What is ANSI encoding and what does it eat with?

Before answering the question about what is ANSI Windows encoding, we first answer another question: "What is encoding in general?"

Each computer, each system uses a certain set of characters, depending on the language used by the user, on his professional competencies and personal preferences.

General definition of encoding

So, in Russian, 33 characters are used to designate letters, in English - 26. Also 10 digits are used for counting (0; 1; 2; 3; 4; 5; 6; 7; 8; 9) and some special characters, in including comma, minus, space, period, percentage, and so on.

Each of these characters is assigned a serial number using the code table. For example, the letter "A" may be assigned the number 1; "Z" is 26 and so on.

Actually, a number representing a character as an integer is considered a character code, and the encoding is, accordingly, a set of characters in such a table.

A wealth of code table diversity

At the moment, there are a fairly large number of encodings and code tables used by different specialists: this is ASCII, developed in 1963 in America, and Windows-1251, most recently still popular thanks to Microsoft, KOI8-R and Guobiao - and many, many others, and the process of their appearance and death occurs to this day.

Among this huge list, the so-called ANSI encoding is absolutely special.

The fact is that at one time, Microsoft created a whole set of code pages:

All of them received the general name of the ANSI encoding table, or ANSI code page.

An interesting fact: one of the first code tables was ASCII, created in 1963 by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), abbreviated as ANSI.

Among other things, this encoding also contains non-printed characters, the so-called "Escape Sequences", or ESC, unique to all symbol tables, often incompatible with each other. With skillful use, however, they allowed you to hide and restore the cursor, translate it from one position in the text to another, set tabs, erase the part of the terminal window in which you were working, change the formatting of the text on the screen and change the color (or even draw and serve sound signals!). In 1976, by the way, this was a pretty good help for programmers. By the way, a terminal is a device required for input and output of information. In those days, it was a monitor and keyboard connected to a computer (electronic computer).

Incorrect display of characters

Unfortunately, in the future, such a system caused numerous system crashes, displaying the so-called krakozyabry — meaningless, unreadable character sets — instead of the desired poems, news feeds, or descriptions of your favorite computer games. The appearance of these ubiquitous errors was caused only by an attempt to display the characters encoded in one code table using another.

Most often, we still encounter the consequences of incorrect reading of this encoding on the Internet, when for some reason our browser cannot accurately determine which of the Windows - **** encodings is currently in use, due to the indication of the web -master of general ANSI encoding or initially incorrect encoding, for example, 1252 instead of 1521. The exact encoding table is presented below.

Cyrillic ANSI Encoding Table, Windows-1251

No. P / p.	Hex	SYMBOL	No. P / p.	Hex	SYMBOL	No. P / p.	Hex	SYMBOL
000	00	Nop	086	56	V	171	Ab	"
001	01	SOH	087	57	W	172	AC	¬
002	02	STX	088	58	X	173	AD
003	03	ETX	089	59	Y	174	Ae	®
004	04	Eot	090	5A	Z	175	AF	Ї
005	05	ENQ	091	5B	[	176	B0	°
006	06	ACK	092	5C	\	177	B1	±
007	07	Bel	093	5D	]	178	B2	І
008	08	BS	094	5E	^	179	B3	і
009	09	Tab	095	5F	_	180	B4	ґ
010	0A	Lf	096	60	`	181	B5	µ
011	0B	VT	097	61	a	182	B6	¶
012	0C	Ff	098	62	b	183	B7	·
013	0D	CR	099	63	c	184	B8	E
014	0E	SO	100	64	d	185	B9	No.
015	0F	SI	101	65	e	186	BA	Є
016	10	Dle	102	66	f	187	BB	"
017	eleven	DC1	103	67	g	188	BC	ј
018	12	DC2	104	68	h	189	Bd	Ѕ
019	thirteen	DC3	105	69	i	190	BE	Ѕ
020	14	DC4	106	6A	j	191	Bf	Ї
021	fifteen	Nak	107	6B	k	192	C0	A
022	16	SYN	108	6C	l	193	C1	B
023	17	ETB	109	6D	m	194	C2	IN
024	18	CAN	110	6E	n	195	C3	G
025	19	Em	111	6F	o	196	C4	D
026	1A	SUB	112	70	p	197	C5	E
027	1B	Esc	113	71	q	198	C6	F
028	1C	FS	114	72	r	199	C7	3
029	1D	GS	115	73	s	200	C8	AND
030	1E	RS	116	74	t	201	C9	Th
031	1F	US	117	75	u	202	CA	TO
032	20	Space	118	76	v	203	CB	L
033	21	!	119	77	w	204	CC	M
034	22	"	120	78	x	205	CD	N
035	23	#	121	79	y	206	CE	ABOUT
036	24	$	122	7A	z	207	CF	P
037	25	%	123	7B	{	208	D0	R
038	26	&	124	7C	|	209	D1	FROM
039	27	''	125	7D	}	210	D2	T
040	28	(	126	7E	~	211	D3	At
041	29th	)	127	7F	212	D4	F
042	2A	*	128	80	€	213	D5	X
043	2B	+	129	81	Ѓ	214	D6	Ts
044	2C	,	130	82	‚	215	D7	H
045	2D	-	131	83	ѓ	216	D8	W
046	2E	.	132	84	„	217	D9	U
047	2F	/	133	85	...	218	DA	B
048	thirty	0	134	86	†	219	DB	S
049	31	1	135	87	‡	220	DC	B
050	32	2	136	88	€	221	DD	E
051	33	3	137	89	‰	222	DE	YU
052	34	4	138	8A	Љ	223	Df	I
053	35	5	139	8B	‹	224	E0	a
054	36	6	140	8C	Њ	225	E1	b
055	37	7	141	8D	TO	226	E2	in
056	38	8	142	8E	Ћ	227	E3	g
057	39	9	143	8F	Џ	228	E4	d
058	3A	:	144	90	€	229	E5	e
059	3B	;	145	91	''	230	E6	well
060	3C	<	146	92	''	231	E7	s
061	3D	=	147	93	“	232	E8	and
062	3E	>	148	94	”	233	E9	th
063	3F	?	149	95	•	234	EA	to
064	40	@	150	96	-	235	EB	l
065	41	A	151	97	-	236	EC	m
066	42	B	152	98 ˜	237	ED	n
067	43	C	153	99	™	238	Ee	about
068	44	D	154	9A	љ	239	Ef	P
069	45	E	155	9B	›	240	F0	R
070	46	F	156	9C	њ	241	F1	from
071	47	G	157	9D	to	242	F2	t
072	48	H	158	9E	ћ	243	F3	at
073	49	I	159	9F	џ	244	F4	f
074	4A	J	160	A0	245	F5	x
075	4B	K	161	A1	Ў	246	F6	c
076	4C	L	162	A2	ў	247	F7	h
077	4D	M	163	A3	Ј	248	F8	w
078	4E	N	164	A4	¤	249	F9	u
079	4F	O	165	A5	Ґ	250	FA	b
080	fifty	P	166	A6	¦	251	Fb	s
081	51	Q	167	A7	§	252	FC	b
082	52	R	168	A8	E	253	Fd	uh
083	53	S	169	A9	©	254	FE	Yu
084	54	T	170	AA	Є	255	Ff	I
085	55	U

Moreover, in 1986 ANSI was significantly expanded, thanks to Ian E. Davis, who wrote The Draw package, which allows not only to use the basic, from our point of view, functions, but also to fully (or almost fully) draw!

To summarize

Thus, it can be seen that the ANSI encoding, in fact, although it was a rather controversial decision, retains its position.

Over time, from the easy hand of enthusiasts, the ancient ANSI terminal even migrated to telephones!