POSIX-BC and 1047 sets are
identical throughout this range and differ from the 0037 set at only
one spot (21 decimal). Note that the C<LINE FEED> character
-may be generated by "\cJ" on ASCII machines but by "\cU" on 1047 or POSIX-BC
-machines and cannot be generated as a C<"\c.letter."> control character on
-0037 machines. Note also that "\c\\" maps to two characters
+may be generated by "\cJ" on ASCII platforms but by "\cU" on 1047 or POSIX-BC
+platforms and cannot be generated as a C<"\c.letter."> control character on
+0037 platforms. Note also that "\c\\" maps to two characters
not one.
chr ord 8859-1 0037 1047 && POSIX-BC
=item chr()
chr() must be given an EBCDIC code number argument to yield a desired
-character return value on an EBCDIC machine. For example:
+character return value on an EBCDIC platform. For example:
$CAPITAL_LETTER_A = chr(193);
=item ord()
-ord() will return EBCDIC code number values on an EBCDIC machine.
+ord() will return EBCDIC code number values on an EBCDIC platform.
For example:
$the_number_193 = ord("A");
print "Content-type:\ttext/html\015\012\015\012";
# this may be wrong on EBCDIC
-Under the IBM OS/390 USS Web Server for example you should instead
-write that as:
+Under the IBM OS/390 USS Web Server or WebSphere on z/OS for example
+you should instead write that as:
print "Content-type:\ttext/html\r\n\r\n"; # OK for DGW et alia
The formats that can convert characters to numbers and vice versa
will be different from their ASCII counterparts when executed
-on an EBCDIC machine. Examples include:
+on an EBCDIC platform. Examples include:
printf("%c%c%c",193,194,195); # prints ABC
[A-Z] and [a-z] have been especially coded to not pick up gap
characters. For example, characters such as E<ocirc> C<o WITH CIRCUMFLEX>
that lie between I and J would not be matched by the
-regular expression range C</[H-K]/>.
+regular expression range C</[H-K]/>. This works in
+the other direction, too, if either of the range end points is
+explicitly numeric: C<[\x89-\x91]> will match C<\x8e>, even
+though C<\x89> is C<i> and C<\x91 > is C<j>, and C<\x8e>
+is a gap character from the alphabetic viewpoint.
If you do want to match the alphabet gap characters in a single octet
regular expression try matching the hex or octal code such
-as C</\313/> on EBCDIC or C</\364/> on ASCII machines to
+as C</\313/> on EBCDIC or C</\364/> on ASCII platforms to
have your regular expression match C<o WITH CIRCUMFLEX>.
Another construct to be wary of is the inappropriate use of hex or
The above would be adequate if the concern was only with numeric code points.
However, the concern may be with characters rather than code points
-and on an EBCDIC machine it may be desirable for constructs such as
+and on an EBCDIC platform it may be desirable for constructs such as
C<if (is_print_ascii("A")) {print "A is a printable character\n";}> to print
out the expected message. One way to represent the above collection
of character classification subs that is capable of working across the
One big difference between ASCII based character sets and EBCDIC ones
are the relative positions of upper and lower case letters and the
-letters compared to the digits. If sorted on an ASCII based machine the
+letters compared to the digits. If sorted on an ASCII based platform the
two letter abbreviation for a physician comes before the two letter
for drive, that is:
The property of lower case before uppercase letters in EBCDIC is
even carried to the Latin 1 EBCDIC pages such as 0037 and 1047.
An example would be that E<Euml> C<E WITH DIAERESIS> (203) comes
-before E<euml> C<e WITH DIAERESIS> (235) on an ASCII machine, but
-the latter (83) comes before the former (115) on an EBCDIC machine.
+before E<euml> C<e WITH DIAERESIS> (235) on an ASCII platform, but
+the latter (83) comes before the former (115) on an EBCDIC platform.
(Astute readers will note that the upper case version of E<szlig>
C<SMALL LETTER SHARP S> is simply "SS" and that the upper case version of
E<yuml> C<y WITH DIAERESIS> is not in the 0..255 range but it is
at U+x0178 in Unicode, or C<"\x{178}"> in a Unicode enabled Perl).
The sort order will cause differences between results obtained on
-ASCII machines versus EBCDIC machines. What follows are some suggestions
+ASCII platforms versus EBCDIC platforms. What follows are some suggestions
on how to deal with these differences.
=head2 Ignore ASCII vs. EBCDIC sort differences.
then sort(). Do note however that such Latin-1 manipulation does not
address the E<yuml> C<y WITH DIAERESIS> character that will remain at
-code point 255 on ASCII machines, but 223 on most EBCDIC machines
+code point 255 on ASCII platforms, but 223 on most EBCDIC platforms
where it will sort to a place less than the EBCDIC numerals. With a
Unicode enabled Perl you might try:
This is the most expensive proposition that does not employ a network
connection.
-=head2 Perform sorting on one type of machine only.
+=head2 Perform sorting on one type of platform only.
This strategy can employ a network connection. As such
it would be computationally expensive.
-=head1 TRANFORMATION FORMATS
+=head1 TRANSFORMATION FORMATS
There are a variety of ways of transforming data with an intra character set
mapping that serve a variety of purposes. Sorting was discussed in the
$all_byte_chrs = '';
for (0..255) { $all_byte_chrs .= chr($_); }
$uuencode_byte_chrs = pack('u', $all_byte_chrs);
- ($uu = <<' ENDOFHEREDOC') =~ s/^\s*//gm;
+ ($uu = <<'ENDOFHEREDOC') =~ s/^\s*//gm;
M``$"`P0%!@<("0H+#`T.#Q`1$A,4%187&!D:&QP='A\@(2(C)"4F)R@I*BLL
M+2XO,#$R,S0U-C<X.3H[/#T^/T!!0D-$149'2$E*2TQ-3D]045)35%565UA9
M6EM<75Y?8&%B8V1E9F=H:6IK;&UN;W!Q<G-T=79W>'EZ>WQ]?G^`@8*#A(6&
=head2 Quoted-Printable encoding and decoding
-On ASCII encoded machines it is possible to strip characters outside of
+On ASCII encoded platforms it is possible to strip characters outside of
the printable set using:
# This QP encoder works on ASCII only
$qp_string =~ s/([=\x00-\x1F\x80-\xFF])/sprintf("=%02X",ord($1))/ge;
-Whereas a QP encoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC machines
+Whereas a QP encoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC platforms
would look somewhat like the following (where the EBCDIC branch @e2a
array is omitted for brevity):
$string =~ s/=([0-9A-Fa-f][0-9A-Fa-f])/chr hex $1/ge;
$string =~ s/=[\n\r]+$//;
-Whereas a QP decoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC machines
+Whereas a QP decoder that works on both ASCII and EBCDIC platforms
would look somewhat like the following (where the @a2e array is
omitted for brevity):
$string =~ s/=([0-9A-Fa-f][0-9A-Fa-f])/chr $a2e[hex $1]/ge;
$string =~ s/=[\n\r]+$//;
-=head2 Caesarian cyphers
+=head2 Caesarian ciphers
The practice of shifting an alphabet one or more characters for encipherment
dates back thousands of years and was explicitly detailed by Gaius Julius
interesting property that alternate subsequent invocations are identity maps
(thus rot13 is its own non-trivial inverse in the group of 26 alphabet
rotations). Hence the following is a rot13 encoder and decoder that will
-work on ASCII and EBCDIC machines:
+work on ASCII and EBCDIC platforms:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
=head1 Hashing order and checksums
+To the extent that it is possible to write code that depends on
+hashing order there may be differences between hashes as stored
+on an ASCII based platform and hashes stored on an EBCDIC based platform.
XXX
=head1 I18N AND L10N
Internationalization(I18N) and localization(L10N) are supported at least
-in principle even on EBCDIC machines. The details are system dependent
+in principle even on EBCDIC platforms. The details are system dependent
and discussed under the L<perlebcdic/OS ISSUES> section below.
=head1 MULTI OCTET CHARACTER SETS
-Multi byte EBCDIC code pages; Unicode, UTF-8, UTF-EBCDIC, XXX.
+Perl may work with an internal UTF-EBCDIC encoding form for wide characters
+on EBCDIC platforms in a manner analogous to the way that it works with
+the UTF-8 internal encoding form on ASCII based platforms.
+
+Legacy multi byte EBCDIC code pages XXX.
=head1 OS ISSUES
There may be a few system dependent issues
of concern to EBCDIC Perl programmers.
-=head2 OS/400
-
-The PASE environment.
+=head2 OS/400
=over 8
+=item PASE
+
+The PASE environment is runtime environment for OS/400 that can run
+executables built for PowerPC AIX in OS/400, see L<perlos400>. PASE
+is ASCII-based, not EBCDIC-based as the ILE.
+
=item IFS access
XXX.
=back
-=head2 OS/390
+=head2 OS/390, z/OS
Perl runs under Unix Systems Services or USS.
See also the OS390::Stdio module on CPAN.
-=item OS/390 iconv
+=item OS/390, z/OS iconv
B<iconv> is supported as both a shell utility and a C RTL routine.
See also the iconv(1) and iconv(3) manual pages.
=item locales
-On OS/390 see L<locale> for information on locales. The L10N files
-are in F</usr/nls/locale>. $Config{d_setlocale} is 'define' on OS/390.
+On OS/390 or z/OS see L<locale> for information on locales. The L10N files
+are in F</usr/nls/locale>. $Config{d_setlocale} is 'define' on OS/390
+or z/OS.
=back
was known to strip accented characters to their unaccented counterparts
while attempting to view this document through the B<pod2man> program
(for example, you may see a plain C<y> rather than one with a diaeresis
-as in E<yuml>). Another nroff truncated the resultant man page at
-the first occurence of 8 bit characters.
+as in E<yuml>). Another nroff truncated the resultant manpage at
+the first occurrence of 8 bit characters.
Not all shells will allow multiple C<-e> string arguments to perl to
-be concatenated together properly as recipes 2, 3, and 4 might seem
-to imply.
-
-Perl does not yet work with any Unicode features on EBCDIC platforms.
+be concatenated together properly as recipes 0, 2, 4, 5, and 6 might
+seem to imply.
=head1 SEE ALSO
-L<perllocale>, L<perlfunc>.
+L<perllocale>, L<perlfunc>, L<perlunicode>, L<utf8>.
=head1 REFERENCES
-http://anubis.dkuug.dk/i18n/charmaps
+L<http://anubis.dkuug.dk/i18n/charmaps>
-http://www.unicode.org/
+L<http://www.unicode.org/>
-http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/
+L<http://www.unicode.org/unicode/reports/tr16/>
-http://www.wps.com/texts/codes/
+L<http://www.wps.com/projects/codes/>
B<ASCII: American Standard Code for Information Infiltration> Tom Jennings,
September 1999.
-B<The Unicode Standard Version 2.0> The Unicode Consortium,
-ISBN 0-201-48345-9, Addison Wesley Developers Press, July 1996.
-
-B<The Unicode Standard Version 3.0> The Unicode Consortium, Lisa Moore ed.,
+B<The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0> The Unicode Consortium, Lisa Moore ed.,
ISBN 0-201-61633-5, Addison Wesley Developers Press, February 2000.
B<CDRA: IBM - Character Data Representation Architecture -
Fred B. Wrixon, ISBN 1-57912-040-7, Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers,
1998.
+L<http://www.bobbemer.com/P-BIT.HTM>
+B<IBM - EBCDIC and the P-bit; The biggest Computer Goof Ever> Robert Bemer.
+
+=head1 HISTORY
+
+15 April 2001: added UTF-8 and UTF-EBCDIC to main table, pvhp.
+
=head1 AUTHOR
Peter Prymmer pvhp@best.com wrote this in 1999 and 2000