What is .NET? The .NET Framework is a collection of programs and code libraries that provide a means to produce software applications. The Framework comprises of two main parts: a run-time engine to host the applications; and a software development kit (SDK) that allows developers to create the programs in the first place.
The Extended ASCII character set extends the basic 7-bit ASCII range to 8-bits, to provide additional character encoding for broader character representation scenarios.
It builds upon ISO/IEC 2022 which defined the initial 8-bit ASCII character set, with the C0 character set range replicating 7-bit ASCII and the C1 range covering extended control characters using character codes 128-159.
ASCII is an acronym for ‘American Standard Code for Information Interchange’ and is a very old and long-lived data format.
The standard dates back to the 1960s, and is still in use today.
The lower 7-bit ASCII range represents a standardised western (English) alphabet.