Talk:JIS X 0201

Why katakana?

I think the article needs to explain why katakana was used for the second character set. Shinobu 15:44, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Sorry for extremely belated reply, but Katakana is the most versatile of the two syllabaries, being used to write foreign words, some Japanese onomatopoeiea, even a few Japanese names etc. -- and Katakana characters also would display better on early crude screens and printers. Many of the home / small-business computers and computer printers available in Japan during the 1980s only supported ASCII + Katakana... AnonMoos (talk) 04:56, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

SO/SI - which does what?

For 7-bit encoding, it is 128 potential codes where two 96 graphic character sets selected with Shift Out and Shift In characters.

So which one selects katakana, and which one Latin characters? Shinobu 17:26, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

Following graphic character set is assigned to GL region. (a) Preceded by SI until next SO, Latin graphic character set. (b) Preceded by SO until next SI, the Katakana graphic character set. N.B.: Initial condition of GL assignment is specified by the agreement of sender and receiver. In general, Latin graphic character set is desirable. (rough translation from JIS X 0201 section 6.3 (2)) --Fukumoto 13:35, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

Thank you! So SI selects Latin, while SO selects katakana. You wouldn't happen to have a link, would you? Are these JIS standards published anywhere, e.g. on http://www.jisc.go.jp/? Shinobu 18:29, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

You need to be able to read Japanese, though. A button labeled JIS検索 near the top of rightside of that page leads to http://www.jisc.go.jp/app/JPS/JPSO0020.html Javascript and Cookie required. Enter X0201 to the first input field. Click OK for copyright caution window. --Fukumoto 12:19, 2 September 2007 (UTC)

I note that this is the same approach taken by KOI7. Shinobu 18:49, 1 September 2007 (UTC)