not just one RFC this month, but RFC 4042 also. this one introduces two new encoding formats of Unicode, called UTF-9 and UTF-18, for machines with a 9-bit byte.
kind of amusing but also a bit of a ripoff of ATF-8.
'tis a standard for something entirely pointless. also, one of the code examples is in a bizarre programming language (PDP-10 assembly, not used for several decades really). so yes. but would have been funnier had ATF-8 not already parodied UTF-8 in a much more amusing (and harder to explain) way.
the problem with that is that UTF-9 would actually be quite sensible for people working on PDP-10s (yes, they're still around), so it loses a lot of the humour value...
yes. i send an aggrieved email asking why ATF-8 was not cited, and got a brusque reply not really confirming if they knew they were stealing me and Marco's joke or not. if it was done with better humour, i would be less annoyed.
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