From jimc@MATH.UCLA.EDU Tue Dec 05 11:23:17 2000 Return-Path: X-Sender: jimc@math.ucla.edu X-Apparently-To: lojban@egroups.com Received: (EGP: mail-6_3_1_3); 5 Dec 2000 19:23:16 -0000 Received: (qmail 11982 invoked from network); 5 Dec 2000 19:23:16 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l7.egroups.com with QMQP; 5 Dec 2000 19:23:16 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO bodhi.math.ucla.edu) (128.97.4.253) by mta1 with SMTP; 5 Dec 2000 19:23:15 -0000 Received: from localhost (bodhi.math.ucla.edu [128.97.4.253]) by bodhi.math.ucla.edu (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id LAA10135; Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:23:07 -0800 (PST) Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:23:07 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: jimc@xena.cft.ca.us To: Pierre Abbat Cc: lojban@egroups.com Subject: Re: [lojban] common words In-Reply-To: <0012031725560F.11907@neofelis> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII From: Jim Carter On Sun, 3 Dec 2000, Pierre Abbat wrote: > Okay, so what do we call "codes" such as ASCII, Unicode, Morse, and Big5 which > aren't secret? Are they also termifra, as are PGP, Blowfish, and the lead-bound > code book on a ship? To me the essence of a "code" is secrecy, so the "American Standard Code for Information Interchange" has a name which is an oxymoron. I'm inclined to call it an "alphabet" suited to a particular medium (te ciska) and language in the way that Roman glyphs are suited to ink on paper. Yes, the word "alphabet" normally means a phoneme-level representation and big5 doesn't qualify. Even so, it's a lot closer (as seen by me) to an alphabet than to a cypher. James F. Carter Voice 310 825 2897 FAX 310 206 6673 UCLA-Mathnet; 6115 MSA; 405 Hilgard Ave.; Los Angeles, CA, USA 90095-1555 Internet: jimc@math.ucla.edu (finger for PGP key) UUCP:...!{ucsd,ames,ncar,gatech,purdue,rutgers,decvax,uunet}!math.ucla.edu!jimc