character set

character 1. A particular mapping between characters and

byte strings, i.e. the combination of a particular

character encoding (which maps between byte strings and

integers) and a particular coded character set (which maps

between integers and characters).

For example: ASCII (the ASCII coded character set, encoded

directly as single-byte values), or UTF-8 (the Unicode coded

character set, encoded with an 8-bit transformation method).

2. Occasionally: a character repertoire; or a codedcharacter set.

(1998-12-17)