Multinational Character Set

Multinational Character Set (MCS)
MIME / IANA	DEC-MCS
Alias(es)	IBM1100, CP1100, WE8DEC, csDECMCS, dec
Language(s)	English, various others
Extends	US-ASCII
Succeeded by	ISO 8859-1, LICS, BraSCII, Cork encoding
	v; t; e;

Short description: DEC character encoding used on VT220 terminals

The Multinational Character Set (DMCS or MCS) is a character encoding created in 1983 by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for use in the popular VT220 terminal. It was an 8-bit extension of ASCII that added accented characters, currency symbols, and other character glyphs missing from 7-bit ASCII. It is only one of the code pages implemented for the VT220 National Replacement Character Set (NRCS).^[1]^[2] MCS is registered as IBM code page/CCSID 1100 (Multinational Emulation) since 1992.^[3]^[4] Depending on associated sorting Oracle calls it WE8DEC, N8DEC, DK8DEC, S8DEC, or SF8DEC.^[5]^[6]

Such "extended ASCII" sets were common (the National Replacement Character Set provided sets for more than a dozen European languages), but MCS has the distinction of being the ancestor of ECMA-94 in 1985^[7] and ISO 8859-1 in 1987.^[8]

The code chart of MCS with ECMA-94, ISO 8859-1 and the first 256 code points of Unicode have many more similarities than differences. In addition to unused code points, differences from ISO 8859-1 are:

MCS code point	Unicode mapping	Character
0xA8	U+00A4	¤
0xD7	U+0152	Œ
0xDD	U+0178	Ÿ
0xF7	U+0153	œ
0xFD	U+00FF	ÿ

Character set

DEC Multinational Character Set^[3]^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]^[14]
	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	A	B	C	D	E	F
NUL	SOH	STX	ETX	EOT	ENQ	ACK	BEL	BS	HT	LF	VT	FF	CR	SO	SI
DLE	DC1	DC2	DC3	DC4	NAK	SYN	ETB	CAN	EM	SUB	ESC	FS	GS	RS	US
SP	!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;	<	=	>	?
@	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	^
`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	{	\|	}	~	DEL
				IND	NEL	SSA	ESA	HTS	HTJ	VTS	PLD	PLU	RI	SS2	SS3
DCS	PU1	PU2	STS	CCH	MW	SPA	EPA				CSI	ST	OSC	PM	APC
	¡	¢	£		¥		§	¤ 00A4	©	ª	«
°	±	²	³		µ	¶	·		¹	º	»	¼	½		¿
À	Á	Â	Ã	Ä	Å	Æ	Ç	È	É	Ê	Ë	Ì	Í	Î	Ï
	Ñ	Ò	Ó	Ô	Õ	Ö	Œ 0152	Ø	Ù	Ú	Û	Ü	Ÿ 0178		ß
à	á	â	ã	ä	å	æ	ç	è	é	ê	ë	ì	í	î	ï
	ñ	ò	ó	ô	õ	ö	œ 0153	ø	ù	ú	û	ü	ÿ 00FF

Differences from ISO-8859-1

References

↑ "VT220 Programmer Reference Manual". Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). 1984. http://vt100.net/docs/vt220-rm/.
↑ "TinyTERM Emulator — National Replacement Character Set (NRCS)". Century Software. http://www.centurysoftware.com/support/help/ttus_help/ttusNational_Replacement_Character_S.htm. [sic]
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 "SBCS code page information - CPGID: 01100 / Name: Multinational Emulation". IBM Software: Globalization: Coded character sets and related resources: Code pages by CPGID: Code page identifiers. IBM. 1992-10-01. https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp01100.html. [1] [2] [3]
↑ "CCSID 1100 information document". http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/ccsid/ccsid1100.html.
↑ "Appendix A: Locale Data". Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide (Release 2 (9.2) ed.). Oracle Corporation. 2002. Oracle A96529-01. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96529.pdf. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
↑ "Oracle characterset descriptions for 9.2". Daylight Chemical Information Systems. 2017. http://www.daylight.com/meetings/emug04/Delany/charsets.html.
↑ Standard ECMA-94: 8-bit Single-Byte Coded Graphic Character Set (1 ed.). European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). March 1985. http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST-WITHDRAWN/ECMA-94, 1st Edition, March 1985.pdf. Retrieved 2016-12-01. "Since 1982 the urgency of the need for an 8-bit single-byte coded character set was recognized in ECMA as well as in ANSI/X3L2 and numerous working papers were exchanged between the two groups. In February 1984 ECMA TC1 submitted to ISO/TC97/SC2 a proposal for such a coded character set. At its meeting of April 1984 SC decided to submit to TC97 a proposal for a new item of work for this topic. Technical discussions during and after this meeting led TC1 to adopt the coding scheme proposed by X3L2. Part 1 of Draft International Standard DTS 8859 is based on this joint ANSI/ECMA proposal.... Adopted as an ECMA Standard by the General Assembly of Dec. 13–14, 1984."
↑ "ISO 8859-1 and MCS". ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup. 1998. http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html#ISO-8859-1. [4] [5]
↑ "VT220 Programmer Reference Manual". Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Table 2-3: DEC Multinational Character Set (C1 and GR Codes). http://vt100.net/docs/vt220-rm/table2-3b.html.
↑ VAX/VMS User's Manual. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). April 1986. AI-Y517A-TE.
↑ DEC (February 1992). "Chapter 2: Character Encoding - DEC Supplemental Graphic Character Set". VT420 Programmer Reference Manual (2 ed.). Digital Equipment Corporation. pp. 24–25. EK–VT420–RM.002. http://manx-docs.org/collections/mds-199909/cd3/term/vt420rm2.pdf. Retrieved 2017-01-29.
↑ "Locale::RecodeData::DEC_MCS - Conversion routines for DEC_MCS". CPAN libintl-perl. 2016. http://search.cpan.org/~guido/libintl-perl/lib/Locale/RecodeData/DEC_MCS.pm.
↑ "DEC Multinational Character Set (DEC MCS)". http://www.kostis.net/charsets/decmcs.htm.
↑ "DEC Multinational Character Set (1987) to Unicode". Unicode, Inc.. 1999-07-07. https://www.math.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/Software/csets/DECMCS.TXT.

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Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational Character Set. Read more

[vt220_pr-1] "VT220 Programmer Reference Manual". Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). 1984. http://vt100.net/docs/vt220-rm/.

[TinyTERM-2] "TinyTERM Emulator — National Replacement Character Set (NRCS)". Century Software. http://www.centurysoftware.com/support/help/ttus_help/ttusNational_Replacement_Character_S.htm. [sic]

[CP1100-3] 3.0 ^3.1 "SBCS code page information - CPGID: 01100 / Name: Multinational Emulation". IBM Software: Globalization: Coded character sets and related resources: Code pages by CPGID: Code page identifiers. IBM. 1992-10-01. https://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/cp/cp01100.html. [1] [2] [3]

[4] "CCSID 1100 information document". http://www-01.ibm.com/software/globalization/ccsid/ccsid1100.html.

[Oracle_2002_DEC-5] "Appendix A: Locale Data". Oracle9i Database Globalization Support Guide (Release 2 (9.2) ed.). Oracle Corporation. 2002. Oracle A96529-01. https://docs.oracle.com/cd/B10501_01/server.920/a96529.pdf. Retrieved 2017-02-14.

[Daylight_DEC-6] "Oracle characterset descriptions for 9.2". Daylight Chemical Information Systems. 2017. http://www.daylight.com/meetings/emug04/Delany/charsets.html.

[ECMA_1985_ECMA94_R1-7] Standard ECMA-94: 8-bit Single-Byte Coded Graphic Character Set (1 ed.). European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA). March 1985. http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST-WITHDRAWN/ECMA-94, 1st Edition, March 1985.pdf. Retrieved 2016-12-01. "Since 1982 the urgency of the need for an 8-bit single-byte coded character set was recognized in ECMA as well as in ANSI/X3L2 and numerous working papers were exchanged between the two groups. In February 1984 ECMA TC1 submitted to ISO/TC97/SC2 a proposal for such a coded character set. At its meeting of April 1984 SC decided to submit to TC97 a proposal for a new item of work for this topic. Technical discussions during and after this meeting led TC1 to adopt the coding scheme proposed by X3L2. Part 1 of Draft International Standard DTS 8859 is based on this joint ANSI/ECMA proposal.... Adopted as an ECMA Standard by the General Assembly of Dec. 13–14, 1984."

[Czyborra_1998-8] "ISO 8859-1 and MCS". ISO 8859 Alphabet Soup. 1998. http://czyborra.com/charsets/iso8859.html#ISO-8859-1. [4] [5]

[vt220_t23-9] "VT220 Programmer Reference Manual". Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). Table 2-3: DEC Multinational Character Set (C1 and GR Codes). http://vt100.net/docs/vt220-rm/table2-3b.html.

[DEC_1986_VAXVMS-10] VAX/VMS User's Manual. Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). April 1986. AI-Y517A-TE.

[DEC_VT420-11] DEC (February 1992). "Chapter 2: Character Encoding - DEC Supplemental Graphic Character Set". VT420 Programmer Reference Manual (2 ed.). Digital Equipment Corporation. pp. 24–25. EK–VT420–RM.002. http://manx-docs.org/collections/mds-199909/cd3/term/vt420rm2.pdf. Retrieved 2017-01-29.

[Flohr_2016_MCS-12] "Locale::RecodeData::DEC_MCS - Conversion routines for DEC_MCS". CPAN libintl-perl. 2016. http://search.cpan.org/~guido/libintl-perl/lib/Locale/RecodeData/DEC_MCS.pm.

[Kosta_DMCS-13] "DEC Multinational Character Set (DEC MCS)". http://www.kostis.net/charsets/decmcs.htm.

[DEC_1999_MCS-14] "DEC Multinational Character Set (1987) to Unicode". Unicode, Inc.. 1999-07-07. https://www.math.nmsu.edu/~mleisher/Software/csets/DECMCS.TXT.

v t e Character encodings
Early telecommunications	ASCII ISO/IEC 646 ISO/IEC 6937 / ITU T.51 ITU T.61 BCDIC Baudot code Morse code Telegraph code Wabun code Special telegraphy codes Non-Latin Chinese Cyrillic Needle telegraph codes
ISO/IEC 8859	Approved -1 -2 -3 -4 -5 -6 -7 -8 -9 -10 -11 -13 -14 -15 -16 Abandoned -12 Adaptations ISO-IR-182 ISO-IR-200 ISO-IR-201 Proposed but not approved ISO-IR-111 ISO-IR-197 French/Dutch/Turkish draft
Bibliographic use	ANSEL ISO 5426 / 5426-2 / 5427 / 5428 / 6438 / 6861 / 6862 / 10585 / 10586 / 10754 / 11822 MARC-8
National standards	ArmSCII BraSCII CNS 11643 ELOT 927 GOST 10859 GB 18030 HKSCS I.S. 434 ISCII JIS X 0201 JIS X 0208 JIS X 0212 JIS X 0213 KOI-7 KPS 9566 KS X 1001 PASCII SI 960 TIS-620 TSCII VISCII VSCII YUSCII
ISO/IEC 2022	7-bit CN CN-EXT JP JP-EXT JP-1 JP-2 JP-3 KR ISO/IEC 4873 ISO/IEC 8859 ISO/IEC 10367 Extended Unix Code / EUC CN KR JP TW CCCII
MacOS code pages ("scripts")	Armenian Arabic Barents Cyrillic Celtic CentEuro ChineseSimp / EUC-CN ChineseTrad / Big5 Croatian Cyrillic Devanagari Dingbats Farsi (Persian) Gaelic Georgian Greek Gujarati Gurmukhi Hebrew Iceland Inuit Japanese / ShiftJIS Keyboard Korean / EUC-KR Latin (Kermit) Maltese/Esperanto Ogham / I.S. 434 Roman Romanian Sámi Symbol Thai / TIS-620 Turkish Turkic Cyrillic Ukrainian VT100
DOS code pages	100 111 112 113 151 152 161 162 163 164 165 166 210 220 301 437 449 489 620 667 668 707 708 709 710 711 714 715 720 721 737 768 770 771 772 773 774 775 776 777 778 790 850 851 852 853 854 855/872 856 857 858 859 860 861 862 863 864/17248 865 866/808 867 868 869 874/1161/1162 876 877 878 881 882 883 884 885 891 895 896 897 898 899 900 903 904 906 907 909 910 911 926 927 928 929 932 934 936 938 941 942 943 944 946 947 948 949 950/1370 951 966 991 1034 1039 1040 1041 1042 1043 1044 1046 1086 1088 1092 1093 1098 1108 1109 1114 1115 1116 1117 1118 1119 1125/848 1126 1127 1131/849 1139 1167 1168 1300 1351 1361 1362 1363 1372 1373 1374 1375 1380 1381 1385 1386 1391 1392 1393 1394 57781 58152 58210 58335 59234 59829 60258 60853 61282 62306 CS Indic CSX Indic CSX+ Indic CWI-2 Iran System Kamenický KOI8 Mazovia MIK
IBM AIX code pages	367 371 806 813 819 895 896 912 913 914 915 916 919 920 921/901 922/902 923 952 953 954 955 956 957 958 959 960 961 963 964 965 970 971 1004 1006 1008 1009 1010 1011 1012 1013 1014 1015 1016 1017 1018 1019 1029 1036 1089 1111 1124 1129/1163 1133 1350 1382 1383
IBM Apple MacIntosh emulations	1275 1280 1281 1282 1283 1284 1285 1286
IBM Adobe emulations	1038 1276 1277
IBM DEC emulations	1020 1021 1023 1090 1100 1101 1102 1103 1104 1105 1106 1107 1287 1288
IBM HP emulations	1050 1051 1052 1053 1054 1055 1056 1057 1058
Windows code pages	CER-GS 874/1162 (TIS-620) 932/943 (Shift JIS) 936/1386 (GBK) 950/1370 (Big5) 949/1363 (EUC-KR) 1169 1174 Extended Latin-8 1200 (UTF-16LE) 1201 (UTF-16BE) 1250 1251 1252 1253 1254 1255 1256 1257 1258 1261 1270 54936 (GB18030) 65001 (UTF-8)
EBCDIC EBCDIC code pages	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37/1140 37-2 38 39 40 251 252 254 256 257 258 259 260 264 273/1141 274 275 276 277/1142 278/1143 279 280/1144 281 282 283 284/1145 285/1146 286 287 288 289 290 293 297/1147 298 300 310 320 321 322 330 351 352 353 355 357 358 359 360 361 363 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 410 420/16804 421 423 424/8616/12712 425 435 500/1148 803 829 833 834 835 836 837 838/1160 839 870/1110/1153 871/1149 875/4971/9067 880 881 882 883 884 885 886 887 888 889 890 892 893 905 918 924 930/1390 931 933/1364 935/1388 937/1371 939/1399 1001 1002 1003 1005 1007 1024 1025/1154 1026/1155 1027 1028 1030 1031 1032 1033 1037 1047 1068 1069 1070 1071 1073 1074 1075 1076 1077 1078 1079 1080 1081 1082 1083 1084 1085 1087 1091 1097 1112/1156 1113 1122/1157 1123/1158 1130/1164 1132 1136 1137 1150 1151 1152 1159 1165 1166 1278 1279 1303 1364 1376 1377 JEF KEIS
DEC terminals (VTx)	Multinational (MCS) National Replacement (NRCS) French Canadian Swiss Spanish United Kingdom Dutch Finnish French Norwegian and Danish Swedish Norwegian and Danish (alternative) 8-bit Greek 8-bit Turkish 7-bit Hebrew 8-bit Hebrew Special Graphics Technical (TCS)
Platform specific	Acorn Adobe Standard Adobe Latin 1 Amstrad CPC Apple I Apple II Apple III ATASCII Atari ST BICS Casio calculators CDC Compucolor II DEC Radix-50 DEC MCS/NRCS DG International ELWRO-Junior FIELDATA GEM GEOS GSM 03.38 HP Roman Extension HP Roman-8 HP Roman-9 HP FOCAL HP RPL LICS LMBCS Mattel Aquarius Minitel MSX NEC APC NeXT OricSCII PCW PETSCII Sega SC-3000 Sharp calculators Sharp MZ Sinclair QL Teletext TI calculators TRS-80 Ventura International Ventura Symbol Videotex WISCII XCCS ZX80 ZX81 ZX Spectrum
Unicode / ISO/IEC 10646	UTF-1 UTF-7 UTF-8 UTF-16 (UTF-16LE/UTF-16BE) / UCS-2 UTF-32 (UTF-32LE/UTF-32BE) / UCS-4 UTF-EBCDIC GB 18030 BOCU-1 CESU-8 SCSU
TeX typesetting system	Cork LGR LY1 OML OMS OMX OT1 OT2 OT3 OT4 T2A T2B T2C T2D T3 T4 T5 TS1 TS3 U X2
Miscellaneous code pages	ABICOMP APL 293 310 (Graphic Escape) 351 (GDDM) 907 (OEM) ISO-IR-68 ARIB STD-B24 HZ IEC-P27-1 INIS 7-bit 8-bit Cyrillic ISO-IR-169 ISO 2033 Johab SEASCII Stanford/ITS TACE16 TRON UTF-5 UTF-6 WTF-8
Related topics	Code page Control character (C0 C1) CCSID Character encodings in HTML Charset detection Han unification Hardware ISO 6429/IEC 6429/ANSI X3.64 Mojibake
Character sets

Multinational Character Set

Character set

See also

References