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Here are the Cliff's Notes: Computers use numbers for everything. This includes the letters of the alphabet, numerals, symbols, spaces, and punctuation.

PC's need to share a common "language" or set of codes for these symbols so that you see the same thing when you read my message as I see when I type it.

The computer translates my keystrokes into these codes, and then your computer translates the codes back into symbols. The "code book" that we share is called the ASCII Codes (or extended ASCII codes)

0 - 32 = control codes like Tab, Linefeed, Carriage Return, etc

32 = a space, like when you press the spacebar key
33 = !
34 = "
35 = #
36 = $
37 = %
38 = &
39 = '
40 = (
41 = )
42 = *
43 = +
44 = ,
45 = -
46 = .
47 = /

48 - 57 = 0123456789 (grouped these for clarity, and brevity)

58 = :
59 = ;
60 = <
61 = =
62 = >
63 = ?
64 = @

65 - 90 = ABC...XYZ (grouped these for clarity, and brevity)

91 - 96 = [\]^_`

97 - 122 = abc...yz (grouped these for clarity, and brevity)

etc.

Normally you don't really care what the code is for a letter because the computer handles this when you press the key. SOmetimes, however, you would like to type a symbol that doesn't show up on your keyboard. When this happens, you can enter the ASCII code for the symbol by pressing the [Alt] key while typing in the ASCII code for the symbol.

Try pressing the [Alt] key while entering anything between 179 and about 210. People used to draw stuff on text screens using these symbols.

Have fun!