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From: shadow AT shadowgard DOT com
To: opendos AT delorie DOT com
Date: Wed, 03 Dec 2003 17:34:57 -0800
Subject: RE: ANSI.SYS
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On 4 Dec 2003 at 10:17, da Silva, Joe wrote:

> I guess it's case sensitive because it's _not_ a DOS thing.
> AFAIK, this ANSI sequence stuff originated as a terminal
> (from the time before personal computers were available or
> at least readily available) control "language", I think from the
> DEC VT100 terminal or one of its relatives. The DOS ANSI
> driver simply emulates this, so the original terminal must
> have been case sensitive.

There were a whole *bunch* of model specific sets of 
control codes. ANSI decided that there should be a 
standard. And the DEC VT52 set was considered the 
best, but it is (or at least *was*) ANSI policy that 
standards of this sort couldn't be identical 
something already in use by a specific manufacturer 
(to avoid giving them a major advantage in the 
market.)

So the ANSI x3.64 standard (which is what ANSI.SYS 
is derived from) chanded a few things. Starting with 
requiring the ESC char to be followed by a left 
square bracket. 

VT100 uses an extension of ANSI X3.64. The PC uses 
part of it, mixed with some stuff that doesn't 
follow the standard.

There used to be a VT100.SYS driver floating around. 
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at krypton dot rain dot com