eight-bit clean
     
         A term which describes a system that deals
        correctly with extended character sets which (unlike ASCII)
        use all eight bits of a byte.  Many programs and
        communications systems assume that all characters have codes
        in the range 0 to 127.  This leaves the top bit of each byte
        free for use as a parity bit or some kind of flag bit.
        These assumptions break down when the program is used in some
        non-english-speaking countries with larger alphabets.
     
        If a binary file is transmitted via a communications link
        which is not eight-bit clean, it will be corrupted.  To combat
        this you can encode it with uuencode which uses only ASCII
        characters.  There are some links however which are not even
        "seven-bit clean" and cause problems even for uuencoded data.
     
        (1995-01-05)