ASCII

[Edward Glowacki]

We had an exam in TC 201, and one of the questions was 

ASCII is:
a. blah
b. blah
c. blah
d. blah blah blah with a parity bit

d. was the expected answer, as the book (which I never bought) says
"ASCII is 7 bits plus a parity bit" and we were told in class,
"ASCII is 7 bits plus a parity bit."  I left the question blank
and wrote in big letters, "None of these answers are correct."  As
far as I have ever heard, known, or can read anywhere without
spending $18 for an official copy of the standard, parity is not
a *part* of ASCII, but is often used *with* ASCII.  I don't care
about the one point on the exam really, I'm basically going after
this one on principle, because I believe that the information
presented is wrong (as is soooo much else in that class, but I'm
not going to go into it here.  If you want to hear me rant, ask me
about TC 201 sometime... ;) ).  I'm looking for verification of
this.  Right now my best verification is the Encyclopedia Britannica,
but I'd prefer a more official source if possible.


-- 
Edward Glowacki				glowack2@msu.edu
GLLUG President				http://www.gllug.org
Imagination is the one weapon in the war against reality.
                -- Jules de Gaultier