meaning of meta bit
1. meta bit The top bit of an 8-bit character, which is on in character values 128--255. Also called high bit, alt bit, or hobbit. Some terminals and consoles see space-cadet keyboard have a META shift key. Others including, *mirabile dictu*, keyboards on IBM PC-class machines have an ALT key. See also bucky bits. Historical note: although in modern usage shaped by a universe of 8-bit bytes the meta bit is invariably hex 80 octal 0200, things were different on earlier machines with 36 bit words and 9-bit bytes. The MIT and Stanford keyboards see space-cadet keyboard generated hex 100 octal 400 from their meta keys. [Jargon File] MetaCard A commercial human interface and hypertext system for Unix and the X Window System, similar to Hypercard.
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