Dear Colleagues,

In the Microsoft Windows Russian Cyrillic encoding
(ISO?) 1251 one finds 4 quotation marks that
originated in France with Mr Guillemet. The
common-names and hexadecimal codes are:

 double left guillemets  (<<)     "AB
 double right guillemets (>>)     "BB
 single left guillemet   (<)      "8B
 single right guillemet  (>)      "9B
 
Question: In the Microsoft DOS Russian Cyrillic "Alternative"
encoding as most usually sold, what are the corresponding
codes?

I hope one of you still has a DOS machine to check this!

Would anyone hazard to guess what percentage of
Russian computer users employ "Alternative"
encoding in their typescripts?

Beyond "1251", "DOS Alternative" and "Unix-Internet KOI8",
is there any Cyrillic input encoding with a big user base?

            With best wishes for the summer,

              Laurent Siebenmann