Microsoft code pages
What does Microsoft code pages mean?Definition
Microsoft code pages are character encoding standards used in Microsoft operating systems and applications to represent text in different languages. They were widely used in earlier versions of Windows, such as Windows 95 and Windows NT, before the widespread adoption of Unicode.
Each Microsoft code page defines a mapping between specific characters and their numerical values, similar to other character encoding standards. There were several code pages developed for Microsoft systems, including code pages for various European languages, as well as code pages for languages that used non-Latin scripts, such as Greek and Hebrew. Microsoft code pages were used to control the appearance of text on the screen, in text files, and in other applications, and they could be changed by switching to a different code page.
However, like other character encoding standards that preceded Unicode, Microsoft code pages had limited support for internationalization and were often incompatible with each other, making it difficult to exchange text between systems that used different code pages. Today, Microsoft systems and applications use Unicode as the primary means of representing text, and Microsoft code pages are used only in legacy systems.
Each Microsoft code page defines a mapping between specific characters and their numerical values, similar to other character encoding standards. There were several code pages developed for Microsoft systems, including code pages for various European languages, as well as code pages for languages that used non-Latin scripts, such as Greek and Hebrew. Microsoft code pages were used to control the appearance of text on the screen, in text files, and in other applications, and they could be changed by switching to a different code page.
However, like other character encoding standards that preceded Unicode, Microsoft code pages had limited support for internationalization and were often incompatible with each other, making it difficult to exchange text between systems that used different code pages. Today, Microsoft systems and applications use Unicode as the primary means of representing text, and Microsoft code pages are used only in legacy systems.