Windows code page: Difference between revisions

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'''Windows code pages''' are sets of characters or [[code pages]] (known as [[character encoding]]s in other operating systems) used in [[Microsoft Windows]] from the 1980s and 1990s. Windows code pages were gradually superseded when [[Unicode in Microsoft Windows|Unicode was implemented in Windows]],{{cn|date=October 2020}} although they are still supported both within Windows and other platforms, and still apply when [[Alt code]] shortcuts are used.

Current Windows versions support [[Unicode]], new Windows applications should use Unicode (UTF-8) and not 8-bit character encodings.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/intl/unicode-and-character-sets |title=Unicode and character sets |publisher=Microsoft |date=2023-06-13 |access-date=2024-05-27}}</ref>.

There are two groups of system code pages in Windows systems: OEM and Windows-native ("ANSI") code pages.

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|extends=[[ASCII]]

|prev=[[ISO 8859]]

|next=[[Unicode]]<br />[[UTF-16]] (in Win32 API)<br/>[[UTF-8]] (for files)

|otherrelated=

}}

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== History ==

Initially,Early computer systems had limited storage and systemrestricted programmingthe languagesnumber didof not[[bit]]s makeavailable ato distinctionencode betweena [[character (computing)|character]]. Although earlier proprietary encodings had fewer, the [[ASCII|American Standard Code for Information Interchange]] (ASCII) settled on seven bits: this was sufficient to encode a 96 member subset of the characters used in the US. As eight-bit [[byte]]s came to predominate, Microsoft (and others) expanded the repertoire to 224, to handle a variety of other uses such a box-drawing symbols. The need to provide [[byteprecomposed character]]s for the Western European and South American markets required a different character set: Microsoft established the principle of code pages, one for each alphabet. For the [[List of writing systems#Segmental script|segmental scripts]] used in most of Africa, the Americas, southern and south-east Asia, the Middle East and Europe, a character needs just one byte, but two or more bytes are needed for the [[ideographic]] sets used in the rest of the world. ThisThe subsequentlycode-page ledmodel towas much confusion. Microsoft software and systems priorunable to the [[Windows NT]] line are examples ofhandle this, because they use the OEM and ANSI code pages that do not make the distinctionchallenge.

Since the late 1990s, software and systems have adopted [[Unicode]] as their preferred storagecharacter encoding format;: thisUnicode trendis hasdesigned beento improvedhandle bymillions theof widespreadcharacters. adoptionAll ofcurrent Microsoft products and [[XMLapplication program interfaces]] whichuse defaultUnicode tointernally,{{cn|date=October [[UTF-8]]2020}} but alsosome providesapplications acontinue mechanismto for labellinguse the default encoding{{clarify|date=October used2024}} of the computer's 'locale' when reading and writing text data to files or standard output.<ref>{{citecn|date=October web2020}} Therefore, files may still be encountered that are legible and intelligible in one part of the world but unintelligible [[mojibake]] in another.

|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#charencoding

|title=Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 (Second Edition): Character encodings

|publisher=[[W3C]]

|date=29 September 2006

|access-date=5 October 2020

|archive-date=19 April 2021

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210419133700/https://www.w3.org/TR/xml11/#charencoding

|url-status=live}}</ref> All current Microsoft products and [[application program interfaces]] use Unicode internally,{{cn|date=October 2020}} but some applications continue to use the default encoding of the computer's 'locale' when reading and writing text data to files or standard output.{{cn|date=October 2020}} Therefore, files may still be encountered that are legible and intelligible in one part of the world but unintelligible [[mojibake]] in another.

=== UTF-8, UTF-16 ===

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* {{anchor|CP437}}[[Code page 437|437]] – IBM PC US, 8-bit [[SBCS]] [[extended ASCII]].<ref name="IBM_CP437">{{cite web|author=IBM|title=SBCS code page information document - CPGID 00437|url=http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp00437.html|access-date=2014-07-04|archive-date=2016-06-09|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160609084933/https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp00437.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Known as OEM-US, the encoding of the primary built-in font of VGA graphics cards.<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate --><!-- [[Windows 1.0|1.00]]-[[Windows ME|4.90]] -->

* [[Code page 708|708]] – Arabic, extended [[ISO 8859-6]] (ASMO 708)<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 720|720]] – Arabic, retaining box drawing characters in their usual locations<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 737|737]] – "MS-DOS Greek". Retains all box drawing characters. More popular than 869.<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 775|775]] – "MS-DOS Baltic Rim"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 850|850]] – "MS-DOS Latin 1". Full (re-arranged) repertoire of [[ISO 8859-1]].<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 852|852]] – "MS-DOS Latin 2"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 855|855]] – "MS-DOS Cyrillic". Mainly used for [[South Slavic languages]]. Includes (re-arranged) repertoire of [[ISO-8859-5]]. Not to be confused with cp866.<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 857|857]] – "MS-DOS Turkish"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 858|858]] – Western European with euro sign<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 860|860]] – "MS-DOS Portuguese"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 861|861]] – "MS-DOS Icelandic"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

* [[Code page 862|862]] – "MS-DOS Hebrew"<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

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|first=Alexandre

|last=Julliard

|archive-date=1911 AprilMarch 2021

|publisher=[[Wine (software)|Wine Project]]

|access-date=2021-03-14

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|[[Code page 20423|20423]]||423||EBCDIC Greek with Extended Latin<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

|-

|[[Code page 20424|20424]]||-424||x-EBCDIC-KoreanExtended Hebrew<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

|-

|[[Code page 20833|20833]]||833||Korean EBCDIC for N-Byte Hangul; {{code|x-EBCDIC-KoreanExtended}}<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

|-

|[[Code page 20838|20838]]||838||EBCDIC Thai<!-- Windows 7 Ultimate -->

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* The use of code pages limits the set of characters that may be used.

* Characters expressed in an unsupported code page may be converted to question marks (?) or other [[replacement character]]s, or to a simpler version (such as removing accents from a letter). In either case, the original character may be lost.

== See also ==

* [[AppLocale]]&nbsp;– a utility to run non-Unicode (code page-based) applications in a locale of the user's choice.

==References==