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Text encodings ans escape sequences

Text encoding list

  • default – default console encoding (can be omitted)

  • scr – default screencodes (usually the same as default, a notable exception are the Commodore computers)

  • ascii – standard ASCII

  • pet or petscii – PETSCII (ASCII-like character set used by Commodore machines from VIC-20 onward)

  • petjp or petsciijp – PETSCII as used on Japanese versions of Commodore 64

  • origpet or origpetscii – old PETSCII (Commodore PET with original ROMs)

  • oldpet or oldpetscii – old PETSCII (Commodore PET with newer ROMs)

  • cbmscr or petscr – Commodore screencodes

  • cbmscrjp or petscrjp – Commodore screencodes as used on Japanese versions of Commodore 64

  • apple2 – Apple II charset ($A0–$DF)

  • bbc – BBC Micro character set

  • sinclair – ZX Spectrum character set

  • jis or jisx – JIS X 0201

  • iso_de, iso_no, iso_se, iso_yu – various variants of ISO/IEC-646

  • iso_dk, iso_fi – aliases for iso_no and iso_se respectively

  • msx_intl, msx_jp, msx_ru – MSX character encoding, International, Japanese and Russian respectively

  • msx_us, msx_uk, msx_fr, msx_de – aliases for msx_intl

  • atascii or atari – ATASCII as seen on Atari 8-bit computers

  • atasciiscr or atariscr – screencodes used by Atari 8-bit computers

When programming for Commodore, use pet for strings you're printing using standard I/O routines and petscr for strings you're copying to screen memory directly.

Escape sequences

Escape sequences allow for including characters in the string literals that would be otherwise impossible to type.

Some escape sequences may expand to multiple characters. For example, in several encodings {n} expands to {x0D}{x0A}.

Available everywhere

  • {q} – double quote symbol

  • {apos} – apostrophe/single quote

  • {x00}–{xff} – a character of the given hexadecimal value

Available only in some encodings

  • {n} – new line

  • {b} – backspace

  • {lbrace}, {rbrace} – opening and closing curly brace (only in encodings that support braces)

  • {up}, {down}, {left}, {right} – control codes for moving the cursor

  • {white}, {black}, {red}, {green}, {blue}, {cyan}, {yellow}, {purple} – control codes for changing the text color

  • {bgwhite}, {bgblack}, {bgred}, {bggreen}, {bgblue}, {bgcyan}, {bgyellow}, {bgpurple} – control codes for changing the text background color

  • {reverse}, {reverseoff} – inverted mode on/off

Character availability
Encoding lowercase letters backslash pound yen katakana card suits
pet, origpet yes¹ no no no no yes¹
oldpet yes² no no no no yes²
petscr yes¹ no yes no no yes¹
petjp no no no yes yes³ yes³
petscrjp no no no yes yes³ yes³
sinclair, bbc yes yes yes no no no
apple2 no yes no no no no
atascii yes yes no no no yes
atasciiscr yes yes no no no yes
jis yes no no yes yes no
msx_intl yes yes yes yes no yes
msx_jp yes no no yes yes yes
msx_ru yes yes no no no yes
all the rest yes yes no no no no

  1. pet, origpet and petscr cannot display card suit symbols and lowercase letters at the same time. Card suit symbols are only available in graphics mode, in which lowercase letters are displayed as uppercase and uppercase letters are displayed as symbols.

  2. oldpet cannot display card suit symbols and lowercase letters at the same time. Card suit symbols are only available in graphics mode, in which lowercase letters are displayed as symbols.

  3. petjp and petscrjp cannot display card suit symbols and katakana at the same time Card suit symbols are only available in graphics mode, in which katakana is displayed as symbols.

If the encoding does not support lowercase letters (e.g. apple2, petjp, petscrjp), then text and character literals containing lowercase letters are automatically converted to uppercase.

Escape sequence availability
Encoding new line braces backspace cursor movement text colour reverse background colour
pet,petjp yes no no yes yes yes no
origpet yes no no yes no yes no
oldpet yes no no yes no yes no
petscr, petscrjp no no no no no no no
sinclair yes yes no yes yes yes yes
ascii, iso_* yes yes yes no no no no
apple2 no yes no no no no no
atascii yes no yes yes no no no
atasciiscr no no no no no no no
all the rest yes yes no no no no no