It is said that the first character encodings, ASCII and EBCDIC, appeared in 1963.
My question: What character encodings preceded them? Did computer process characters before 1963?
In particular, compilers for first high-level programming languages (FORTRAN, Algol, COBOL) appeared before 1963. How did they process characters (source code)? What character encodings did they use?
Best Answer
Morse code is one encoding that was used before ASCII. After that, the Baudot code appeared:
From Wikipedia:
From A Brief History of Character Codes:
After that, Herman Hollerith came up with the concept of punched cards - another form of data/character encoding.
Again from A Brief History of Character Codes (emphasis mine):