The characters 
on 
the front faces of the keys are special 
ones you may need when programming in computer 
languages, such as BASIC. These characters are not 
present on the 
US. 
English 
or 
U.K. English keyboards, 
but 
you should keep them in mind if you ever want to 
use a language other than English. 
If 
you are using a 
~ 
National DOS diskette for either 
UK. 
English 
or 
US. 
English keyboards, you may want to set up a National 
DOS diskette now for another language so that you can 
try this example. 
To type one 
of 
these characters, hold down the Alt and 
Ctrl keys (these keys are below and above the left Shift 
key) and press the key with the desired character on its 
front face. 
Example: 
Press and hold 
[J8J 
and 
[ED 
Press the key with the [ character on its front face. 
The left hand bracket 
(D appears on the screen. 
The four-keystroke Alternate characters are available 
to you with every keyboard. The characters are the 
same for 
all keyboards. They enter special three-digit 
ASCII codes to display characters that you could not 
otherwise type. 
3-16 
Keyboard