Data Link Escape

The Data Link Escape symbol was used in computer terminals, printers, text processing systems, and telecommunication equipment to control the data flow in the communication channel.

It was commonly present in communication protocols. The first function was about modifying the value of the following symbol. The second function was to signal the start and end of a special sequence of symbols that were to be understood as commands or control instructions. Thus, it was used to ensure the correct transmission and interpretation of control characters and data in the information stream.

As for modern computer systems and applications, the U+0010 symbol is rarely used there, since other mechanisms and protocols are employed to control data flow and encode commands.

Like other control symbols, this one has no visible representation and doesn't occupy a lot of space on screen or in typed text. However, there is a separate symbol in Control Pictures2400–243F representing the graphical image of Data Link Escape as the abbreviation DLE (Data Link Escape) — ␐ .

The symbol “Data Link Escape” is included in the “C0 controls” subblock of the “Basic Latin” block and was approved as part of Unicode version 1.1 in 1993.