Hardware code page: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:27, 14 June 2016

Revision as of 14:51, 14 June 2016

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==Code page assignments==

In North American [[IBM-compatible PC]]s, the hardware code page of the display adapter is typically [[code page 437]]. However, various (Eastern) European, Arabic, Middle Eastern and Asian PCs used a number of other code pages as their hardware code page,<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/> including [[code page 100]] ("Hebrew"),<ref name="Paul_2002-09-05"/> [[code page 151|151]] ("Nafitha Arabic"),<ref name="Paul_2002-12-04"/> [[code page 667|667]] ("[[Mazovia encoding|Mazovia]]"),<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 737|737]] ("Greek"), [[code page 850|850]] ("Multilingual"), encodings like "[[Kamenický encoding|Kamenický]]",<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/><ref name="NEC_1992_Flyer"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> "[[KOI-8]]", "[[MIK code page|MIK]]",<ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> and others. Most display adapters support a single 8-bit hardware code page only.<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/> At most, the hardware code page to be activated was user-selectable via [[jumper (computing)|jumper]]s or [[CMOS setup]]. However, some of the display adapters designed for Eastern European, Arabic and Hebrew PCs supported multiple software-''switchable'' hardware code pages, also named '''font pages''',<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/> selectable via additional BIOS functions.<ref name="RBIL_61_INT15h_AX67C3h"/>

In contrast to this, printers frequently support several user-switchable character sets, often including various variants of the 7-bit [[ISO/IEC 646]] character sets such as [[code page 367]] ("[[ISO/IEC 646-US]] / [[ASCII]]"<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/>), sometimes also a couple of 8-bit code pages like [[code page 437]],<ref name="NEC_1990_P90"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/>, [[code page 850|850]],<ref name="NEC_1990_P90"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 851|851]],<ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 852|852]],<ref name="NEC_1993_EPROMs"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 853|853]],<!-- Epson EPL-4300/EPL-8100 --> [[code page 855|855]],<ref name="NEC_1993_EPROMs"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 857|857]],<!-- Epson EPL-4300/EPL-8100 --> [[code page 860|860]],<ref name="NEC_1990_P90"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 861|861]],<!-- Epson EPL-4300/EPL-8100 --> [[code page 863|863]],<ref name="NEC_1990_P90"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> [[code page 865|865]],<ref name="NEC_1990_P90"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/> and [[code page 866|866]].<ref name="NEC_1993_EPROMs"/><ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600"/><ref name="FreeBSD_2016_1"/><ref name="FreeBSD_2016_2"/> Printers for the Eastern European or Middle Eastern markets sometimes support other locale-specific hardware code pages to chose from. They can be selected via [[DIP switch]]es or configuration menus on the printer, or via specific [[escape sequence]]s.<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/><ref group="nb" name="Escape_sequence_Epson_NEC"/>

==Support in operating systems==

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In many English-speaking countries, the primary code page is either 437 (f.e. in the US) or 850 (f.e. in the UK, Irland and Canada),<ref name="Paul_1997_NWDOSTIP"/><ref name="Paul_2001_NWDOSTIP"/> so that, without specifying a different codepage, the system would often assume one of these to be the corresponding device's default hardware code page as well.<ref name="Paul_2001_CPSwitchFD"/>

If a hardware code page does not match one of those with official code page assignments, an arbitrary number from the range 57344-6143957344–61439 (E000h-EFFFhE000h–EFFFh) for [[user-definable code page]]s or 65280-6553365280–65533 (FF00h-FFFDhFF00h–FFFDh) for [[private use code page]]s could be specified per [[IBM CDRA]] to give the operating system a non-conflictive "handle" to select that code page.

[[Arabic MS-DOS|Arabic]] and [[Hebrew MS-DOS]] do not use DISPLAY.SYS and PRINTER.SYS, but provide similar facilities using [[ARABIC.COM]], [[HEBREW.COM]], and [[<!-- Filename written with underscore: "SK_HGC.COM" -->SK{{text|_|HGC.COM}}]].<ref name="Paul_2002-12-04"/>

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==Notes==

{{reflist|group="nb"|refs=

<ref group="nb" name="Escape_sequence_Epson_NEC">On [[Epson]], [[NEC]] and [[NECFujitsu]] [[ESC/P]] compatible printers, the [[escape sequence]] to switch to various hardware code pages is <code>ESC R (n)</code> with (n) = 0..254 being a code associated with specific character sets. The range of supported codes depends on the printer model and installed font options.</ref>

}}

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</ref>

<ref name="Phoenix_1991_BIOS">{{cite book |title=System BIOS for IBM PCs, Compatibles, and EISA Computers&nbsp;— The Complete Guide to ROM-Based System Software |author=Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. |author-link=Phoenix Technologies |series=Phoenix Technical Reference Series |publisher=[[Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.]] |edition=2nd |year=June 1991 |___location=Amsterdam |isbn=0-201-57760-7 |pages=140–141}}

</ref>

<ref name="Fujitsu_1994_DL6400_DL6600">{{cite book |title=Fujitsu DL6400/DL6600 Dot Matrix Printer User's Manual |publisher=[[Fujitsu Limited]] |date=April 1994 |id=C147-E015-01EN |url=http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/COMP/fcpa/printers/dl6400_user-manual.pdf |access-date=2016-06-14 |dead-url=no |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160614143230/http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/COMP/fcpa/printers/dl6400_user-manual.pdf |archive-date=2016-06-14}}

</ref>

}}