FONT=<facename> {,<symbol set>}

Examples:  FONT=Courier New   (default)

           FONT=Lucida Console, ANSI

Under A-Shell/Windows, FONT may be used to specify two aspects of the font: the face name and the symbol set. The face is the name that appears in standard font selection dialog boxes (including the one on A-Shell's Edit menu), such as Courier New or Lucida Console. It is case sensitive. If not specified, A-Shell will select what it thinks is the best font from the available choices—i.e., those installed on this system. Common choices are Courier New, Lucida Console, and Consolas..

The symbol set may optionally be specified as OEM, ANSI, or DEFAULT. If not specified, OEM is used.

The face name will be overridden by a font specified in the default.ash or other settings file. (See the –Settings File switch and the

See Also

topic for more details.) However, the symbol set will affect all subsequent font selections, even overriding a previously saved font in the settings file.

The only fonts suitable for A-Shell are those that offer a fixed pitch, so that typically limits you to Courier New, Lucida Console, and Consolas (on Vista-or-later PCs). Miame Terminal and Andale Mono were frequently used in older versions of Windows and A-Shell, but they are no longer convenient; Miame Terminal because it is a bitmap font that doesn't scale well, and Andale because it is now available only for a fee.

The symbol set determines which characters are available and how they are numbered. Most of the fixed pitch fonts support both OEM and ANSI. Fortunately, both character sets use the same values for the ASCII printable characters 32-127, so it probably makes little difference in most applications which one you use. Furthermore, both character sets include the Latin1 characters in the range 128-255, and although they are mapped differently, if you specify OPTIONS=LATIN1 A-Shell will convert both mappings to match the Latin1 mapping used under AMOS (such as with the AM65A terminal).

Historically, the main problem with the ANSI character set in A-Shell was that it didn't include the line drawing characters, but this is no longer an issue since A-Shell renders them graphically. The only remaining shortcoming is its lack of a few special characters available in the alternate character set via TAB(-1,65) thru TAB(-1,77) commands (raised dot, end of line, horizontal tab, paragraph, dagger, section, cent, quarter, half, trademark, copyright, register mark). On the other hand, the OEM character sets (except for the MIAME Terminal version) do not include a Euro symbol. With ANSI , you can display a Euro symbol via TAB(-1,253) or chr(128).

Note that Windows applications such as A-Shell can only make "requests" for a particular font. The system then provides a font that is the best match for the requirements given. Thus, you can easily end up with an unexpected font if your system does not have the requested font installed. For example, if you ask for Andale Mono but it isn't installed, it should try to select something with similar capabilities, hopefully (but not necessarily) ending up with a font reasonably like Courier New.

The actual font and symbol set in use is identified on the A-Shell/Windows Help...About box.

In order to use a national replacement character set, you must specify the OEM symbol set. See the CONSOLE and CHARSET parameters.