Escape sequence

An escape sequence is a series of characters used to change the state of computers and their attached peripheral devices. These are also known as control sequences, reflecting their use in device control. Some control sequences are special characters that always have the same meaning. Escape sequences use an escape character to change the meaning of the characters which follow it, meaning that the characters can be interpreted as a command to be executed rather than as data.

Escape sequences are commonly used when a computer and a peripheral have only a single channel through which to send information back and forth. If the device in question is "dumb" and can only do one thing with the information being sent to it (for instance, print it) then there is no need for an escape sequence. However most devices have more than one capability, and thus need some way to distinguish information that is to be treated as data from information that is to be treated as commands.

An escape character is usually assigned to the Esc key on a computer keyboard, and can be sent in other ways than as part of an escape sequence. For example, the Esc key may be used as an input character in editors such as vi, or for backing up one level in a menu in some applications. The Hewlett Packard HP 2640 terminals had a key for a "display functions" mode which would display graphics for all control characters, including Esc, to aid in debugging applications.

If the Esc key and other keys that send escape sequences are both supposed to be meaningful to an application, an ambiguity arises if a character terminal is in use. When the application receives the ASCII escape character, it is not clear whether that character is the result of the user pressing the Esc key or whether it is the initial character of an escape sequence (e.g., resulting from an arrow key press). The traditional method of resolving the ambiguity is to observe whether or not another character quickly follows the escape character. If not, it is assumed not to be part of an escape sequence. This heuristic can fail under some circumstances, especially without fast modern communication speeds.

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