TRANSLATE_TO_ANSI

This variable has meaning only on graphical systems such as Windows. It is used only if:

Set the variable TRANSLATE_TO_ANSI to 1 (on, true, yes) to turn on a character set translator. Then, if you use the graphical system's font for accepting data, the runtime will translate from one character set to the other for you. Data that is accepted from the screen will be translated into the OEM character set before it is stored on disk. Data stored in the OEM character set will be translated to the ANSI character set before it is displayed on screen. This also applies to the printer, if you are using Windows spooling and the printer uses an ANSI font.

Setting TRANSLATE_TO_ANSI to the default, 0 (off, false, no), turns off the translation process.

This variable can be set from within a COBOL program with the SET verb. For example:

SET ENVIRONMENT "TRANSLATE_TO_ANSI" TO "YES".  

Note on ANSI and OEM characters:

The ANSI and OEM representations of the following standard English characters are identical:

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
0123456789 <space>
! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : 
; < = > ? @ [ \ ] ^ _ ' { | } 

Only the representations of accented vowels and other special or non-English characters are different.