Using Alternate Character Sets Provided by Code Pages

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Pressing the ALT key in conjunction with the numbers on the numeric keypad will create extended, or special, characters. Extended characters are those characters above ASCII 127. Different code pages support different extended characters. For example, when you are using code page 437, pressing ALT+157 produces a Y with two short horizontal lines through it. With code page 850, these keys produce a zero with a line through it.

To use different code pages, add the following commands to the CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files:

• In the CONFIG.SYS file, add:

        country=001,,c:\dos\country.sys
        device=c:\dos\display.sys con=(ega,437,2)
  							

• In the AUTOEXEC.BAT file, add:

        chcp 850
        REM change to the 859 character set
        keyb us,,c:\dos\keyboard.sys
        REM need only for keyboard change
  							

Please note that the "EGA" in the above commands is used for both EGA and VGA monitors.

You can also change the code page at the MS-DOS prompt by issuing the following command:

   chcp 437
					

The code page change issued after a RUN command does not affect the current session of FoxPro because the RUN command starts another MS-DOS session.

In Windows, the default code page is 1252; you can change it to 850 or some other code page by quitting Windows and running the Windows Setup program.