alternate keyboard character set prank

readme.md

Want to prank a friend?

Enter this code into their terminal and watch them go crazy trying to figure out what happened!

echo -e "\033(0"

What does it do?

This code changes the terminal's character set to an alternate one, which can cause the text to appear as gibberish or strange symbols. The \033(0 sequence is an escape code that tells the terminal to switch to a different character set, which can lead to confusion for the user.

For example, here's what my prompt looks like before and after:

vscode  …/is/tools   config/devcontainer ✘!?  ♥ 22:21 
echo -e "\033(0"


┴⎽␌⎺␍␊  …/␋⎽/├⎺⎺┌⎽   ␌⎺┼°␋±/␍␊┴␌⎺┼├▒␋┼␊⎼ ✘!?  ♥ 22:22 

Characters Changed

Original Character	Alternate Character
a	▒
b	␉
c	␌
d	␍
e	␊
f	°
g	±
h	␤
i	␋
j	┘
k	┐
l	┌
m	└
n	┼
o	-
p	_
q	-
r	_
s	├
t	┤
u	┴
v	┬

How to revert the change

To revert the change and restore the terminal to its normal character set, you can use the following command:

echo -e "\033(B"

Have fun, and don't be a dick!

• Nick