On 07/10/2021 18:47, tom ehlert wrote:
were these 2 layouts dynamically switchable (and actually switched)
They were actually not switchable, mainly due to their implementation: CP852 was provided by "mode con cp" through MS-DOS, while the Mazovia codepage was usually loaded through a custom TSR (maz.exe comes to mind). Hence "switching" required to unload maz.exe and run the appropriate mode con cp prepare/select combo. And that's what I was doing whenever I needed to use a program that was assuming CP852.
But now, since Mazovia and CP852 are both supported by FreeDOS, they can be easily switched without relying on any exotic TSRs.
The full story is that when the IBM PC came to Poland, it wasn't handling Polish glyphs at all, so Poles had to come up with their own codepage when creating their IBM PC clone (Mazovia 1016). It was first burned in custom ROMs, and later - with VGA cards - loaded to the VGA memory through TSRs. Then, later, Microsoft/IBM decided to support Polish, and did so by cramming most of east-European glyphs into CP852... Which not only led to a poorly usable codepage (garbled Norton Commander semigraphics!), but also introduced chaos in the way Poles were exchanging text. Some started using the Microsoft 852 page, since it was meant to be the "new standard", and others kept using Mazovia since it was superior and well-established... Ah, those good times.
Mateusz _______________________________________________ Freedos-user mailing list Freedos-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-user
