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G0/G1 character set switching

Category: charsets · Baseline: core · Tags: VT100 · Specification ↗

SI (Shift In, 0x0F) and SO (Shift Out, 0x0E) switch between G0 and G1 character sets. The G0 and G1 sets can be independently designated using ESC ( X (G0) and ESC ) X (G1), where X selects the character set (B=ASCII, 0=DEC Special Graphics). This mechanism allows applications to quickly toggle between text and line-drawing characters without re-designating the character set each time.
How this is testedautomated
Send \x1b(0 to designate G0 as DEC Special Graphics, write 'l', verify the cell renders as a box-drawing character (not literal 'l'). Restore with \x1b(B.

The same probe runs against headless backends (via Termless) and real terminal apps (via a daemon launched in each terminal). This lets us distinguish parser correctness from rendering correctness.

Analysis2026-04-06

Supported by all 12 tested terminals — universal adoption. Part of the Core TUI baseline.

Supported by 13 of 14 backends (93%)

Terminal Applications

TerminalVersionSupportNotes
iTerm23.6.9✓ yes
Ghostty1.3.1✓ yes
VS Code✓ yes
Warp✓ yes
Cursor✓ yes
Terminal.app✓ yes

Headless Backends

Parser correctness only — a means the parser accepts the sequence.

BackendVersionSupportNotes
Alacritty0.26.0✓ yes
Kitty0.40.0✓ yes
vt100.js0.2.1✓ yes
vterm0.2.0✓ yes
WezTerm0.1.0-fork.5✓ yes
xterm.js5.5.0✓ yes