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Undid revision 1303413657 by Dimitriy Ryazantcev (talk) Remove misleading text, has nothing to do with 0 prefix. The fact is that Alt-code for box drawing characters on MSDOS just did not work on Windows, nothing could change it until they added Unicode |
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The Alt codes had become so well known and memorized by users that Microsoft decided to preserve them in [[Microsoft Windows]], even though the OS features a newer and different set of code pages such as [[CP1252]]. Windows includes the following processing algorithm for Alt code, which supports both methods:
* The familiar {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|#}}{{key press|#}}{{key press|#}} combination retains the old [[MS-DOS]] behavior, i.e., generates characters from the legacy code pages now called "[[Windows code page#OEM code page|OEM code pages]]".<ref name="WindowsAltAlgo" /> For instance {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|1}}{{key press|6}}{{key press|3}} produces {{unichar|00fa}}. code point 163 in [[CP437]] or [[CP850]].
* The new {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|0}}{{key press|#}}{{key press|#}}{{key press|#}} combination (which prefixes a zero to each Alt code), produces characters from the newer "[[Windows code page#ANSI code page|ANSI code pages]]".{{efn|Microsoft acknowledged that "ANSI code pages" is a misnomer term and better name is "Windows code page".}}<ref name="WindowsAltAlgo">{{Cite web |date=2016-07-22 |title=To input characters that are not on your keyboard |url=http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/lang_char_code_input.mspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160722031546/http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/lang_char_code_input.mspx?mfr=true |archive-date=2016-07-22 |access-date=2022-12-30 |website=Microsoft }}</ref> For instance {{key press|Alt}}+{{key press|0}}{{key press|1}}{{key press|6}}{{key press|3}} results in {{unichar|00a3}}, which occupies position 163 in [[CP1252]]. In this case, the exact [[code page]] is determined by the currently active input locale<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-08-30 |title=Default input profiles (input locales) in Windows|url=https://learn.microsoft.com/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/default-input-locales-for-windows-language-packs |access-date=2025-07-31 |website=Microsoft Learn }}</ref>, which can result in different characters being printed from the same Alt code combination.<ref name="WindowsAltAlgo"/>
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