^X (was: an odd question

I always assumed it had to do with 6-bit character set implementations. On the CDC Cybers, which used a 6-bit character set, the peripheral processors could be switched to a 7-bit mode, where lowercase characters were translated into those 2-character sequences, and vice-versa. I cant recall the exact scheme, but i seem to recall 2 different prefix characters being used... Anyways, as i say i cant recall the Cyber character set... but it was something like ^A would be translated to a lowercase a, and the ^ sort of switched bit 7 on (or xored it, or however you want to think of it). And if you think of the ASCII character set, ^A would be a control-A if bit 7 was switched from the capital A character. and referring to ^a instead of ^A would normally be a mistake made by people who dont realize that lowercase is inherently inferior ;) Thats my theory. -Lawrence LeMay