RE: [AV Media Matters] Off Topic (was WOWZERS - Mea Culpa)

[llufrio@icaic.inf.cu]

Jim Lindner wrote: "now who can tell me what all those = signs and wierd
control characters  mean."

Hello, Jim, and everybody else on the List.

The weird characters 3Ds, =E9, and so on, are the product of different
character sets on different computers/mail servers.

The posting from Library of Congress probably had accent characters in the
french names of FIAT and FIAF. I can write those characters, since my M$
Windows configuration is for Spanish, and I have a Spanish keyboard.

Check the following line for more examples:

Ñ, ñ, á, é, í, ó, ú, ü, ¿, ¡, à, è, ö, ä, and so on.

English has a very simple, reduced character set. Most other European
languages use different signs on vowels to change the sound, or in Spanish
and French, to indicate the long syllable (emphasis in pronunciation).

Most Spanish speaking people have to learn to cope with ASCII without the
special Spanish signs and characteristic letter 'ñ' --the 'n' with the
toupee on top ;-)

Have fun with cryptic signs when you get a posting in any  language other
than plain English.

José E. Llufrío
<llufrio@icaic.inf.cu>