In message <Pine.NEB.4.33.0112081349570.5062-100000@chylonia.3miasto.net>, Wojc
iech Puchar writes:
>> I'm consolidating support for IBM mainframes under GCC into one port right
>> now (it's all over the place right now), and then I'm going to port the
>> NetBSD kernel.  NetBSD on EBCDIC!!
>
>does it mean all text would be converted?
>
Around 1980, we were about to attempt the first port of Unix to IBM 370 
hardware.  We carefully evaluated the EBCDIC/ASCII question, and 
concluded that there were far too many hidden dependencies on ASCII to 
stick with EBCDIC.   (For what it's worth, management changed course 
when they learned that Amdahl had already done the port, called Au.)

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb
		Full text of "Firewalls" book now at http://www.wilyhacker.com