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In Windows (and DOS EDIT.COM and a few other similarly ancient tools) there have existed Alt+028, Alt+029, Alt+030, and Alt+031 for a long time. I vaguely recal

In Windows (and DOS EDIT.COM and a few other similarly ancient tools) there have existed Alt+028, Alt+029, Alt+030, and Alt+031 for a long time. I vaguely recall some file format I was working with in QBASIC used some or all of them and I was editing those files for some reason. That was not quite as far back as 1984, but sometime in the early 1990s for sure. I believe EDIT.COM had basic glyphs for them too, but I don't recall what they were, might have been random Wingdings like the playing card suits. Having keyboard shortcuts doesn't necessarily solve why people don't want to use that format, either.

zzo38computer 2y ago
> I believe EDIT.COM had basic glyphs for them too, but I don't recall what they were, might have been random Wingdings like the playing card suits. That is not specific to EDIT.COM; they are the PC characters with the same codes as the corresponding control characters, so they appear as graphic characters. (They can be used in any program that can use PC character set.) However, in EDIT.COM and QBASIC you can also prefix a control character with CTRL+P in order to enter it directly into the file (and they appear as graphic characters, since I think the only control characters they will handle as control characters are tabs and line breaks). Suits are PC characters 3 to 6; these are PC characters 28 to 31 which are other shapes.