Hallo mark!

 ml> by blended i mean that i have to hold the modifier button and
 ml> then hit the two keys, in proper order, to create the character

Wow.  That sounds far too much like work.

 ml> AFAIK they're just CP437 characters greater than 127

You mean like the 0x8d I sent that went MIA along a certain path?  Let's see if
 I can recreate it using utf8 and iconv;

    It's all fun and games until someone loses an .

On the above line it is U+00EC according to vim but after I exit iconv will
convert it to 0x8d which should be the proper cp437 character at your end.

 ml> especially the "box drawing" characters which we use quite a lot
 ml> when drawing our ASCII/ANSI menus and other screens

Which should be the same codes on CP866, CP850, and other assorted IBM 8 bit
codepages.  They have *NOTHING* to do with ASCII.  There is no such thing as a
code higher than 127 in ASCII as ALL ASCII codes are 7 bit characters (ie
0-127).  There are exactly zero "box drawing" characters in ASCII.

 ml> if only we were all so lucky

It has nothing to do with luck.  It is all about making the right choices.

Het leven is goed,
Maurice

... Huil niet om mij, ik heb vi.
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 * Origin: Little Mikey's EuroPoint - Ladysmith BC, Canada (2:280/464.113)