On Fri, 9 Apr 2010 13:18:29 -0400 (EDT), Eduardo M KALINOWSKI wrote: > On Fri, 9 Apr 2010, Jerome BENOIT wrote: >> Hello List, >> >> I am writing some C code which involves ASCII characters: >> in C related books, we can find a lot of comments about >> ASCII character issues, as far as we are concern with portability. >> >> Nevertheless, something bothers me: where non-ASCII environment can >> be found ? >> >> Furthermore, can such an environment be created on a Debian box ? >> The aim is to check the portability of my code. > > There are still IBM Mainframes around that use EBCDIC (yes, that is > not just an IT legend). I don't know if they can run a UNIX-like OS > and if you can compile your C code to run on it, but even if you > could, I'm not sure someone in possession of such mainframe will lend > it for you to run your tests. :-) > > IBM Mainframes apart, I don't think any machine that you should > actually care for is non-ASCII.
Eduardo is correct. IBM mainframes do use EBCDIC. They always have. They always will. (Changing to ASCII now would break EVERYTHING.) I am a systems programmer for IBM mainframes, and have been for the last umpteen years; so I speak from personal experience. And yes, modern mainframe operating systems do have a POSIX interface. z/OS (MVS) calls it "Unix System Services". z/VM calls it "OpenExtensions". It is a Unix-like interface, but it uses EBCDIC internally. You can also run GNU/Linux on a mainframe, either directly in an LPAR or in a virtual machine under z/VM. But GNU/Linux is an ASCII-based operating system, even when running on a mainframe. Linux device drivers for the s390 architecture talk EBCDIC when necessary to communicate with EBCDIC devices (such as I/O to the 3215 virtual console under z/VM or reading the disk labels of OS- or CMS-formatted disks), but as observed by an application program running under Linux on the s390 architecture, it is running in a pure ASCII environment. -- .''`. Stephen Powell <zlinux...@wowway.com> : :' : `. `'` `- -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: http://lists.debian.org/1511468692.2177171270836098658.javamail.r...@md01.wow.synacor.com
