Printer languages ?
Printer languages ?
Is the belief that 8-bit ASCII is still universal accurate? I’m certain I understand the answer to my question.
I’m interested in building a conlang and thought using exclusive-or for an alphabet would work well. I recall ASCII was originally 7-bit, but I’m curious if every printer and word processor now supports 8-bit ASCII. I know some bits are reserved for special characters like carriage return. It would be simple to design a program that randomly generates printable characters with exclusive-or and also decode them.
Is my idea that all printers and computers—personal, mainframe, etc.—use 8-bit ASCII correct?
After posting, I realized most devices now use Unicode rather than ASCII. Perhaps ASCII was the standard when computers and printers first appeared.
Is my conclusion that all printers and computers use Unicode accurate?
When your imagined language needs special fonts, you must employ a Page Description Language like PCL or PostScript to include them. If you prefer standard Latin characters, printer languages such as ESC/P for Epson/NEC or ZPL for Zebra can be used with ASCII, depending on the dot-matrix equipment. Keep in mind these languages must already be installed on the printer hardware; cheaper models usually run software-based or use GDI, meaning they don’t recognize any printer language directly and rely solely on the driver to format the page and send it as an image.
It would be interesting to design an alphabet for my conlang and include it in Unicode. I imagine the process would involve some adjustments, filling out forms, possibly paying a fee, and hoping for positive results. No thanks! I’d prefer to use an existing Unicode set or a Latin-based alphabet instead.
But returning to my main concern: I understand that ASCII started as a 7-bit system and later expanded to 8 bits. Back then, computers used it mainly due to memory constraints. It seems ASCII was integrated into Unicode. I’m curious whether it’s possible to build words for my conlang using ASCII or Unicode.
A new idea came to mind. With 8 bits available, there are 256 potential "words." Some of these could include numbers and quotation marks. However, applying an exclusive-or operation might not be suitable for forming meaningful words in my language.
The concept involves creating a constructed language, ensuring all necessary elements like grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, and tone are established first. The example of "I am Groot" illustrates this process clearly. Next, designing characters for printing manually is required, using keyboard tools to convert desired symbols into printable formats. Working with systems such as PCL, ASCII, or Unicode will help translate these characters into physical output. It’s important to consider the translation aspect, especially when converting text to voice or vice versa. Also, remember "... "I am Groot"... which means "Keep in mind the eventual need for text-to-speech (and vice versa) translation as well." And also "... "I am Groot"..." which simply suggests "Have fun with it."
I believe your question might be unclear because it isn’t fully explaining what you’re aiming for. Could you clarify what you intend by referring to XOR as a way to build an alphabet?
@MacNerd79c and @Moonstick2 have shared some insights and clarifications. If you have access to Excel, you can investigate further and see how it functions in practice. For instance: https://exceljet.net/functions/unicode-function. In general, there exist numerous tools that allow binary-to-character conversions or other transformations. But if your goal is to develop a custom alphabet or font, that presents a different challenge. You would need a font creation software. Search online for "How to create my own fonts" and you’ll find various resources. The fonts you produce can become your unique script, letting you shape each character exactly how you wish. Similarly, looking into "how to design a font character" can offer more ideas. You might also consider crafting letters within geometric forms—such as circles, triangles, or squares—to convey specific sounds or styles. These shapes can suggest certain tones or accents. For example, a '+' inside a circle could resemble the letter 'a', while a '+' in a triangle might represent 'b'. A '+' in a square could stand for 'c', and a hexagon might evoke 'beep' as in R2-D2. Ultimately, building a custom alphabet or words is about translating your vision into visual form.
I'm exploring this topic while writing!
Extended ASCII uses 8 bits, and I discovered that 7-bit ASCII omits the most significant bit, setting it to zero.
OK, Exclusive-Or with 8-bit ASCII
The truth table indicates it returns true when inputs differ:
F F F F T T T F T T T T
As you're aware, 8 bits represent 256 unique values.
Uppercase "A" in binary is 01000001.
I plan to conduct an experiment. By swapping each bit in the above uppercase A using 8-bit ASCII—changing 0s to 1s and 1s to 0s—I obtained 10111110, which corresponds to Exclusive-Or.
Result: 11000001.
The Exclusive-Or outcome is interesting! It still produces "A" but with a special mark. This could represent a vowel with a distinct pronunciation depending on the accent.
I suspect punctuation symbols would remain consistent across languages.
I don’t want to invent my own writing system, though that would be fascinating—like the Klingon alphabet! I prefer sticking to an established one.
My preference is a physical keyboard. It would take time for someone to learn Unicode key combinations. If they were willing to invest, a physical keyboard with Hebrew, Greek, Cyrillic, or other characters could work. These keys can be remapped, or a virtual keyboard could appear on the screen.
More research is needed.
No, the second line isn't the XOR result of 'A' as you believe; it's actually the NOT value, flipping each bit. XOR needs two different numbers to produce a meaningful output, otherwise it results in zero. The third line is unclear, but it doesn’t follow the XOR pattern you described. Overall, what you’ve done isn’t a straightforward XOR operation. You seem to have shifted the bits instead, moving from a 7-bit to an 8-bit representation. What were your intentions? Even if XOR was applied correctly, it would only transform each character by 128 positions in the ASCII table. What exactly were you aiming for? Let’s consider "The lazy fox" – how do you expect it to be converted into your language? Someone might just type it and have the cipher work, mapping each letter to another without any logical structure. You claim you want to use the Latin alphabet, but your approach doesn’t make sense beyond that. What’s the ultimate goal here? Let’s see if we can understand what you really intended with "shurgle flompz."