millfork/docs/lang/text.md

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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

• vectrex – built-in Vectrex font

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

• {copyright_year} – this expands to the current year in digits

• {program_name} – this expands to the name of the output file without the file extension

• {program_name_upper} – the same, but uppercased

• {nullchar} – the null terminator for strings ("{nullchar}" is equivalent to ""z)

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

• {yen}, {pound}, {copy} – yen symbol, pound symbol, copyright symbol

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
vectrex	no	yes	no	no	no	no
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
vectrex	no	no	no	no	no	no	no
all the rest	yes	yes	no	no	no	no	no