ASCII is the American Standard Code for International Interchange.

It is a standard for encoding and storing text files and certain programing source code. ASCII is a coding standard that identifies letters, numbers, and various symbols by code numbers for the exchange of data between multiple computer systems. It includes definitions for 128 characters and 95 printable characters including the space command.

Unicode provides a unique number for every character, no matter what the platform, no matter what the program, no matter what the language. It is supported in many operating systems, all modern browsers, and many other products. The emergence of the Unicode Standard, and the availability of tools supporting it, is among the most significant recent global software technology trends (Unicode.org, 2011).

ASCII message: This is pretty neat stuff!

84 104 105 115 32 105 115 32 112 114 101 116 116 121 32 110 101 97 116 32 115 116 117 102 102 33

Unicode message: I need to practice the basic math!

49 20 6E 65 65 64 20 74 6F 20 70 72 61 63 74 69 63 65 20 74 68 65 20 62 61 73 69 63 20 6D 61 74 68 21

References

Englander, I. (2009). The architecture of computer hardware, systems software, & networking: An information technology approach (4th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. unicode.org. (2011). What is unicode? Retrieved 4/18, 2012, from http://unicode.org/standard/WhatIsUnicode.html