Editing RS-232 (section)

==Scope of the standard==
The [[Electronic Industries Association]] (EIA) standard RS-232-C<ref name="eia">{{cite book |title=EIA standard RS-232-C: Interface between Data Terminal Equipment and Data Communication Equipment Employing Serial Binary Data Interchange |year=1969 |publisher=[[Electronic Industries Association]], Engineering Department |location=Washington, USA |oclc=38637094}}</ref> as of 1969 defines:
*Electrical signal characteristics such as [[logic level]]s, [[baud rate]], timing, and [[slew rate]] of signals, voltage withstand level, [[short-circuit]] behavior, and maximum load [[capacitance]].
*Interface mechanical characteristics, pluggable connectors and pin identification.
*Functions of each circuit in the interface connector.
*Standard subsets of interface circuits for selected telecom applications.

The standard does not define such elements as the [[character encoding]] (i.e. [[ASCII]], [[EBCDIC]], or others), the framing of characters (start or stop bits, etc.), transmission order of bits, or error detection protocols. The character format and transmission bit rate are set by the serial port hardware, typically a [[UART]], which may also contain circuits to convert the internal [[logic level]]s to RS-232 compatible signal levels. The standard does not define bit rates for transmission, except that it says it is intended for [[bit rate]]s lower than 20,000 bits per second.