Next: Upper Case - Lower Up: Eight Bit Clean Issues Previous: Displaying Characters with the Contents

## Inputting Characters with the hight bit Set

Inputting characters with the high bit set into jed is another issue. How jed interprets this bit is controlled by the variable `META_CHAR`. What happens is this: When jed reads a character from the input device with the high bit set, it:

1. Checks the value of `META_CHAR`. If this value is -1, jed simply inserts the character into the buffer.

2. For any other value of `META_CHAR` in the range 0 to 255, jed returns two 7-bit characters. The first character returned is `META_CHAR` itself. The next character returned is the original character but with the high bit stripped.

The default value of `META_CHAR` is -1 which means that when jed sees a character with the high bit set, jed leaves it as is. Please note that a character with the high bit set it cannot be the prefix character of a keymap. It can be a part of the keymap but not the prefix.

Some systems only handle 7-bit character sequences and as a result, jed will only see 7-bit characters. jed is still able to insert any character in the range 0-255 on a 7-bit system. This is done through the use of the `quoted_insert` function which, by default, is bound to the backquote key ```. If the `quoted_insert` function is called with a digit argument (repeat argument), the character with the value of the argument is inserted into the buffer. Operationally, one hits ESC, enters the extended Ascii code and hits the backquote key. For example, to insert character 255 into the buffer, simply press the following five keys: ESC 2 5 5 `.

Next: Upper Case - Lower Up: Eight Bit Clean Issues Previous: Displaying Characters with the Contents