Code page 437 is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer), or MS-DOS. It is also known as CP 437, OEM 437, PC-8, MS-DOS Latin US or sometimes it is misleadingly referred to as the OEM font, High ASCII or Extended ASCII.
In a strict sense, this character set was not conceived as a code page—it was simply the graphical glyph repertoire available in the 9 by 14 pixels-per-character font of the IBM Monochrome Display Adapter (MDA) and the 8 by 8 pixels-per-character font of the Color Graphics Adapter (CGA) cards used with the original IBM PC. The ROM of the IBM Enhanced Graphics Adapter (EGA) contains an additional 8 by 14 pixels-per-character version and the VGA adapter expanded the character cell to 9 by 16 for compatibility with the finer VGA resolution. In the 21st century, this character set remains the primary font in the core of any EGA and VGA-compatible graphics card—that is, the text you can see on screen when a PC reboots, before any other font can be loaded from a storage medium, is rendered with this "Code Page". "437" is the default hardware Code Page for PC hardware sold in the United States (US) and Western Europe; systems that are available for purchase in Eastern European, Arabic, and Asian countries may differ.
Read more about Code Page 437: Display Adapters, The Code Page, Alt Codes, Characters, Difference From ASCII, Internationalization
Famous quotes containing the words code and/or page:
“Many people will say to working mothers, in effect, “I don’t think you can have it all.” The phrase for “have it all” is code for “have your cake and eat it too.” What these people really mean is that achievement in the workplace has always come at a price—usually a significant personal price; conversely, women who stayed home with their children were seen as having sacrificed a great deal of their own ambition for their families.”
—Anne C. Weisberg (20th century)
““If Steam has done nothing else, it has at least added a whole new Species to English Literature ... the booklets—the little thrilling romances, where the Murder comes at page fifteen, and the Wedding at page forty—surely they are due to Steam?”
“And when we travel by electricity—if I may venture to develop your theory—we shall have leaflets instead of booklets, and the Murder and the Wedding will come on the same page.””
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)