DEC APL Character Set

	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
2_		¨	≤	∨	∧	≠	÷	×	¯	⍺	⊥	∩	⌊	∊	∇	∆
3_	⍳	∘	⎕	⊤	○	⍴	⌈	↓	∪	⍵	⊃	⊂	←	⊢	→	≥
4_	⋄	⊣	⍙	𝐴	𝐵	𝐶	𝐷	𝐸	𝐹	𝐺	𝐻	𝐼	𝐽	𝐾	𝐿	𝑀
5_	𝑁	𝑂	𝑃	𝑄	𝑅	𝑆	𝑇	𝑈	𝑉	𝑊	𝑋	𝑌	𝑍	⍝	⌶	⍎
6_	⍕	⌹	⍇	⍈	⍞	⍌	⍋	⍒	⍫	⍱	⍲	⍟	⊖	⍉	⌽	⍪
7_	⌿	⍀	⊆	⊇	≡	↑	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	␄	⌷

This is the 7-bit character set which is embedded in the fonts which DEC included with APL for the VAX circa 1990 as documented in the Users Guide.

Note that this differs from both the character set APL uses internally and from the older chart in DEC STD 107 (1980). It can be used as an 8-bit charset by setting GR to G1 (see [Composite APL Character Set] below).

To display an APL character, send its GL/ASCII character after LS1 (0x0E) and before LS0 (0x0F).

Character	GL	ASCII	Common Name	DEC VAX APL name	TTY input	GR (8-bit)
¨	21	!	Dieresis	Double Dots	.DD	a1
≤	22	"	Less than or Equal to	Less than or Equal	.LE	a2
∨	23	#	Or	Or	.OR	a3
∧	24	$	And	And	&	a4
⍺	29	)	Alpha	Alpha	.AL	a9
⊥	2a	*	Up Tack	Base (Decode)	.DE	aa
∩	2b	+	Intersection	Down U [sic]	.DU	ab
⌊	2c	,	Downstile	Floor	.FL	ac
∊	2d	-	Element of	Epsilon	.EP	ad
∇	2e	.	Del	Del	.DL	ae
∆	2f	/	Delta	Lower Del	.LD	af
⍳	30	0	Iota	Iota	.IO	b0
∘	31	1	Jot	Jot (Small O)	.SO	b1
⎕	32	2	Quad	Box	.BX	b2
⊤	33	3	Down Tack	Represent (Encode)	.EN	b3
○	34	4	Circle	Circle (Large O)	.LO	b4
⍴	35	5	Rho	Rho	.RO	b5
⌈	36	6	Upstile	Ceiling	.CE	b6
↓	37	7	Drop	Down Arrow	.DA	b7
∪	38	8	Union	Up U	.UU	b8
⍵	39	9	Omega	Omega	.OM	b9
⊃	3a	:	Right Shoe	Right U	.RU	ba
⊂	3b	;	Left Shoe	Left U	.LU	bb
←	3c	<	Gets	Left arrow	_	bc
⊢	3d	=	Right Tack	Left Tack [sic]	.LK	bd
→	3e	>	Goto	Right arrow (Go to)	.GO	be
≥	3f	?	Greater than or Equal to	Greater than or Equal	.GE	bf
⋄	40	@	Diamond	Diamond	.DM	c0
⊣	41	A	Left Tack	Right Tack [sic]	.RK	c1
⍙	42	B	Delta Underbar	Underscored Delta	.UD	c2
𝐴	43	C	Underlined CAPITAL A	Underscored A	.ZA	c3
𝐵	44	D	Underlined CAPITAL B	Underscored B	.ZB	c4
𝐶	45	E	Underlined CAPITAL C	Underscored C	.ZC	c5
𝐷	46	F	Underlined CAPITAL D	Underscored D	.ZD	c6
𝐸	47	G	Underlined CAPITAL E	Underscored E	.ZE	c7
𝐹	48	H	Underlined CAPITAL F	Underscored F	.ZF	c8
𝐺	49	I	Underlined CAPITAL G	Underscored G	.ZG	c9
𝐻	4a	J	Underlined CAPITAL H	Underscored H	.ZH	ca
𝐼	4b	K	Underlined CAPITAL I	Underscored I	.ZI	cb
𝐽	4c	L	Underlined CAPITAL J	Underscored J	.ZJ	cc
𝐾	4d	M	Underlined CAPITAL K	Underscored K	.ZK	cd
𝐿	4e	N	Underlined CAPITAL L	Underscored L	.ZL	ce
𝑀	4f	O	Underlined CAPITAL M	Underscored M	.ZM	cf
𝑁	50	P	Underlined CAPITAL N	Underscored N	.ZN	d0
𝑂	51	Q	Underlined CAPITAL O	Underscored O	.ZO	d1
𝑃	52	R	Underlined CAPITAL P	Underscored P	.ZP	d2
𝑄	53	S	Underlined CAPITAL Q	Underscored Q	.ZQ	d3
𝑅	54	T	Underlined CAPITAL R	Underscored R	.ZR	d4
𝑆	55	U	Underlined CAPITAL S	Underscored S	.ZS	d5
𝑇	56	V	Underlined CAPITAL T	Underscored T	.ZT	d6
𝑈	57	W	Underlined CAPITAL U	Underscored U	.ZU	d7
𝑉	58	X	Underlined CAPITAL V	Underscored V	.ZV	d8
𝑊	59	Y	Underlined CAPITAL W	Underscored W	.ZW	d9
𝑋	5a	Z	Underlined CAPITAL X	Underscored X	.ZX	da
𝑌	5b	[	Underlined CAPITAL Y	Underscored Y	.ZY	db
𝑍	5c	\	Underlined CAPITAL Z	Underscored Z	.ZZ	dc
⍝	5d	]	Lamp	Lamp (Comment)	"	dd
⌶	5e	^	I-Beam	I-Beam	.IB	de
⍎	5f	_	Hydrant	Hydrant (Execute)	.XQ	df
⍕	60	`	Thorn	Thorn (Format)	.FM	e0
⌹	61	a	Domino	Divide Quad	.DQ	e1
⍇	62	b	Quad Left Arrow	Input Quad	.IQ	e2
⍈	63	c	Quad Right Arrow	Output Quad	.OQ	e3
⍞	64	d	Quote Quad	Quote Quad	.QQ	e4
⍌	65	e	Quad Down Caret	Quad Del	.QD	e5
⍋	66	f	Grade Up	Grade Up	.GU	e6
⍒	67	g	Grade Down	Grade Down	.GD	e7
⍫	68	h	Del Tilde	Protected Del	.PD	e8
⍱	69	i	Nor	Nor	.NR	e9
⍲	6a	j	Nand	Nand	.NN	ea
⍟	6b	k	Log	Logarithm	.LG	eb
⊖	6c	l	Circle Bar	Column Reverse	.CR	ec
⍉	6d	m	Transpose	Transpose	.TR	ed
⌽	6e	n	Circle Stile	Reverse	.RV	ee
⍪	6f	o	Comma Bar	Column Comma	.CC	ef
⌿	70	p	Slash Bar	Column Slash	.CS	f0
⍀	71	q	Slope Bar	Column Backslash	.CB	f1
⊆	72	r	Left Shoe Underbar	Subset	.SS	f2
⊇	73	s	Right Shoe Underbar	Contains	.CO	f3
≡	74	t	Equal Underbar	Match	.MT	f4
↑	75	u	Up Arrow	Up Arrow	^	f5
⌷	76	v	Squad	Squish Quad	.SQ	f6
⌷	77	w	Squad			f7
⌷	78	x	Squad			f8
⌷	79	y	Squad			f9
⌷	7a	z	Squad			fa
⌷	7b	{	Squad			fb
⌷	7c	|	Squad			fc
OUT	7d	}	OUT [See note 2]	[Unused]		fd
⌷	7e	~	Squad	Squish Quad	.SQ	fe

Note 1: The left/right tack convention changed around the turn of the century. See "London Convention" versus "Bosworth Convention".

Note 2: The "OUT" character is not present in Unicode nor is it mentioned in the VAX APL manual. However it is in the font and discussed online in the APL forums. Normally, the representation is actually of the letters O, U, T overstruck atop each other, and that is the case for the VT220 version of the font, however the VT340 version has the letters written in small, non-overlapping, letters at a diagonal, similar to the graphic ␛ for Escape.

Composite APL Character Set

When running VAX APL, the VT340 and other terminals capable of loading the APL font used what DEC called the "Composite APL Character Set". The setup is:

Active	Set	Mapping
GL	G0	7-bit ASCII
GR	G1	APL Character Set
	G2	Latin-1 (DEC Supplemental)
	G3	DEC Special Graphics

Escape codes to set up Composite APL

The VMS APL User's Guide describes Composite Character Set in Table 1-16, which shows that bytes with the high-bit set display the APL glyphs. While this would be more convenient compared to constantly sending shifts (LS0, LS1), this technique would not work in a modern UTF-8 terminal.

Hackerb9's guess for how to replicate the Composite APL setup: first load the APL font (by catting it to the screen) which names the font Dscs &0 and maps it to G1 (ESC ) & 0). Then send these escape codes:

Set	Mapping	Escape sequence
G0	ASCII	ESC ( B
G1	APL	ESC ) & 0
G2	Latin-1 or MCS	ESC . A or ESC ( <
G3	Special Graphics	ESC + 0
GL	G0	0x0F
GR	G1	ESC ~

To return to normal, remap GR to point to G2: ESC }.

Composite APL table

Based on table 1-16 in the VMS APL User's Guide.

	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F
0_	␀	␁	␂	␃	␄	␅	␆	␇	␈	␉	␊	␋	␌	␍	␎	␏
1_	␐	␑	␒	␓	␔	␕	␖	␗	␘	␙	␚	␛	␜	␝	␞	␟
2_	␠	!	"	#	$	%	&	'	(	)	*	+	,	-	.	/
3_	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	:	;	<	=	>	?
4_	@	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	I	J	K	L	M	N	O
5_	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z	[	\	]	^	_
6_	`	a	b	c	d	e	f	g	h	i	j	k	l	m	n	o
7_	p	q	r	s	t	u	v	w	x	y	z	{	|	}	~	␡
8_	␢	␢	␢	␢	IND	NEL	SSA	ESA	HTS	HTJ	VTS	PLD	PLU	RI	SS2	SS3
9_	DCS	PU1	PU2	STS	CCH	MW	SPA	EPA	␢	␢	␢	CSI	ST	OSC	PM	APC
A_	␢	¨	≤	∨	∧	≠	÷	×	¯	⍺	⊥	∩	⌊	∊	∇	∆
B_	⍳	∘	⎕	⊤	○	⍴	⌈	↓	∪	⍵	⊃	⊂	←	⊢	→	≥
C_	⋄	⊣	⍙	𝐴	𝐵	𝐶	𝐷	𝐸	𝐹	𝐺	𝐻	𝐼	𝐽	𝐾	𝐿	𝑀
D_	𝑁	𝑂	𝑃	𝑄	𝑅	𝑆	𝑇	𝑈	𝑉	𝑊	𝑋	𝑌	𝑍	⍝	⌶	⍎
E_	⍕	⌹	⍇	⍈	⍞	⍌	⍋	⍒	⍫	⍱	⍲	⍟	⊖	⍉	⌽	⍪
F_	⌿	⍀	⊆	⊇	≡	↑	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷	⌷
	_0	_1	_2	_3	_4	_5	_6	_7	_8	_9	_A	_B	_C	_D	_E	_F

Note 1: ␢ represents characters that are unused.

Note 2: "OUT" is at 0xFD in the font but not shown in the user guide.

Note 3: The font does not define 0xFF although the table shows it as a Squish Quad.