In
computing, Russification involves the
localization of
computers
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
and
software, allowing the
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fr ...
of a computer and its software to communicate in the
Russian language using
Cyrillic script.
Problems associated with Russification before the advent of
Unicode included the absence of a single
character-encoding standard for
Cyrillic
, bg, кирилица , mk, кирилица , russian: кириллица , sr, ћирилица, uk, кирилиця
, fam1 = Egyptian hieroglyphs
, fam2 = Proto-Sinaitic
, fam3 = Phoenician
, fam4 = Gr ...
(see
Cyrillic script#Computer encoding).
History of the MS-DOS Russification
The first official Russification of
MS-DOS
MS-DOS ( ; acronym for Microsoft Disk Operating System, also known as Microsoft DOS) is an operating system for x86-based personal computers mostly developed by Microsoft. Collectively, MS-DOS, its rebranding as IBM PC DOS, and a few oper ...
was carried out for
MS-DOS 4.01 in 1989/1990, released on . In
Microsoft, the Russification project manager and one of its main developers was Nikolai Lyubovny (Николай Любовный).
A Russian version of
MS-DOS 5.0 was also developed in 1991,
released on . Based on an initiative of Microsoft Germany in March 1991, derivates of the Russian MS-DOS 5.0 drivers used for keyboard, display and printer localization support (
DISPLAY.SYS,
EGA.CPI,
EGA2.CPI,
KEYB.COM,
KEYBOARD.SYS,
MSPRINT.SYS,
COUNTRY.SYS,
ALPHA.EXE) could also be purchased separately (with English messages) as part of Microsoft's ''AlphabetPlus'' kit. This enabled English issues of MS-DOS 3.3, 4.01 and 5.0 to be set up for Eastern European countries like Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Russification of Microsoft Windows
A comprehensive instruction set for computer Russification is maintained by Paul Gorodyansky.
It is mirrored in many places and recommended by the U.S.
Library of Congress.
See also
*
Cyrillization
Cyrillization or Cyrillisation is the process of rendering words of a language that normally uses a writing system other than Cyrillic script into (a version of) the Cyrillic alphabet. Although such a process has often been carried out in an ad ...
*
GOST 10859
*
Romanization of Russian
The romanization of the Russian language (the transliteration of Russian text from the Cyrillic script into the Latin script), aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essenti ...
*
АДОС, unrelated to Russian MS-DOS
*
PTS-DOS
*
Mojibake
References
External links
Modern Online (Virtual) Keyboard for Russian (not just alphabet order)
User interfaces
Russian language
Russification
Computing in the Soviet Union
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