Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!de-l.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder1.enfer-du-nord.net!newsfeed.eweka.nl!eweka.nl!feeder3.eweka.nl!newsfeed.xs4all.nl!newsfeed4.news.xs4all.nl!xs4all!post.news.xs4all.nl!not-for-mail Return-Path: X-Original-To: python-list@python.org Delivered-To: python-list@mail.python.org X-Spam-Status: OK 0.007 X-Spam-Evidence: '*H*': 0.99; '*S*': 0.00; 'languages.': 0.04; 'encoding': 0.05; 'oh,': 0.09; 'received:80.91': 0.09; 'received:80.91.229': 0.09; 'received:gmane.org': 0.09; 'received:list': 0.09; 'spec': 0.09; 'python': 0.11; 'mostly': 0.14; 'decoder,': 0.16; 'dump': 0.16; 'escapes': 0.16; 'obviously,': 0.16; 'received:80.91.229.3': 0.16; 'received:plane.gmane.org': 0.16; 'files.': 0.16; 'wrote:': 0.18; 'header:User-Agent:1': 0.23; 'expanded': 0.24; '(or': 0.24; "i've": 0.25; 'least': 0.26; 'subject:/': 0.26; 'header:X -Complaints-To:1': 0.27; 'header:In-Reply-To:1': 0.27; 'am,': 0.29; 'character': 0.29; 'characters': 0.30; 'software,': 0.31; 'that.': 0.31; 'clever': 0.31; 'probably': 0.32; 'languages': 0.32; 'worked': 0.33; 'maybe': 0.34; 'could': 0.34; 'usual': 0.35; 'but': 0.35; "didn't": 0.36; 'project': 0.37; 'to:addr:python- list': 0.38; 'track': 0.38; 'anything': 0.39; 'to:addr:python.org': 0.39; 'received:org': 0.40; 'dave': 0.60; 'radio': 0.60; 'most': 0.60; 'hardware': 0.61; 'first': 0.61; "you've": 0.63; 'real': 0.63; 'taking': 0.65; 'wall': 0.65; 'technology,': 0.70; 'challenge.': 0.84; 'played': 0.84; 'angel': 0.91 X-Injected-Via-Gmane: http://gmane.org/ To: python-list@python.org From: Dave Angel Subject: Re: hex dump w/ or w/out utf-8 chars Date: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:54:28 -0400 References: <7b6fc645-8bf3-4681-821c-38fb1fa1d191@googlegroups.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Gmane-NNTP-Posting-Host: 174.32.174.33 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130623 Thunderbird/17.0.7 In-Reply-To: X-BeenThere: python-list@python.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.15 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion list for the Python programming language List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Newsgroups: comp.lang.python Message-ID: Lines: 30 NNTP-Posting-Host: 2001:888:2000:d::a6 X-Trace: 1373374482 news.xs4all.nl 15900 [2001:888:2000:d::a6]:47088 X-Complaints-To: abuse@xs4all.nl Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.python:50238 On 07/09/2013 08:22 AM, Neil Cerutti wrote: > On 2013-07-08, Dave Angel wrote: >> I appreciate you've been around a long time, and worked in a >> lot of languages. I've programmed professionally in at least >> 35 languages since 1967. But we've come a long way from the >> 6bit characters I used in 1968. At that time, we packed them >> 10 characters to each word. > > One of the first Python project I undertook was a program to dump > the ZSCII strings from Infocom game files. They are mostly packed > one character per 5 bits, with escapes to (I had to recheck the > Z-machine spec) latin-1. Oh, those clever implementors: thwarting > hexdumping cheaters and cramming their games onto microcomputers > with one blow. > In 1973 I played with encoding some data that came over the public airwaves (I never learned the specific radio technology, probably used sidebands of FM stations). The data was encoded, with most characters taking 5 bits, and the decoded stream was like a ticker-tape. With some hardware and the right software, you could track Wall Street in real time. (Or maybe it had the usual 15 minute delay). Obviously, they didn't publish the spec any place. But some others had the beginnings of a decoder, and I expanded on that. We never did anything with it, it was just an interesting challenge. -- DaveA