Characters Spanning Rows

When a data field spans rows on the screen, a 16-bit DBCS character may span rows in the character data buffer. Consequently, the first half of the character is on one line in the rightmost column, and the second half of the character is on the next line in the leftmost column. Hewlett-Packard and IBM use different approaches to solving this problem.

IBM's Implementation

The IBM PS/55 PC uses an additional (81st) column on the screen, as shown in Figure G-1 “IBM DBCS Character Spanning Rows”. This solution allows the PS/55 PC to display the character on one line, with the second byte in the 81st column. The logical screen size is still 80 columns, so the application will not have access to column 81.

Figure G-1 IBM DBCS Character Spanning Rows

Hewlett-Packard's Implementation

When a 16-bit character is to be displayed in column 80, Hewlett-Packard solves the problem by putting a blank character in column 80 and displaying the Asian character in columns 1 and 2 of the next line (see Figure G-2 “HP DBCS Character Spanning Rows”). The extra blank in column 80 will be ignored by Pass Thru when the user presses the [ENTER] key, so data integrity in that field will be preserved.

Figure G-2 HP DBCS Character Spanning Rows




	NOTE: Hewlett-Packard's solution will cause data in the current field to be truncated if the current field is already full when 16-bit characters are moved from the previous line.

Characters Spanning Rows

Technical documentation

» Table of Contents

» Glossary

» Index

IBM's Implementation

Hewlett-Packard's Implementation