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Definition of Unicode

By , About.com Guide

Definition: Unicode is a comprehensive way of defining characters electronically for compatability throughout the world. It has to deal with the fact that much software still exists using 8 bit characters while 16 bits is needed for many countries.

Prior to Unicode, ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) was the standard and the first 128 characters of Unicode are effectively ASCII.

Glossary:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Also Known As: 16 Bit Chars
Examples:
When I rewrote my application for .NET, all my 8 bit chars were converted to 16.
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