>Each language needed its own code page. For example Greek uses 737 and Cyrillic uses 855.
Cyrillic is not a language, it's an alphabet/script. Codepage 855 was used for Cyrillic mostly in IBM documentation. In Russia codepage 866 was adopted on DOS machines, because in codepage 855 characters were not ordered alphabetically.
>Even today, on modern windows machines, typing alt+163 will default to 437 and print ú.
It's only true for machines where so called "OEM codepage" is configured as codepage 437. But in Russia it's codepage 866 by default, so typing alt+163 prints г.
It's worth noting that ALT+X gives you the default OEM code page for compatibility with DOS sigh whereas ALT+0X gives you Unicode. So typing ALT+0163 will give you £.
>sigh whereas ALT+0X gives you Unicode. So typing ALT+0163 will give you £.
This is incorrect. It gives you an ANSI codepage. On old Windows version it would be a default ANSI codepage, on modern Windows it's a codepage associated with your input language. So if I type ALT+0163 with English keyboard layout I get £ from Win-1252, but the same combo after switching to Russian gives me Ј from Win-1251.
Entering numbers bigger than 255 just causes wraparound. For example, ALT+0835 also will give you £ instead of ₣.
Cyrillic is not a language, it's an alphabet/script. Codepage 855 was used for Cyrillic mostly in IBM documentation. In Russia codepage 866 was adopted on DOS machines, because in codepage 855 characters were not ordered alphabetically.
>Even today, on modern windows machines, typing alt+163 will default to 437 and print ú.
It's only true for machines where so called "OEM codepage" is configured as codepage 437. But in Russia it's codepage 866 by default, so typing alt+163 prints г.