eight-bit clean

software A term which describes a system that deals

correctly with extended character sets which (unlike ASCII)

use all eight bits of a byte. Many programs and

communications systems assume that all characters have codes

in the range 0 to 127. This leaves the top bit of each byte

free for use as a parity bit or some kind of flag bit.

These assumptions break down when the program is used in some

non-english-speaking countries with larger alphabets.

If a binary file is transmitted via a communications link

which is not eight-bit clean, it will be corrupted. To combat

this you can encode it with uuencode which uses only ASCII

characters. There are some links however which are not even

"seven-bit clean" and cause problems even for uuencoded data.

(1995-01-05)