In order to make reading this blog possible on popular 36 bit computers such as the DEC PDP-10, DECSYSTEM-20, IBM 7044, and particularly the Honeywell 6180 running Multics, I have modified the RSS feed to support UTF-9 and UTF-18 character sets in XML, as per the RFC-4042 spec that was introduced today. I'm truly excited by the realization that the extra bit in each character of UTF-9 will make all of my posts 12.5% more interesting, and I look forward to seeing a dramatic increase in my readership as the users of these computing platforms finally have the opportunity to join the blogosphere.

I plan to submit the modified code to OpenNTF sometime soon. Some delay might be warranted in order to investigate the possibility of moving up to the UTF-11 spec currently being written by Nigel Tufnel (of St. Hubbins College at University of Stonehenge), but I promise to get it done before April 1, 2006.

1. Rob McDonagh04/01/2005 05:51:47 PM
Homepage: http://www.CaptainOblivious.com

*snicker*

UTF-11 is a particularly nice touch...

2. 04/02/2005 12:50:59 PM

I feel left out -- what about my PDP-8? Are 12-bit, paper-tape-based systems no longer good enough???

Gary

3. Gary Roberts04/02/2005 05:24:28 PM
Homepage: http://www.DominoHelper.com

UPDATE: I just found the Fortran Compiler (on paper tape, of course) for my PDP-8!!!

Happy days are here again!

Gary

4. Richard Schwartz04/02/2005 07:45:22 PM
Homepage: http://smokey.rhs.com/web/blog/PowerOfTheSchwartz.nsf

I guess it's time to write an RSS reader in Fortran

-rich