Iranian Standard Code for Information Interchange (ISCII)

Abstract

The need for a standard code for computer data representation is well understood. Such standards for Latin speaking countries have been in existence for decades and have facilitated information interchange and the advancement of computer peripheral technology. In this paper we present the proposed Iranian Standard Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) and the proposed Iranian Standard Keyboard Layout. The Iranian standards are specified to accomodate the difficult goals of maintaining the 7-bit ASCII subset for bilingual applications and a well defined collating sequence while allowing for the variety of shapes that letters of the Farsi alphabet assume depending on their position in a written word, a problem that is shared by another script language — Arabic. The proposed ISCII, which is compatible with ISO-IRV, is shown to satisfy the two criteria of sufficiency and efficiency for computer data representation and display purposes. Furthermore, it is independent of the strengths or limitations of any particular computer output display technology.