ASCIIkoodaukset

ASCIIkoodaukset, more commonly known as ASCII encoding, is a character encoding standard that uses a 7-bit or 8-bit binary code to represent letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and control characters. Developed by the American Standards Association, it was one of the earliest and most influential character encoding schemes. The original ASCII standard used 7 bits, allowing for 128 unique characters. These included uppercase and lowercase English letters, digits 0-9, and a set of punctuation and control characters like carriage return and newline.

Later, an extended version of ASCII was developed, using 8 bits, which provided an additional 128 characters. This extended ASCII allowed for the inclusion of characters from other languages and symbols, though variations in these extended sets led to compatibility issues. ASCII formed the basis for many subsequent character encoding systems and remains significant in computing history. Its simplicity and widespread adoption made it a fundamental component in early computer communication and data storage. Even with the advent of more comprehensive encodings like Unicode, many systems still rely on ASCII for representing basic English text and control signals.