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+.TH ascii 1
+.SH NAME
+ascii -- report character aliases
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+ascii char-alias...
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+Characters in the ASCII set can have many aliases, depending on context. A
+character's possible names include:
+.TP 3
+*
+Its bit pattern
+.TP 3
+*
+Its hex, decimal and octal representations.
+.TP 3
+*
+Its teletype mnemonic and caret-notation form (for control chars)
+.TP 3
+*
+Its backlash-escape form in C (for some control chars).
+.TP 3
+*
+Its printed form (for printables).
+.TP 3
+*
+Its full official name in English.
+.TP 3
+*
+Slang and other names in wide use for it among hackers.
+.P
+This utility accepts command-line strings and tries to interpret them as
+one of the above. When it finds a value, it prints \fIall\fR of the names
+of the character. If an argument could be interpreted in two or more
+ways, names for all the different characters it might be are dumped.
+.P
+This utility is particularly handy for interpreting cc(1)'s ugly
+octal `invalid-character' messages, or when coding anything to do with serial
+communications. As a side effect it serves as a handy base-converter
+for random 8-bit values.
+.P
+For correct results, be careful to stringize or quote shell metacharacters
+in arguments (especially backslash).
+.P
+The slang names recognized and printed out are from a rather comprehensive
+list that appeared on USENET in early 1990. Mnemonics recognized and printed
+include the official ASCII set, some official ISO names (where those differ)
+and a few common-use alternatives (such as NL for LF). All comparisons are
+case-insensitive, and dashes are mapped to spaces.
+.SH AUTHOR
+Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com> November 1990. Reproduce, use,
+and modify as you like as long as you don't remove this authorship notice.
+