8 bit characters dear fellow linguists past months read several postings list using languages english spanish german french finnish italian etc consider situation absolutely delicious adds international flavour discipline proud english native tongue welcome exercise right use language contexts however notorious difficulty 8 bit characters travel cyberspace made really hard send texts comply spelling conventions languages basically accented umlauted vowels greek letters certain symbols big problem sending relatively short emessage colleague speaks language drop accents type plain vowels capitals instead enye type plain n etc real trouble arises wish send polished document paper abstract conference posting bibliography draft thesis distant supervisor etc cases spelling norms crucial obvious solution coding 8 bit characters sequences 7 bit characters think become common practice nt know whether standard conversions coding practice yet object standardisation venture propose one proposal refers characters available extended character set ibm pc compatible computers familiar mac could also used system would like stress fact necessary type long document using coding system rather file must typed usual accented umlauted vowels well rest characters needed language make copy file copy change 8 bit characters 7 bit sequences according table provided procedure manual use searchand replace facility normally available word processor editor remember dos editor done languages ten fewer passes less one minute varying size file important let recipient know coded file fashion append note beginnig document effect suggestion use searchand replace facility make reverse changes well table changes samples feel free edit translate follows wish make note shorter including pertinent given language model note