-> It just dawned on me (after reading Mr. McBrine's post) that if one
-> were to use only decimal numerics and English alphas converting from
-> ASCII to EBCIDIC or vice versa would be really quick (as in table
-> driven, no decisions).

That's why the IBM B.A.L. command is called -- "TRT" -- (translate
table) ....  No only is it convenient for ASCII to EBCDIC conversions;
it is even convenient for EBCDIC to EBCDIC conversions!  EBCDIC is the
"swiss cheeze" character set, the only character set with
"holes".  The
"ultimate" in backwards compatibility!  (Well, all of that Hollerith
census data was gathered in base 10, and when the census tabulation
equipment went binary and hexadecimal to become electronic and digital,
it left gaps in the character set in the 'A' to 'E' positions of each
character row; therefore the 'E' stands for "extended" and EBCDIC stands
for annoying....)

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