Microsoft KB Archive/68984

How COUNTRY Affects Valid Filename Characters PSS ID Number: Q68984 Article last modified on 02-05-1993 PSS database name: O_MSDOS

3.20 3.21 3.30 3.30a 4.00 4.01

MS-DOS

Question:

How does the COUNTRY setting in the CONFIG.SYS file affect what characters are valid in a filename?

Response:

Valid filename characters are not dependent upon the COUNTRY setting. However, interrupt 21H, function 65H, subfunction 04H will return a pointer to the filename uppercase table for the current country. The purpose of this table is to map accented or otherwise modified vowels to their plain vowel equivalents. Once a filename that contains accented characters is processed through a filename case-mapping function, it is in a form that does not require special keyboard configuration for entry. Translating international characters to their standard US equivalents prevents a change in code page from making the filename unreadable. At this time, all COUNTRY settings use the same filename uppercase table.

The appearance of a character representing a certain ASCII value may change depending on the active code page. The DISPLAY.SYS device driver contains code-page-specific fonts. When an alternate font is loaded, the appearance of many characters change.

Additional reference words: 3.20 3.21 3.30 3.30a 4.00 4.01 noupd

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.