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]

In addition suitable contents:
[ 2 ] [ = ] [ ad ] [ ag ] [ AL ] [ al ] [ alt ] [ alt bit ] [ am ] [ an ] [ ar ] [ arc ] [ arg ] [ as ] [ at ] [ av ] [ B ] [ b ] [ bb ] [ bi ] [ bit ] [ bo ] [ boa ] [ board ] [ bucky bits ] [ by ] [ byte ] [ C ] [ ca ] [ ch ] [ char ] [ character ] [ ck ] [ cl ] [ class ] [ co ] [ con ] [ cons ] [ console ] [ de ] [ diff ] [ ding ] [ du ] [ E ] [ ed ] [ ee ] [ er ] [ era ] [ es ] [ ET ] [ et ] [ fi ] [ file ] [ fo ] [ for ] [ fr ] [ ge ] [ gen ] [ generate ] [ gh ] [ gs ] [ h ] [ hex ] [ high bit ] [ hing ] [ hobbit ] [ hr ] [ IBM ] [ id ] [ ie ] [ iff ] [ il ] [ in ] [ inc ] [ ir ] [ is ] [ IT ] [ it ] [ J ] [ Jargon File ] [ ke ] [ key ] [ keyboard ] [ ky ] [ la ] [ Lex ] [ li ] [ ls ] [ lt ] [ lu ] [ ly ] [ M ] [ ma ] [ machine ] [ META ] [ meta ] [ MIT ] [ mo ] [ mod ] [ mode ] [ module ] [ na ] [ nc ] [ ne ] [ nf ] [ ng ] [ ni ] [ no ] [ ns ] [ O ] [ octal ] [ om ] [ op ] [ pa ] [ PC ] [ pe ] [ ph ] [ query ] [ rc ] [ re ] [ rl ] [ ro ] [ S ] [ sa ] [ se ] [ sh ] [ so ] [ space ] [ space-cadet keyboard ] [ st ] [ T ] [ TA ] [ terminal ] [ th ] [ to ] [ ug ] [ us ] [ va ] [ value ] [ var ] [ ve ] [ word ] [ yt ]