More on ASCII Art and Code • ASCII • History of ASCII Art (includes program history) • Bob Bemer was a major force in the creation of ASCII. • About ASCII and ASCII Art  • ASCII Art Dictionary

Related Resources • The History of Software Innovations

ASCII is an acronym for the American Standard Code for Information Interchange. It is a standard seven-bit code that was first proposed by the American National Standards Institute or ANSI in 1963, and finalized in 1968 as ANSI Standard X3.4. The purpose of ASCII was to allow compatibility between different types of data processing equipment including computers and teletype machines. 

According to Mary Brandel's Computer World article entitled "1963: ASCII Debuts": 

"To understand why ASCII is such a big deal, you have to realize that before it, different computers had no way to communicate with one another. Each manufacturer had its own way of representing letters in the alphabet, numbers and control codes... ASCII functions as a common denominator between computers that otherwise have nothing in common. It works by assigning standard numeric values to letters, numbers, punctuation marks and other characters such as control codes. An uppercase "A," for example, is represented by the number 65."

Most sources credit Robert W. Bemer as being the "father" of ASCII. In May 1961, Bemer submitted a proposal for a common computer code to the ANSI and two years later ANSI agreed upon a common code similar to Bob Bemer's original proposal. Bob Bemer headed the team that created most of the ASCII code. Later ASCII standards included: ISO-14962-1997 and ANSI-X3.4-1986(R1997). 

Side Notes: 

• In 1962, IBM wrote and promoted, a coding standard known as Extended Binary-Coded-Decimal Interchange Code, or EBCDIC, an eight-bit code that was a direct competitor to ASCII. However, ASCII won the standards race. 
• Bob Bemer put the backslash into the ASCII text set.
• In 1981, IBM first used the standard for personal computers, before that the Univac 1050 was the computer to do so. Prior to 1981, IBM used their own EBCDIC standard.

• ASCII Art Styles, Tutorials, and Utilities
• Making your own ASCII Art
• Webclipart's ASCII Art Gallery
• Guide to ASCII Art Diddling
• My ASCII Art by Andreas Freise
• LLizard ASCII Art Animations
• Gallery of Artists
• ASCII Art Films
• More ASCII Art Links

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