TONT 39103 为什么默认的8位代码页被叫做ANSI

习惯成自然。

原文链接；https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20040531-00/?p=39103

Reader Ben Hutchings wanted to know why the 8-bit codepage is called “ANSI” when it isn’t actually ANSI.

访客Ben Hutchings想知道为什么8位代码页被叫做ANSI，但事实上并不是ANSI。

But instead of saying, “Oh well, some things mortals were never meant to know,” he went and dug up the answer himself.

不过他没有简单抛下一句『噢，好吧，这种事情凡人是没有必要知道的』，而是自己去把答案挖了出来：

A quick Google for Windows ANSI misnomer found me exactly what I was looking for [pdf]:

简单Google一下『Windows ANSI 误用』（Windows ANSI misnomer）就能很快找到答案（译注：原文链接已失效，可参考维基百科英文版上的相关内容）：

“The term “ANSI” as used to signify Windows code pages is a historical reference, but is nowadays a misnomer that continues to persist in the Windows community. The source of this comes from the fact that the Windows code page 1252 was originally based on an ANSI draft, which became ISO Standard 8859-1. However, in adding code points to the range reserved for control codes in the ISO standard, the Windows code page 1252 and subsequent Windows code pages originally based on the ISO 8859-x series deviated from ISO. To this day, it is not uncommon to have the development community, both within and outside of Microsoft, confuse the 8859-1 code page with Windows 1252, as well as see “ANSI” or “A” used to signify Windows code page support.

术语ANSI被用来指代Windows的代码页有其历史原因，但现时下已成为Windows社群中流传至今的『用词不当』的案例之一。问题的起源是Windows的1252代码页原本是基于ANSI草案的，后者后来成为了ISO标准8859-1。然而，通过向原本的ISO标准代码页为控制字符保留区域添加新字符，Windows的1252代码页以及此后基于ISO 8859-x的代码页逐渐与ISO标准代码页渐行渐远。时至今日，不论是微软内部还是外部的开发社区，将8859-1代码页和Windows 1252代码页混为一谈，或者用ANSI或者A指代Windows的代码页支持已经是司空见惯的事情了。