The Main code page (russian: Основная кодировка) is an 8-bit code page used in DOS. It was devised in 1986 by a research group at the Academy of Science of the USSR. Брябрин В. М., Ландау И. Я., Неменман М. Е
О системе кодирования для персональных ЭВМ
// Микропроцессорные средства и системы. — 1986. — № 4. — С. 61—64. The other code page by the same group is known as the " Alternative code page" (russian: Альтернативная кодировка) which is nearly identical to

code page 866 Code page 866 (CCSID 866) (CP 866, "DOS Cyrillic Russian") is a code page used under DOS and OS/2 in Russia to write Cyrillic script. It is based on the "alternative code page" (russian: Альтернативная кодировка) develope ...

. Unlike the latter, the "Main code page" does not preserve the code points of the pseudographic symbols of

code page 437 Code page 437 (CCSID 437) is the character set of the original IBM PC (personal computer). It is also known as CP437, OEM-US, OEM 437, PC-8, or DOS Latin US. The set includes all printable ASCII characters as well as some accented letters (diac ...

. However, the majority of software at that period were made to be compatible with code page 437, as a result the Main code page has never gained any wide use. With the introduction of the Russian version of MS-DOS in 1990 which by default uses

, the Main code page has become obsolete. Neither IBM nor Microsoft have ever supported this code page, so it has not been given its code page number by any vendor. The Main code page was hardwired in some Soviet

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a tea ...

clones such as ES PEVM or Iskra-1030 (however, other Soviet computers such as

UKNC UKNC (russian: УКНЦ) is a Soviet PDP-11-compatible educational micro computer, aimed at teaching school informatics courses. It is also known as Elektronika MS-0511. UKNC stands for Educational Computer by Scientific Centre. Hardware *CPU: KM ...

generally used KOI-7 or

KOI-8 KOI-8 (КОИ-8) is an 8-bit character set standardized in GOST 19768-74. Маркелова Л. Н. Эксплуатация программоуправляемой вычислительной машины «Искра 226». — М.: Ма ...

). The cells B0–EF seem to be the origin for the same rows in ISO/IEC 8859-5.

References

{{Character encoding DOS code pages