Meta bit




The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values 128--255.

Also called high bit, alt bit, or hobbit.

Some terminals and consoles (see space-cadet keyboard) have a META shift key.

Others (including, *mirabile dictu*, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines) have an ALT key.

See also bucky bits.

Historical note: although in modern usage shaped by a universe of 8-bit bytes the meta bit is invariably hex 80 (octal 0200), things were different on earlier machines with 36 bit words and 9-bit bytes.

The MIT and Stanford keyboards (see space-cadet keyboard) generated hex 100 (octal 400) from their meta keys.

[Jargon File]





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Messaging Applications Programming Interface
mess-dos
META
meta
META 5
alt bit
double bucky
dread high bit disease
high bit
hobbit
MetaCard
Meta-CASE tool
Metaclass
Meta-Crystal
Metadata