SUMMARY
The extended ASCII characters can be typed into a Basic program using
the combination of the ALT key plus the three digits that correspond
to the character. However, in Microsoft QuickBasic version 4.5 and in
Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.0 and
7.1, typing ALT+240 (on the numeric keypad) can hang the QB.EXE and
QBX.EXE environments temporarily. This problem has been reproduced on
a Wyse 80386 with a Phoenix BIOS version 3.53. Pressing CTRL+BREAK
will get you out of the hang.
To work around the problem, use the PRINT CHR$(240) statement instead.
This problem also occurs in a WYSE 80286, running Phoenix 286 ROM BIOS
version 2.72, and has been reported with a clone computer running
Phoenix ROM BIOS version 3.07.
A customer has also reported this problem under MS-DOS 5.0 on a NEC
PowerMate 80386/20 with Phoenix 386 ROM BIOS Plus version 1.10.14, but
the problem does not occur on this machine under MS-DOS version 3.3.
(The same customer also reported that in the EDIT.EXE editor program
shipped with MS-DOS 5.0, pressing CTRL+P or ALT+240 displays the
MS-DOS message "Unable to write to device PRN".)
For more information about how to enter extended ASCII and control
characters into QB.EXE and QBX.EXE, query on the following words in
the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
extended and ASCII and ALT and 240 and 255