Star Micronics SB-15 User Manual

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SD-IO/l5

USER’S MANUAL

NOT INTENDED FOR SALE

Federal Communications Commission

Radio Frequency Interference

The equipment generates and uses radio frequency energy and if not installed and used properly, that is, in strict accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. may cause interference. to radio and television reception. It has been type tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B computing device in accordance with the specifications in Subpart J of Part 15 of FCC Rules, which are designed to provide reasonable protection against such interference in a residential installation. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

*Reorient the receiving antenna *Relocate the computer with respect to the receiver *Move the computer away from the receiver *Plug the computer into a different outlet so that computer and receiver are on different

branch circuits.

If necessary, the user should consult the dea for additional suggestions. The user may find the following booklet prepared by the Federal Communications Commission helpful: “How to Identify and Resolve Radio-TV Interference Problems.” This booklet is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 20402, Stock No. 004-000-00345-4.

For compliance with Federal Noise Interference Standard, this equipment requires a shielded cable.

A note about the programs in this manual:

This manual contains several programs that help to demonstrate the versatility of the SD-101 15 printers. Star Micronics Co., Ltd. has made every effort to insure that the programs are functional and accurate. However, Star Micronics Co.. Ltd. cannot guarantee their accuracy or suitability to any particular application.

Statement

!c: or an experienced redio/television technician

Trademark Acknowledgement

SD-IO, SD-15: Star Micronics Co., Ltd. grafstar: Star Micronics Inc. Apple, Apple II, Apple II+ , Apple IIe, Applesoft: Apple computer Inc. Commodore C-64: Commodore Business Machines, Inc. Compaq: Compaq Computer corporation

CP/M: Digital Research

EasyWriter: Information Unlimited Software, Inc.

IBM Personal Computer, IBM PC, IBM XT: International Business Machines Corp.

Kaypro: Kaypro Computer Corporation Microsoft BASIC: Microsoft Corporation Osborne 1: Osborne Computer Corporation SuperCalc: Sorcim Corporation

TRS-SO: Radio Shack. a division of Tandy Corporation WordStar: MicroPro International Corporation

A Special Message

to the New Owner

L,..

c-.

L”

Lo.

Congratulations on your selecting the printer of choice for both the sophisticated as well as the first-time user/owner - the new SD-IO/IS!

To complement the SD-lo/l 5, we’ve included this manual. All the information you need to be up and running with your new SD-lo/l 5 is right here!

You’ll find using this manual easy and pleasant. We’ve gone

to great length to make it so, as it’s master-minded by solid experts in the art of computer science, and written by professionals experienced in presenting technical subjects accurately - and in Plain English!

As an example, look over the Table of Contents and you’ll see what we mean. Whether you’re a greenhorn or a technical wizard, everything you need to know in order utilize to SD- lo/ 15’s wealth of features can be found there. We suggest that each new owner/user take time to at least scan Chapter 2 and 3 - “Getting to Know Your SD-lO/lS’ and “Getting Started With

SD- 10/l 5”- as well as Chapter 1, “Setting Up SD- 10/l 5”, to

become familiar with your SD-lo/l 5 and how it works.

When you’re ready to connect your computer to your

SD-lo/l 5, look at Appendix J for directions applying to your

make of computer.

For you who wish to design your own characters, do your

own plotting, your own infinite variety of dot graphic patterns and densities, you’ll have a ball! For you, Chapters 5 through

10 are a must, and of course everybody should look at Chapter

11) which tells how to maintain your SD-lo/l 5 for a long and

carefree life.

In this manual there are plenty of example programs to de-

monstrate and show off all of SD-10/15’s features. Since many

SD- 10/l 5 users have IBM Personal Computers (or the equivalent) all the example programs are written in Microsoft BASIC for the IBM. But throughout the manual, users of other computers will find hints on how to make SD-lo/l5 work with their computer.

So, gentle reader, with this manual we hand you the key to the wonderful world of SD- 10/l 5. handsome, fast, and carefree printing!

May you enjoy years of

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Setting Up SD-lo/15

Where Shall We Put It? What Have We Here?

Removing the printer cover Removing packing and shipping screws Installing the platen knob Removing the tractor unit Attaching the paper separator Installing the ribbon cartridge

Getting to Know Your SD-lo/15

Components and Controls Paper Selection and Loading

Loading single sheets Loading sprocket-feed paper

Bottom feeding SD- 15 Ribbon Installation Adjusting the Gap Self-Test

Getting Started With SD-lo/15

Using Commercial Software

First, some terminology Using SD- IO/ 15 with SuperCalc Using SD- 1 O/ 15 with word processors Using this book without learning BASIC

Controlling SD-lo/15 With BASIC

Some Basics About BASIC

Establishing communications The CHR$ function Control codes The escape code Some problem codes

Command Syntax Used in This Manual

Selecting The Right Software Mode

Printing Text With SD-lo/15

Some Special Kinds of Text

Near Letter Quality characters

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Italic printing Underlining Superscripts and subscripts

Changing the Print Pitch

Expanded print Making SD-lo/l5 Print Darker Summary

Line Spacing and Forms Control

Starting New Lines

Changing Line Spacing

Moving down the page without a carriage return

Forms Controls

Form feed Changing the Page Length Top and Bottom Margins Summary

Formatting Your Output

Using Horizontal Tabs

A one-shot tab command Setting Left and Right Margins Using Vertical Tabs

A one-shot vertical tab command Summary

Special Features of the SD-lo/15

Now hear this

Initializing SD- 1 O/ 15

Putting SD-lo/l 5 to sleep Printing to the bottom of the sheet Backspace, delete, and cancel text “Zero’: printing Unidirectional printing The seven bit dilemma

Block graphics characters and special symbols International character sets

The macro control code

Summary

Creating Your Own Characters

Dot Matrix Printing The Print Matrix Defining Your Own Characters

Rule 1: Download characters are eight dots high Rule 2: Dots cannot overlap Add up each column of dots Assigning a value to your character Download character definition command

Printing Download Characters

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Appendix A

Appendix B Appendix C Appendix D

Appendix E Appendix F

Erasing Download Character Definitions Defining Proportional Characters

Connecting characters

Summary

Printing With Dot Graphics

Comparing Dot Grapphics With Download Characters Using the Dot Graphics Commands

Specifying the number of columns of dots Specifying the graphics data

Combining text and graphics Printing a Design or Logo Plotting With SD-lo/15

How the program works High Resolution Graphics If You Have Problems With BASIC

Summary

Basic Maintenance

Cleaning SD-lo/15

Replacing the Ink Ribbon Replacing a Fuse Replacing the Print Head

DIP Switch Settings

Switch Functions

ASCII Codes Character Style Charts Function Code Reference

Commands to Control Print Style

Front style controls Font pitch controls

Special print modes Commands to Control Vertical Position of Print Head

Line feed controls

Form feed controls

Vertical tabs

Commands to Control Horizontal Position of Print Head Download Character Commands Commands to Control Graphics Macro Instruction Commands Other Commands

Command Summary in Numeric Order ASCII Code Conversion Chart

103

121

127

131 139 157

199 203

Appendix G Technical Specifications Appendix H

Appendix I

Appendix J

The Parallel Interface

Functions of the Connector Signals

Serial Interface Specifications

Configuring the Serial Interface SD- lo/ 15’s Serial Protocols

Serial busy protocols XON/XOFF protocol ACK protocol

Connecting With Computer

Connecting with IBM-PC and Compaq

BASIC programming

Listing programs

Connecting with Apple II computers

Applesoft BASIC

Listing programs

Connecting with TRS-80 computers

TRS-80 BASIC

Listing programs

Connecting with Kaypro, Osborne, and other CP/M computers

Using MBASIC

Listing programs

211 215

219

225

DIP Switch Quick Reference

Command Quick Reference Consumer Response

233 234 238

Table of Tables

Table 5-l Near letter quality commands Table 5-2 Italic commands Table 5-3 Underline commands Table 5-4 Superscript and subscript commands Table 5-5 Print pitch commands Table 5-6 Expanded print commands Table 5-7 Print emphasis commands Table 6-l Line feed commands Table 6-2 Line spacing commands Table 6-3 Form length commands Table 6-4 Top and bottom margin commands Table 7-l Horizontal tab commands Table 7-2 Left and right margin commands Table 7-3 Vertical tab commands Table 8-l Bell commands Table 8-2 Some miscellaneous commands Table 8-3 Printing direction commands Table 8-4 Eight bit control commands Table 8-5 International character set commands Table 8-6 International character sets Table 8-7 Macro instruction commands Table 9-l Download character commands

Table 10-l Calculating nl and n2 Table 10-2 Dot graphics commands Table A-l DIP switch settings Table A-2 International character sets Table H-l Parallel interface pin functions Table I-l Serial interface pin functions Table I-2 DIP switch on the serial board Table I-3 Handshaking protocols Table I-4 Data transfer rates Table J-l IBM-PC parallel cable Table J-2 Apple parallel cable

Table J-3 TRS-80 Model I parallel cable Table J-4 TRS-80 Model II parallel cable Table J-5 Kaypro parallel cable Table J-6 Osborne 1 parallel cable

;i :; 1:

45 50

53 56

i: 63

2 69

71 72

76 ;i

105 116

128 130 217 220 221

221 221

225 227 229 229 231 231

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CHAPTER 1

SETTING UP SD- lo/ 15

In this chapter, we’ll show you how to unpack your new SD-lo/l 5 printer, set it up in the right location, and get it ready for you to load it with paper and start printing. But first . . .

WHERE SHALL WE PUT IT?

Before you do anything else, give some thought to where you’ll be using your printer. Obviously, it will be somewhere near your computer. And both printer and computer will lead longer, healthier lives if they like their environment. For instance, we recommend . . .

l Placing the printer on a flat surface l Keeping it out of direct sunlight and away from

heat-producing appliances

l Using it only in temperatures where you are comfortable l Avoiding areas with a lot of dust, grease, or humidity l Giving it “clean” electricity. Don’t connect it to the same

circuit as large, noise-producing motors

l Power supply voltage should be the same voltage that’s

specified on the identification plate - not over 10% more or less than the recommended AC voltage.

Warning: Extremely high or low voltage can damage your

printer.

WHAT HAVE WE HERE?

Now let’s take a look at what’s in the carton. Take it slow and

easy, and check each item in the box against Figure 1-I. There should be exactly 6 items.

--.

Figure l-l. Inside the carton you should have received: I) SD1uj13

printer, 2) continuous paper guide, 3) platen knob, 4) spare fuse, 5) ribbon cartridge, and 6) this user’s manual.

. . .

. . .\ “- .A,.?

Let’s move on the next step . . .

H Removing the printer cover

What is cover for, really? Primarily, for two reasons: one, to keep dust and dirt away from the delicate “innards,” and two, to keep the noise level down. The printer cover must be on or SD-lo/l5 will not print. So, you should keep the cover on all

the time, except when setting the ink ribbon cartridge in place, loading paper, or making other adjustments when the cover might be in the way.

To remove the printer cover, lift up the free end (nearest the center of the printer), then with a slight rocking motion, lift it straight up and off the machine. To replace, just reverse the

procedure.

Figure l-2 illustrates the proper position and

movement for both removal and replacement of the cover.

Printer Cover

Figure 1-2. Kemove the pnnter cover by Iitting straight up.

.- - . . ..^. . .

n Removing packing and shipping screws

There are two (on an SD-lo) or three (on an SD-1.5) shipping

screws on the bottom of the printer, used to hold the internal

chassis securely to the external frame during shipping. To get

at these, carefully place the printer upside down on a soft surface like a foam cushion. Remove the screws with a Phillips screwdriver as shown in Figure l-3.

Next, remove the printer cover, and remove the spiral tube

on the carriage stay which protects the print head, per Figure

l-4.

Figure 1-3. SD-10 has two screws which secure the chassis during shippmg;

SD-15 has three. They should be removed before use.

_ . .

Figure 1-4. Remove the spiral tube on the carriage stay that protects

SD- 1 O/ 1 S’s print head.

You’ll be smart to save these screws, along with the rest of the

packing material and the shipping carton, in case you ever have

to ship the printer. Tape the screws somewhere on the carton or packing.

n Installing the platen knob

This is the knob that turns the rubber platen cylinder. It fits into the hole on the right side of the printer case. Just match the odd-shaped hole in the knob with the same shape on the shaft you’ll see inside the hole in the case, and press it on firmly. Give the knob a few turns to see that it’s turning the platen easily and smoothly.

n Removing the tractor unit

The tractor unit, shown in Figure 1-5, comes mounted on the printer during shipment. It is used only with sprocket-feed paper. When other papers are used, such as single sheets, the unit should be removed, in the following manner:

Snap lever

Figure 1-5 Remove the tractor by pulling the snap levers towards you

and tilting the tractor unit back.

Remove the printer cover (if attached). Identify the “snap levers” as shown in Figure l-5. Pull both snap levers forward, and at the same time . . . Rock the tractor unit up and towards you about half an inch. Now lift the tractor up and away from the printer.

Up to this point, we’ve been clearing the decks for action, so to speak. Only two more things are left to do before we can start printing. They are, 1) attach the paper separator, and 2) install the ink ribbon cartridge. Actually, if you’re planning to print on single sheets only, you won’t need to use the paper separator, which are designed expressly to guide continuous paper (sprocket-feed) through the printer.

H Attaching the paper separator

Insert one protruding end into the hole shown in Figure l-6 then gently bend the other protruding end until it snaps into the opposite hole.

Paper separator

Figure 1-6. Attach the paper separator.

Important news: If you get this in upside down, they won’t work. So take another sharp look at Figure 1-6 before we pass on to the final act-installing the ink ribbon cartridge.

n Installing the ribbon cartridge

The ribbon cartridge greatly simplifies installing the ink ribbon. For easy installation, though, it’s wise to follow the sequence and diagrams shown here.

1. Turn the power switch off, and remove the printer cover (as explained earlier.)

2. Slide the print head gently with your fingers to the approximate center of its pathway. ’

3. Using the guide holders as a fulcrum with the ribbon facing away from you, as shown in Figure 1-7, lightly press the cartridge down until the two holder springs snap shut to hold the cartridge firmly in place.

4. Now thread the ribbon carefully between the print head and the ribbon guide next to the platen. (Take a good look at Figure l-8.) You might want to use a ball point pen to lightly press the ribbon guide against the platen (rubber roller) while you insert the ribbon into the thin space between the print head and ribbon guide. Zmpovtant: Center the ribbon vertically in the middle

Figure 1-7. Lightly press the cartridge down until the holder springs hold

it in place.

Figure 1-8. Use a ball point pen to place the ribbon between the print

head and the ribbon guide. It’s important that the ribbon is centered vertically between the print head and the ribbon guide.

of the print head to avoid misprints or the ribbon coming off during printing.

5. Turn the spool gear knob in the direction of the arrow printed on the top left side of the cartridge to take up

the slack in the ribbon; continue turning the spool gear four or five times to verify that everything is properly set and ready to roll.

6. As a f?nal step, replace the printer cover. As you’ll learn

in Chapter 2, SD-lo/l 5 refuses to print unless the printer

cover is securely in place! A dousing “on line” lamp warns

of a loose cover. When this occurs, do the obvious thing: fasten the cover securely, press the on line button to glow the green light, and you’re back in business!

CHAPTER 2

GETTING TO KNOW

YOUR SD-lo/l5

The more you learn about SD-lo/15 and its sophisticated features, old and new, the better SD- lo/15 is going to perform for you. Remember, it’s not just what you know - it’s what you know how to use! So, let’s start getting acquainted!

Subjects we’ll cover in this chapter include:

l Components and controls l Paper-out and front-cover-open detectors l Paper selection and loading l Adjusting the gap - for different paper thickness l Self-test - printout of available characters

COMPONENTS AND CONTROLS

First, the components. You saw most of these when you un-

packed you printer. Now we’ll give you a brief explanation of what they do. (For details on your initial set-up of SD-10/15, with all components in place, see Chapter 1.)

PRINTER COVER - This function is to protect the ribbon and

print head from dust and dirt, and also to reduce the sauna level.

SPROCKET PAPER GUIDE - As you’ve guessed, this wire

rack is used to support and guide the sprocket paper during printing.

INK RIBBON CARTRIDGE - A neat and tidy timesaver, which

snaps into place within a few seconds.

POWER CORD - Connects the printer to its power source,

usually a wall outlet. It’s located at the left rear.

PRINT HEAD - This is the unit which does the actual printing.

Like a typewriter, the print head prints through an ink ribbon.

Control panel

Power switch

Figure 2-l. Front and rear views of SD-IO.

TRACTOR - This unit feeds sprocket-feed paper with its drive

gear and sprocket units. It is very easy to remove or to install the tractor unit onto the printer.

PLATEN - This is the rubber cylinder that carries paper to the

print head.

\..

“.

Figure 2-2. Front and rear views of SD-15

INTERFACE CONNECTOR - Around on the back, this is the

?Zontrol panel

place where you connect your computer to SD- 1 O/l 5, so that they are able to communicate with each other.

knob

Now let’s take a tour around the controls, starting with the control panel board, located at the right front. There are 4 lamps and 3 buttons on the panel:

I POWER

I READY

I PAPER

r---l

I OUT I

I ON LINE

Figure 2-3. SD- lo/ 15’s controls.

POWER LAMP - Glows green

when the power is on.

READY LAMP - Glows green

when the printer is ready to accept data. This light flickers during transmission. worry about the flicker; it’s normal!

ON LINE LAMP - Glows green

when the communication lines

to your computer are open.

PAPER-OUT LAMP - Glows

red when the printer is out of paper and stops printing.

LF BUTTON - Stands for “Line

Feed,” and allows you to advance the paper one line at a time when the on line lamp is off. If you hold the button down, you’ll get consecutive line feeds, one after another.

FF BUTTON - Stands for

“Form Feed.” When you tap this button while the on line lamp

is off, you advance the paper to

the top of a new page or “form.”

Don’t

ON LINE BUTTON - Lets you change the printer status between

“off line,” and “on line”. When it’s on line, the printer can receive data from the computer. When it’s off line, the printer sends a signal to the computer indicating that it cannot accept data. When you turn the power switch on, you are automatically on line.

There are other kinds of controls, not connected to the control

panel board. Some of the more important ones are:

POWER SWITCH - Towards the back on the left side. This

turns on the electricity to your machine.

PLATEN KNOB - Middle, right side. Lets you manually turn

the platen, just like a typewriter. CAUTION: Turn this knob only with power switch OJ’$ Turning it with the power on could damage the platen drive gears.

- -

RELEASE LEVER - On top, near the left rear corner. You’ll

be using this particular control often. What it does is control the pressure of the paper against the platen. Its position is crucial to feeding the different paper types - sprocket and single sheets. It has two settings: “Friction,” and “Tractor.” The Friction position is used for single sheet printing, and the Tractor position for sprocket paper. This will be fully explained in the section describing paper loading procedures.

. .

PAPER BAIL - The bail is the movable bar that presses the

paper against the platen during printing, and when moved away

from the platen, allows the paper to reach its proper position during the loading operation.

.^,

PAPER-OUT DETECTOR - This sensor automatically stops

printing and tells you when the printer runs out of the paper. The paper-out lamp glows red and a beep tone alerts you when the printer runs out of paper. The on line lamp also goes off, so you are ready to load more paper.

COVER-OPEN DETECTOR - When the printer cover is not

fully closed, this magnetic detector causes the on line lamp to go out, and printing is interrupted (or won’t begin). If this happens, printing may be re-started by securely closing the cover and pressing the on line button.

DIP SWITCHES - Primarily, these switches are used in inter-

facing SD- 1 O/l 5 to your particular brand of computer. But there are also switches to set the power-on default settings for print style, and page size. See the appendix for a complete explanation.

PAPER SELECTION AND LOADING

That’s it for components and connectors. The next thing we’ll look at is the variety of papers available for SD-10/15, and how to load them, ready to print. For starters, SD-lo/l5 can handle single sheets - whether standard-size stationery, envelopes, multi-part carbonless business forms, or almost any other kind of individual sheets. You can also print on continuous paper

- fan-folded perforated paper. Here’s a good place to spend a minute talking about the release

lever, which you’ll be using often. This lever controls the pressure

of the paper against the platen. It has two settings - “F” and “T”.

The “F” setting stands for “Friction Feed” and this setting is

always used when running single sheets. The “T” position stands

Figure 2-4. The paper release lever has two settings: “F” for friction feed

and “T” for tractor feed.

for “Tractor Feed” and is used only with sprocket-feed paper. “F” tightens the pressure of the paper against the platen, while “T” loosens this pressure, so it’s easier to move the paper around.

n Loading single sheets

Paper width must always be between 8 and 10 inches (8 and

15 inches for the SD-15), and paper thickness between .07 mm

and .lO mm.

Now, instead of rolling the paper in manua& by turning the

platen knob, we’re going to use the L.F. button, with the power

switch turned on. (This means we’ll have to use the “F” (friction feed) position of the release lever.) Remember what we told you about that L.F. (line feed) button? This allows you to advance the paper one line at a time, and if you hold the button down, you’ll get multiple line feeds, one after the other.

OK? Now let’s start.

1. Remove the printer cover and tractor unit (you can leave the paper separator on if you have installed it).

2. Turn the power switch on.

3. Lift up the paper bail bar.

4. Set the release lever to the “F”position.

5. Insert the sheet from the back side of the platen (between the paper chute and the platen cover plate).

6. Press the ON LINE button until the ON LINE light goes off.

7. Press the L.F. button to roll the paper in until it appears on the front side of the platen, about where you want the first line to start printing. NOTE: To straighten paper (if it’s in crooked):

l Move the release lever to “T” position. l Position the sheet where you want it, moving right or

left if necessary to get the paper located between the margins of the printing area.

l Move release lever back to “F” position.

8. Push the paper bail bar back to its original position, flush against the paper.

9. Replace the printer cover.

10. Presto! You’re ready to start printing!

kgure 2-5. Inserting a single sheet of paper can be done

with the line feed button.

“under power”

n Loading sprocket-feed paper

This is the familiar perforated paper, with the holes along both

sides, also called sprocket, punched, fan-fold, or just plain

“computer paper.”

It can be as narrow as 3”, and up to 10” wide

(5” to 15 $4” on SD-I 5,.

To use this kind of paper, you’ll need to install the tractor unit,

with its two “sprocket” wheels to carry the paper along.

To install the tractor, identify the two “snap levers” shown in

Figure 2-6. At the same time, identify the two “stoppers,” nickel-plated bars over which the hoooked or cut-out bottom edge of the tractor frame fits.

OK? Now pick up the tractor unit. While depressing the two snap levers, guide it down to the two stoppers; when the hooks slide over the stopper bars, let go of the snap levers to lock it in place.

Stopper

Figure 2-6. Replace the tractor unit by placing the hooks against the

stoppers and lower the front into place while holding the snap levers.

Next, if you haven’t already, install the paper separator (see

Chapter 1), and we’re ready to start loading.

1. Turn the power switch off and open the printer cover.

2. Pull the release lever (on left side) to position “T”.

3. Raise the paper bail bar; lift the paper separator upright.

4. Place the stack of fan-fold paper behind the printer.

5. Open the tractor covers, atop the right and left sprocket units, as shown in Figure 2-7.

Figure 2-7. Open the tractor covers to expose the sprocket teeth.

6. Flip the clamp levers forward. This aLlows the two sprocket units to move freely right and left. so you can align them with the holes in the paper.

-7. Pick up the top sheet, and feed it between the paper chute and platen cover plate.

8. Push the paper down and forward, so it wraps around

the platen.

9. Return the paper separator to its original flat position.

10. Pull the paper up, past the sprocket units.

11. When holes fit snugly over the nubby teeth in both sprockets, close the tractor covers and snap the clamp levers back into their locked position (Figure 2-8).

12. With the platen knob, roll the paper up or down until the correct “start-print” position is reached. You do this by lining up the horizontal perforation (where you tear apart individual sheets) with the top of the ribbon guide.

13. Now you’re ready to roll! Replace the printer cover and turn the power switch on. Rapid printing!

Figure 2-8. SD-lo/l5 ready to run with sprocket-teed paper.

n Bottom feeding SD- 15

The SD- 15 can be loaded with sprocket paper in two different

ways-either from the back, as with SD-10,or through a slot in

the bottom. To load SD- 15 from the back, follow the steps shown

in the previous section. But for loading through the bottom slot,

you position the SD-15 above the stack of fan-fold paper, with the paper being fed up through the bottom of the printer and on out the back.

To use SD-15 this way, you’ll need to install the tractor unit, and the paper separator if you haven’t already. If you’re unsure how to do it, see Chapter 1 and Figure 2-6.

The steps for bottom loading SD-15.

‘d

1. Turn the power switch off and remove the printer cover.

2. Pull the release lever to position “T” (Figure 2-4).

3. Raise the paper bail bar.

4. Place the stack of sprocket-feed paper below the printer, ideally on a specially-built printer table with a bult-in slot.

5. Open the tractor covers, right and left (Figure 2-7).

6. Flip the clamp levers forward. This allows the two sprocket units to move freely right and left, so you can align them with the holes in the paper.

7. Pick up the first “sheet” and lift it up and through the slot in the bottom of the SD-15.

8. Push the paper up to the front of the platen roller.

9. Feed the top sheet inside the paper bail bar and past the

platen, high enough so you can grip the paper from above the printer.

10. Pull the paper up past the sprocket wheels.

11. When the holes fit snugly over the nubby teeth, close tractor covers and snap the clamp levers back into the locked positions.

12. With the platen knob, roll the paper up or down until

the correct “start-print” position is reached. This position

is achieved by lining up the horizontal perforation with

the top of the ribbon guide.

13. Now we’re ready to roll - replace the printer cover, and

turn on the power switch. Speedy printing!

Figure 2-9. SD-15 can be loaded from the back like SD-10 or from the

bottom, as shown here.

RIBBON INSTALLATION

This is described in two places: installation of the ribbon cartridge is explained in Chapter 1; replacing the ink ribbon inside the ribbon cartridge casing is described in Chapter 11 (“Maintenance”).

ADJUSTING THE GAP

The gap is the space between the print head and the platen. Adjusting the gap is simply adjusting the printer to accommodate different thicknesses of paper.

To make this adjustment, move the adjustment lever which is under the printer cover, immediately in front of the release lever

shown in Figure 2-10. Pulling the adjustment lever towards you

will widen the gap; pushing it away from you will narrow the gap.

Figure 2-10. The adjustment lever allows for different thicknesses of paper.

Five positions are available; you can feel the lever clicking into

the various notches. The second step (illustrated) is the one most

commonly used for single sheets of paper. The lever is nearly

straight up in this position.

You shouldn’t encounter any difficulty in finding the right gap

setting to fit your paper. If necessary, experiment; you’ll soon find the best position for the paper you’re using.

SELF-TEST

The “self-test” is a trial run of your beautiful new machine. SD-lo/l 5 carries a built-in program that prints out sample lines of letters, numbers, and other characters - to show you that everything’s in good working order. It also serves as a display of the characters available in the SD-lo/l 5. And finally, it’s a

“warm-up” that permits you to check your installation of ribbon

and paper, and the adjustment of the print head gap.

Best of all, you don’t have to wait another minute - you can print the self-test without hooking up the SD-lo/l5 to your computer! It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3...

1. Plug the printer’s power cord into an electrical outlet.

2. Insert a sheet of paper (or sprocket paper, either one).

3. While holding down the LF button, turn the power switch

on.

Were you surprised? It’s speedy, isn’t it? 16O.characters a second,

to be exact (when printing normal pica type).

(STAR mode; DIP switch 2-2 on)

:IBM mode; DIP switch 2-2 off)

Figure 2-11. SD-10/15’s self-test gives a preview of its capabilities.

CHAPTER 3

GETTING STARTED

WITH SD-lo/l5

You have assembled and tested your printer, and seen a quick sample of SD-10/15’s capabilities in the self-test. Now it’s time to do what you bought SD-lo/l5 to do: print information from your computer.

But first you need to connect SD-lo/l5 to your computer.

Figure 3-l shows where the cables connect, but there’s more that you need to know complete instructions for connecting SD- lo/ 15 to many popular computers are given in the appendix. Find the appendix that covers your computer and follow the instructions for connecting SD- 10/l 5. If your computer isn’t listed in the appendix, then ask your Star dealer which computer that is listed is most like yours. If none of the listed computers are similar to yours, then your Star dealer will give you advice on connecting SD- 1 O/ 15 to your computer.

When everything is connected, come back here and we will check

it out!

Figure 3-l. SD-lo/l5 has parallel interface as standard.

Interface connector

lip

USING COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE

Many of you purchased SD-lo/15 to use with commercial software. You made a good choice because SD- lo/ 15 is compatible with most commercial programs, from word processing programs to spreadsheet programs to accounting programs.

Many of these programs have a routine for describing your printer. These routines are often in “installation programs”. They typically give you a choice of printers or printer types to pick from. Some typical descriptions that you might pick for

SD-lo/l5 are:

matrix printer”,

printer”.

“TTY type printer with backspace”, “IBM-dot

“Centronics-type printer”, “Dot matrix ASCII

SD-lo/l5 should work fine with any of these descrip-

tions.

Some printer lists are not very clear, and may not include

anything that you think describes SD-10/15, If you can’t decide which description best fits SD-lo/l5 we recommend that you narrow the list to two or three choices (you can quickly eliminate all the daisywheel printer types) and then experiment. You won’t hurt anything if you guess wrong; it just won’t work right. This should quickly tell you if your guess is right. If all else fails, though, your Star dealer will be happy to give you some advice.

Some programs don’t ask you what kind of printer you have,

but instead they ask some questions about what your printer can do. Here are the answers to the “most asked” questions. SD- 10/l 5 can do a “backspace”.

SD- lo/ 15 can do a “hardware form feed”.

With these questions answered, you are ready to start printing.

Read the manual that came with your commercial software to

see how to make it send information for SD-lo/l 5 to print. This

is all you need to know to use SD-lo/l5 as a regular printer.

But SD-lo/l5 isn’t just a regular printer. SD-lo/l5 has many capabilities that your commercial software isn’t aware of. A little later we will see what it takes to use some of SD- IO/l 5’s advanced features with commercial software.

w First. some terminology

SD- IO/ 15 knows what to print because it knows how to interpret the codes that the computer sends to it. These codes are numbers that the computer sends to SD-10/l 5. Both the computer and SD-IO/l 5 know the meaning of these codes because they are a set of standard codes used by almost all microcomputers. This set of codes is the American Standard Code for hformation In-

terchange, which is usually referred to as ASCII (pronounced

--.

ask-key ). There are ASCII codes for all the letters of the alphabet, both lower case and capital, the numbers from 0 to 9, most punctuation marks, and some (but not all) of SD-10/15’s functions.

ASCII codes are referred to in several different ways, depending on the way they are used. Some times these codes are treated as regular numbers. For example, the letter “A” is represented by the number 65 in ASCII. Appendix F shows all of the ASCII codes.

In BASIC, ASCII codes are used in the CHR$ function. This function is used to print the character that is represented by the number in the CHR$ function. The BASIC statement PRINT

CHR$ (65) will print an “A” on the terminal.

In some other programming languages, ASCII codes are re-

ferred to by their hex value.

“Hex” is short for hexadecimal which is a base- 16 number system (our usual numbers are base- 10). Since hex needs 16 digits, it uses the numbers 0 through 9 and then it uses the letters A through F for digits. The ASCII code for the letter “A” is 41 in hex.

Of course, most of the time we don’t even need to think about

this code system. Our computers are smart enough to know that

when we press the “A” key on our keyboard we want to print

the letter “A”. The computer takes care of all the rest.

But there are a number of ASCII codes that don’t have keys on the keyboard. The most important of these codes are the codes that have ASCII values below 32. These codes control many of SD-lo/l 5’s functions. Even though there aren’t keys for these

codes, most keyboards can send these codes. It’s done by holding down the “control” key (many times marked CTRL) and simultaneously pressing a letter key. The particular letter key that

is pressed determines what code is sent. Control and A,sends ASCII code 1, control and B sends ASCII code 2, and so on. Because of the way they are created, these codes are often referred to as “control-A” etc.

So there are four common ways of referring to the same set of codes: the character or name of the code, the decimal ASCII value, the hexadecimal ASCII value, and the “control-” value.

For example, the code that causes SD-lo/l5 to advance the paper one line is ASCII 10 (decimal). This code is commonly referred to by all the following names:

<LF> -

ASCII 10 -

the abbreviation of its name

its decimal value ASCII OAH - its hexadecimal value (the H signifies hex) CHR$(lO) -

the way it’s used in BASIC control-J - the way you send it from a keyboard.

There’s a chart in Appendix F that shows these side-by-side so that you can convert back and forth.

The reason that we are telling you all this about ASCII codes is that people are not very consistent about how they describe ASCII codes. We are going to help you use SD-lo/l5 with commercial software, but we don’t know what its documentation is going to call the various codes. So if you know all the different things that the codes might be called, it will be easier to figure out what it is trying to tell you.

Now, armed with the knowledge of what to look for, you can delve into the manuals of your commercial software and dig out

the secrets of how to send “control codes” to your printer. When you find the method that your program uses, then you can shop through this manual to find the function that you want to use. By translating the codes from the system that we use, to the system that your commercial software uses, you should be able to use many of SD-IO/IS’s advanced features. It may help, however if we look at a couple of examples.

n Using SD-lo/15 with SuperCalc

SuperCalc is typical of the many spreadsheet programs that are now available. It has the capability of using several of the advanced features of SD-lO/lS. Perhaps the most often used feature with spreadsheet programs is compressed printing. Let’s see how to use compressed printing with SuperCalc.

In SuperCalc, the /Output command provides output to the printer. One of the options of the /Output command is S(etup). This option provides you with a menu of functions to configure

SuperCalc to match your printer. You can change the number of characters that SuperCalc will print on a line and the number of lines that will print on a page. You should be sure that these values match your printer. SD-lo’s print 80 characters per line of pica type, or 136 characters of condensed type. SD-15 can print 136 characters per line of pica type, or 233 characters per line of condensed type. One of the other options on this menu is “send setup codes to printer”. This is how we tell SD-lo/l5

. . .

_.-

- -

,: . .

that we want to use condensed print. The code to switch SD-lo/15 into condensed print is ASCII 15, or control-O. So to switch on condensed type, use the /Output command and, after selecting D(isplay) and entering the range to print, select the S(etup) option, and the S(etup)--“Manual setup codes” sub option. Then, at the prompt that says “Enter codes (CR when done)“, type control-O.

Remember, to enter control-0 you hold down the CTRL key

while you press the 0 key (That’s the letter Oh, not the number

zero). Then just press return and select P(rint) to print your report.

You only need to go through this procedure once each time you use SuperCalc because SD- lo/ 15 will stay in compressed print until it’s turned off or reset.

You might also wish to use some of SD-10/15’s other features with SuperCalc. Find the code for the feature you wish to use in Appendix D and use the same procedure given here. Remember that Appendix F can be used to translate between the different names for the codes.

H Using SD-lo/l 5 with word processors

Not many word processing programs recognize the advanced features of printers like SD- 1 O/ 15. They usually provide for some method of making bold characters and underlining. But SD- 1 O/l 5

can do much more than that. The people that write word processing programs do, however, know that there are a lot of different printers on the market, and so they usually, (but not always) provide a way of sending special codes to a printer. We will study

one example of this to see how a typical word processor handles it. Once you understand the concept you should be able to use your program manual to figure out how your word processor does it.

The program that we will study is the EasyWriter word processor for the IBM Personal Computer. This uses a fairly typical method of handling special codes. Generally, word processing programs don’t want you to put non-printing codes in the file. They “know” that they won’t print anything, and so they “protect” you by not letting you use them. But the non-printing codes are the ones that you need to use SD-10/15’s features. So EasyWriter provides a way to override this protection. If you precede a special code with a “control-O” then EasyWriter will accept the next non-printing code.

Let’s look at a specific example. Suppose you want to print the title of a book in italic. The code sequence to select italic type with STAR mode is Escape 4 (that’s two separate characters).

Entering the 4 is no problem; it’s a printing character so EasyWriter won’t object (although in this case it’s not going to print). The Escape, however, is a non-printing character so it requires special handling. To enter the Escape code lirst enter control-O (hold the Ctrl key while you press the letter 0). Then press the Esc key. The Escape character shows on the screen as a left pointing arrow. Now just type the number 4 and you’re done.

When you want to end the italic, you need to enter Escape 5.

Use the same procedure: enter control-O, Esc, and then 5.

You can use many of SD-lo/l 5’s features this way. Find the codes that you need in Appendix D, and then if necessary, use Appendix F to translate the codes into the form your word processor uses.

A note to WordStar users: WordStar is probably the most popular word processing program in the world. But it provides no way to enter special printer control codes from the keyboard. WordStar does, however, provide you with a way to use some of SD- 10/l 5’s advanced features. WordStar has four special commands that you can use to access SD- 10/15’s features. These are called “user printer controls” and are control-P Q, control-P W, control-P E, and control-P R. You might use two of these to turn italic on and off and the other two for some other function. The process of setting up these codes is called “patching” and is done with the install program that comes with WordStar. The procedure is fairly involved, but it is explained in the WordStar manual. If you have trouble figuring it out, ask for assistance where you bought WordStar.

n Using this book without learning BASIC

Throughout the latter part of this book we will be teaching you how to use all of SD-lo/l 5’s features using the BASIC programming language in our examples. This is because it is easy to communicate with SD- lo/ 15 from BASIC and because, despite its shortcomings, BASIC is the nearest thing to a universal language among users of personal computers. But it’s not the only way to communicate with SD-lOjl5. Even if you don’t know

BASIC, you can learn how to use SD-IO/IS’s features by reading on. When you find a function that you want to use, just apply what you already know about translating from one name for codes

to another. The examples will still show you how the commands

are used, even if you are not using BASIC.

CHAPTER 4

CONTROLLING

SD- 1 O/ 15 WITH BASIC

Throughout the rest of this book we will be teaching you how

to use SD- 10/l 5 ‘s features using the BASIC programming lan-

guage in our examples. It is easy to communicate with SD-lo/l5

from BASIC and, though it has its detractors, BASIC is the nearest thing to a universal language among users of personal computers. But remember that it’s not the only way to communicate with SD-10/15, as we have already seen.

Subjects covered in this chapter include:

l Listing BASIC programs on the printer l Printing from BASIC l CHR$ function

l Problem codes l Command syntax used in this manual l Selecting the right software mode

All of the examples in this manual are written in Microsoft BASIC (specifically, Microsoft BASIC for the IBM Personal Computer). With minor modifications, the examples can be adapted to run in any version of BASIC. In this chapter, we’ll tell you what modifications need to be made and how to do it. In this chapter we assume that you have some familiarity with BASIC.

SOME BASICS ABOUT BASIC

Probably the simplest thing to do with your printer in BASIC is to list a program on the printer. But in this world of proliferating microcomputers even this presents a problem. It seems that every computer uses a different system of communicating with the printer. We are going to tell you about some of the more common

ways, and hope that between this and your computer’s BASIC manual you will be able to stay with us.

First on our list is Microsoft BASIC’s way of communicating with the printer. They just add an “L” to the beginning of the LIST and PRINT commands, making them LLIST and LPRINT. This method is used by more computers than any other and so we will use it throughout this book, after telling the rest of you how to follow along.

Microsoft BASIC is used by TRS-80 computers, IBM-PC computers, many CP/M computers, and many other computers. (Look in your BASIC manual; it will probably say if it’s Microsoft

BASIC.)

Next we need to talk about Apple II computers. They have a

real simple system. To list a program that you have loaded into

memory, just type:

PR#l LIST PR#@

The PR#l says “send everything to the printer,” the LIST sends it, and the PR#O says “OK, back to the screen now.”

Some other computers require you to open the printer as a numbered device, and then direct the output to that device. For example, to list a program on the printer with a Commodore C-64 computer you type the following:

OPEN4,4

cMD4

LIST

CLOSE4

This says that the printer is device 4, directs the output to it, lists the program, and finally closes device 4.

The appendix gives more information about listing programs on various computers. Find the appendix that tells how your computer works, and try it.

Now that we all know how our computers address the printer, let’s try listing a BASIC program. Load a BASIC program and

LLIST it (or however your computer does it). We’ve crossed the first major hurdle-learning how to list programs on SD- 10/15.

Now we are ready to jump into the world of programming with SD-lo/l 5. But first, there are a few fundamentals that we need to cover.

n Establishing communications

We’ve learned something about communicating with our

printer. Now we need to adapt what we know to printing in a

BASIC program. Generally, computers use about the same

procedure for printing in a program as they do to list a program.

Let’s try what we learned. Type the following:

NEW

18 LPRINT "TESTING"

RUN

Remember-we use LPRINT; you may have to use something

else!

At any rate, you should have the word “TESTING” on your

printer. Quite an achievement, isn’t it? Let’s get done with this

simple stuff so that we can go on to something interesting.

n The CHR$ function

We mentioned CHR$ in Chapter 3 as one way to express ASCII

codes. We are going to use it a lot in communicating with

SD-lo/l 5. SD-lo/l 5 uses many of the ASCII code that don’t represent letters and numbers. The CHR$ function gives us an easy way to send these codes to the printer. Try this to see how the CHR$ function works:

NEW

18 LPRINT CHR$(83)

RUN

That should print an “S” for Star. If you check the chart in

Appendix B you will see that 83 is the ASCII code for “S”.

n Control codes

SD-lo/l 5 uses many of the non-printing ASCII codes for

control codes. These codes perform a function rather than printing

a character. Let’s try an easy one right now:

NEW

10 LPRINT CHR$(7)

RUN

Where did that noise come from? That’s SD-lo/l 5’s bell. We

will learn more about it in Chapter 8. We just wanted to illustrate

a code that causes SD-lo/l 5 to perform a function.

n The escape code

There’s one ASCII code that we are going to be using more than all the rest. This is ASCII 27, which is called escape. In BASIC it is CHR$(27). With all of SD- 10/l 5’s advanced features, there weren’t enough single ASCII codes to access all of them. So escape is used to start sequences of control codes that open a wider range of functions to us.

While you must call this code CHR$(27) in BASIC, we are going to refer to it as < ESC > in this book. This will make it much easier to recognize when we use it.

A typical escape code sequence starts with < ESC > which is followed by one or more CHR$ codes. As an example, the escape code sequence to turn on emphasized print is:

<ESC> CHR$(69)

In a program, this would look like this:

NEW

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) CHRS(69);

24) LPRINT "TESTING"

RUN

Try this program. It will print the word TESTING in emphasized print.

Some of you fast students may have noticed that CHR$(69) is the same as “E”. That’s right, the program will work just as well if line 10 is changed like this:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) "E";

That’s just another form of the same ASCII code, and it’s all

the same to SD-10/15.

Here’s another shortcut for BASIC programmers: since

< ESC > is used so often, assign it to a variable. In a long

program, typing ESC$ is much easier than typing CHR$(27) each

time! Now our program looks like this:

L..

c..

. .

L-.

*-_

5 ESC$=CHR$(27) 10 LPRINT ESC$ "E";

Turn your printer off and back on now, or you will be printing

in emphasized for quite a while!

n Some problem codes

Before we go too far we need to mention some codes that may

cause you problems.

Like most of the subjects in this chapter, we have to be a little vague because of the differences in computers. Nearly all BASICS change some of the ASCII codes between your BASIC program and your printer. Some turn CHR$( 10) (a line feed) into a CHR$( 13) (a carriage return) before sending it on. Some other problem codes are 0, 7, and 9 through

13.

COMMAND SYNTAX USED IN THIS MANUAL

Because SD- 10/l 5 users will be running such a wide variety of applications we just couldn’t show the precise method of sending printer control codes to SD- 10/l 5 for every one of them! Instead, as we introduce you to each command, we will show the commands like this example:

<ESC> "W" 1

This is the command to turn on expanded print < ESC > , as we mentioned earlier, is the way we will indicate the escape code, which is ASCII code 27.

A letter or number enclosed in quote marks (such as the “W” above) means that character should be sent to the printer (without the quote marks). In our example, you should send a capital W following the escape code. In BASIC, you could do this in a couple of ways: by sending the character itself (e.g. LPRINT “W”;), or by using the CHR$ function to send the ASCII code for the character (e.g. LPRINT CHR$(87);).

Many of SD- 1 O/ 15’s commands end with a 1 or 0. When shown as in the above example (i.e. no quotes and no “CHR$“), you can use either ASCII code 1 (i.e.CHR$(l)) or the character “1” (which is ASCII code 49). The same idea applies to commands ending with 0.

So for our example above, any of these BASIC statements will have the same result:

LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(l) LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(49)

LPRINT CHR$(27) "Wl"

There are three commands that require the use of ASCII code 0; the character “0” (ASCII code 48) cannot be substituted. In these cases, instead of an unadorned 0 we will show CHR$(O) each time these commands are referenced. The commands are

< ESC > “C” CHR$(O) n (set page length to n inches), < ESC >

“D”...

CHR$(O) (set h

orizontal tabs), and < ESC > “P”...

CHR$(O) or < ESC > “B”... CHR$(O) (set vertical tabs).

There are other non-printing codes that are used ( such as ASCII code 15, which is used to turn on condensed pitch). These commands will be introduced using the BASIC CHR$ function (e.g.CHR$( 15)).

SELECTING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE MODE

For SD-lo/l 5 to correctly respond to control codes, you must make sure that you’ve set its DIP switch properly. If you’re using the IBM Personal Computer, you should put SD-lo/l5 in IBM mode. If you’re using other computer, you should put SD-lo/l 5

in STAR mode. There are some cases where you would use IBM mode with your computer, if you wish.

Chapters 5 through 10 discuss the control codes you send to

SD-lo/l 5 to control printing style, horizontal and vertical for-

matting, graphics, and other features. You’ll find that many

features have different codes for IBM mode and STAR mode.

That’s it for the basics. You are ready to learn how to use the

many features of SD- lo/ 15.

CHAPTER 5

PRINTING TEXT

WITH SD-lo/l5

Beginning with this chapter we will be exploring all the features

of SD-10/15.

In this chapter we’ll cover:

l Near letter quality characters l Italics l Underlining l Superscript and subscripts l Print pitch l Print emphasis

All our examples will be given in Microsoft BASIC as used by the IBM Personal Computer, but remember that you don’t need to know BASIC to use SD-10/15’s features. Just use the same ASCII codes as we do in our examples.

You have already printed a few lines on your SD-lo/l5 printer. Now it’s time to start looking at the many variations of printing style that you have available to you.

SOME SPECIAL KINDS OF TEXT

n Near Letter Quality characters

SD- 10/l 5’s Near Letter Quality (sometimes abbreviated as NLQ) character set is ideal for correspondence and other important printing, for it takes a keen eye to detect that it is from a dot matrix printer. Normally (unless you have turned DIP switch

l-4 off), SD- lo/ 15 prints draft quality charactersThis is adequate for most work and it prints fastest. But for the final printout, try NLQ. The program below shows how.

l(d 'Demo near letter quality character set.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$i4) ; 'Select NLQ.

34) LPRINT "This line shows NEAR LETTER QUALITY!"

44) LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(5) ; 'Select draft. 50 LPRINT "This line shows standard Drint."

In this program, line 20 selects NLQ characters with the

< ESC > “B” CHR$(4) command. Line 30 prints a sample before

line 40 switches SD- lo/ 15 back to draft printing with an < ESC >

“B” CHR$(S). When you run the program you should get this:

This line shows NEAR LETTER QUALITY!

T h 1 5 1 1 n e

,shlIws ~s.t.3nd.a.rd print.

If you are using with the IBM mode, change the following lines

to the program given above.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "4" ; 'Select NLQ.

44) LPRINT CHR$(27) "5" ; 'Select draft.

Table 5-1

Near letter quality commands

Function

Near letter quality ON

Near letter quality OFF

Mode Control code

STAR < ESC > “B” CHR$(4) IBM STAR 1 < ESC > “B” CHR$(S) IBM 1 <ESC> “5”

<ESC > “4”

N Italic printing

Italic letters are letters that are slanted to the right. SD-lo/l5

can print all of its letters except NLQ characters in italic as well

as the roman (standerd) letters you are accustomed to. Italics

can be used to give extra emphasis to certain words. The corn-

mand codes to turn italic on and off are shown in Table 5-2.

Table 5-2

Italic commands

Use this program with STAR mode to see italic characters:

I. ’ i ,.

10 'Demo italic and roman.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "4" ; 'Italic on. 30 LPRINT "This line is in ITALIC characters." 40 LPRINT CHRS(27) "5" ; 'Italic off. 50 LPRINT "This line is in ROMAN (normal) characters."

Here is what you should get:

This program is easy; line 20 turns italic on with < ESC > “4”,

and line 40 turns it off with < ESC > “5”.

n Underlining

Not only can SD- lo/ 15 print all styles of printing in both roman and italic, but it can underline them too. The control codes are shown in Table 5-3.

Table 5-3

Underline commands

Function

Underline ON

Underline OFF

Mode Control code

STAR <ESC> “-” 1 IBM STAR <ESC> “-“0

1 IBM 1

<ESC> “-” 1

<ESC> “-” 0

Again, that’s simple. Let’s try it with this program:

10 'Demo underlining. 241 LPRINT CHR$(27) "-" CHR$(l) ; 'Underline on. 30 LPRINT "This phrase is UNDERLINED;" ;

L...

40 LPRINT CHR$(27) "-" CHR$(@) ; 'Underline off. 50 LPRINT

" this is not."

It should come out like this:

.‘I”his. phrac.e is LINDEALINED; this is not.

-.-_.-.-

In this program underline is turned on in line 20 with < ESC >

“ _ 93

CHR$(l), and then off in line 40 with < ESC > “ - ” CHR$(O). There’s a new little wrinkle in this program, though. It all printed on one line. The semicolons at the end of the first three lines told BASIC that those lines were to be contin-

ued.Therefore, BASIC didn’t send a carriage return and line feed at the end of those lines. We just did this to illustrate that all these control codes can be used in the middle of a line. It’s easy to underline or italicize only part of a line.

n Superscripts and subscripts

SD-lo/l 5 can print in two different heights of characters. The smaller characters are called superscripts and subscripts and are half the height of normal characters. Superscripts print even

with the tops of regular printing while subscripts print even with

the bottom of regular printing. They are frequently used to reference footnotes, and in mathematical formulas.

Table 5-4 has the codes for using superscripts and subscripts.

Table 5-4

Superscript and subscript commands

Function

Superscript ON

Subscript ON

Super& subscript OFF STAR <ESC> “T”

Mode Control code STAR < ESC > “S” 0 IBM STAR <ESC > “s” 1 IBM

IBM

< ESC > “S” 0

<ESC> ‘3” 1

<ESC> “T”

Try this program to see them work:

10 'Demo subscripts and superscripts.

20 LPRINT "Look! " ;

34) LPRINT CHR$(27) "S" CHR$(@) ; 'Superscript on. 40 LPRINT "Superscripts " ; 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "T" ; 'Cancel superscripts.

69) LPRINT "6 " ; 70 LPRINT CHR$(27) "S" CHR$(l) ; 'Subscripts on.

84) LPRINT "subscripts " ;

90 LPRINT CHR$(27) "T" ; 'Cancel subscripts.

108 LPRINT "on one line."

Here line 30 turns on superscripts with < ESC > “S” CHR$(O). It’s turned off in line 50 with < ESC > “T”. Then, between printing text, subscripts are turned on in line 70 with < ESC >

“S” CHR$( l), and finally off in line 90. Again, everything prints

on one line because of the semicolons.

CHANGING THE PRINT PITCH

In “printer talk,” character width is called pitch. Normally,

SD-lo/l 5 prints 10 characters per inch. This is called pica pitch

because it’s the same spacing as a standard pica typewriter.

SD-lo/l 5 can also print 12 characters per inch. This is called

elite pitch because it is the same spacing as an elite typewriter.

Condensed print is approximately 17 characters per inch. Condensed pitch allows you to get 136 columns of printing on an 8 l/z inch page.

Proportional spacing provides an alternative to the block-style output of a defined pitch. It moves its print head only as far as

each character needs. Thus, the print head moves further for “M”s

and “W”s than for “1”s and “i”s.

The table below shows four options of this command.

Table 5-5

Print pitch commands

Pitch

Pica

Elite 12 STAR 1 < ESC > “B” CHR$(2)

YYYrll-

Proportional ON

Proportional OFF STAR < ESC > “p” 0

Characters/inch Mode Control code

STAR < ESC > “B” CHR$(l)

or CHR$(18)

IBM

IBM 1 <ESC> “M” STAR < ESC > “B” CHR$(3)

IBM STAR < ESC 2 “p” 1 IBM 1 <ESC> “p” 1

IBM < ESC > “p” 0

<ESC> “pl’

or CHR!fX18)

or CHRS(15) CHR$(lS)

Let’s see how these four pitches look. Try this program with

STAR mode:

10 ‘Demo all pitches.

24) LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(3) ; ‘Select condensed pitch.

30 LPRINT "This line is CONDENSED pitch." 4@ LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(2) ; 'Select elite pitch. 541 LPRINT "This line is ELITE pitch." 60 LPRINT CHR$(27) "p" CHR$(l) ; 'Select proportional.

741 LPRINT "This line is PROPORTIONAL spacing." 88 LPRINT CHR$(27) "p" CHR$(@) ; 'Cancel proportional. 98 LPRINT CHR$(27) "By CHR$(l) ; 'Select pica pitch.

188 LPRINT "This line is PICA pitch (normal)."

When you run this program you should get this:

This line is CONDENSED pitch.

This line is ELITE pitch.

This line is PROPORTIONhL spacing.

This line is F'ICA pitch Incwmal).

Line 20 turns on condensed pitch with < ESC > “B” CHR$(3).

Line 30 prints a line at 17 characters per inch. The < ESC > “B” CHR$(2) in line 40 changes SD-lo/l5 to elite pitch and line 50 prints a line in elite pitch. Line 60 turns on proportional spacing with < ESC > “p” CHR$(l), and line 70 prints a line with proportional spacing. Line 80 and line 90 reset SD-lo/l 5 to pica pitch and line 100 prints a line in pica pitch.

Pica pitch and condensed pitch can be set with “shortcut” codes. Instead of using < ESC > “B” CHR$(n), you can set them with a single code. CHR$( 18) sets pica pitch and CHR$( 15) sets

condensed pitch. You can not set elite pitch with a single code.

N Expanded print

its normal width. This is called expanded print.Try this program

to see how it works:

10 'Demo expanded mode. 2@ LPRINT "Demonstration of " ; 30 LPRINT CHR$(14) ; 'Expanded mode on. 40 LPRINT "EXPANDED" ; 50 LPRINT CHR$(2Q)) ; 'Expanded mode off. 60 LPRINT " printing."

70 LPRINT "Notice that " ;

84) LPRINT CHR$(14) ; 'Expanded mode on. 98 LPRINT "EXPANDED mode"

100 LPRINT "automatically turns off at end of a line."

- Each of SD-10/15’s four print pitches can be enlarged to twice v’

Expanded print set with CHR$(14) is automatically canceled

at the end of the line. This is convenient in many applications,

such as for one line titles. Note that you don’t need to put an

< ESC > in front of the CHR$( 14), although < ESC > CHR$( 14)

works just the same.

You can also cancel one line expanded print before a carriage

return with CHR$(20), as done in line 50.

Sometimes you may wish to stay in expanded print for more

than one line. Change your program to this:

10 'Demo permanent expanded mode 20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(l) ; 'Expanded mode on

permanently.

30 LPRINT "Permanent expanded"

49) LPRINT "mode stays on until" 50 LPRINT "it is " ; 60 LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(@) ; 'Expanded mode off. 7@ LPRINT "turned off."

Now the results look like this:

I=’ Ez r- d-n a r-b 4s r-l t

C’YI c3 d EE!- ~E3-t.z. ayE% c3r-h

it .i 5 turned off .

e:-:par-hdE?d

c-a r-b t i I

When you turn on expanded print with < ESC > “W” CHR$( 1)

it stays on until you turn it off with < ESC > “W” CHR$(O).

Table 5-6

Expanded print commands

Function

One line expanded ON

One line expanded OFF

Expanded ON

Expanded OFF

Mode Control code

STAR CHR$( 14)

or < ESC > CHR$(14)

IBM CHR$(14)

STAR CHR$(20) IBM STAR <ESC > “w” 1 IBM

STAR IBM <ESC> “w” 0

or < ESC > CHR$(14)

CHR$(20)

<ESC> “W” 1

< ESC > “W” 0

By combining expanded print with the four pitches, SD-lo/l 5

has eight different character widths available.

Enter this program to see how the print pitches and expanded

print can be combined:

191 'Demo pitches in cqmbination with expanded mode.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(l) ; 'Permanent expanded

mode on.

30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(3) ; 'Select condensed

pitch.

40 LPRINT "This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED pitch."

54) LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(2) ; 'Select elite pitch. 60 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED ELITE."

74) LPRINT CHR$(27) "B" CHR$(l) ; 'Select pica pitch. 80 LPRINT "This is EXPANDED PICA." 90 LPRINT CHR$(27) "p" CHR$(l) ; 'Select proportional

180 LPRINT "This is EXP. PROPORTIONAL." 110 LPRINT CHR$(27) "p" CHR$(@) ; 'Cancel proportional. 120 LPRINT CHR$(27) "W" CHR$(Q)) ; 'Permanent expanded

mode off.

130 LPRINT "This is UNEXPANDED PICA pitch (default)."

If you are using with the IBM mode, change the following lines

to the program given above.

34) LPRINT CHR$(27) CHR$(15) ; 'Select condensed pitch. 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "Ml' ; 'Select elite pitch. 70 LPRINT CHR$(27) "P" ; 'Select pica pitch.

Here’s what you should get from this program:

This line is EXPANDED CONDENSED pitch. Thi5

'Thi 5 This is EXF-,

This 1.5

ils EXF’GNDEID ELETE,

i 53 EXF=.CiNDED

PHC3POF3TION#=ml-, -

F’ICA, -

UNEXF'ANDED F'ICA pitch (default).

In addition, the NLQ characters can be printed with expanded

print as shown below.

This ic,

This is normal NLR.

This is

Thi5 i5

normal pica.

EXPRNDED

EXF’ANDEID

NIL-C;1 -

pica.,

MAKING SD-IO/15 PRINT DARKER

SD-lo/l 5 has very good print density when it’s just printing regularly. But sometimes you may want something to stand out from the rest of the page.

SD- lo/15 provides two ways to do this: double-strike and emphasized print. Both of these go over the characters twice, but they use slightly different methods to darken the characters. Let’s try them and see what the difference is.

The following table shows the control codes for getting into

and out of double-strike and emphasized modes.

Table 5-7

Print emphasis commands

Function

Double-strike ON

Double-strike OFF

Emphasized ON

Emphasized OFF

Mode Control code

STAR <ESC> “G”

IBM

STAR <ESC > “H” IBM STAR <ESC> “E” IBM STAR <ESC> “F” IBM

<ESC> “G”

< ESC > “H”

<ESC> “E”

<ESC> “F”

Try them now with this little program:

10 'Demo double-strike and emphasized.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "G" ; 'Double strike on. 30 LPRINT "This line is DOUBLE-STRIKE printing." 40 LPRINT CHR$(27) "E" ; 'Emphasized on. 50 LPRINT "This line is DOUBLE-STRIKE and EMPHASIZED." 60 LPRINT CHR$(27) "H" ; 'Double strike off,

74) LPRINT "This line is EMPHASIZED printing." 80 LPRINT CHR$(27) "F" ; 'Emphasized off. 90 LPRINT “This line is normal printing.”

Run this program. The results will look like this.

This line is DOUBLE-STRIKE printing.

This line is DOUBLE-STRIKE and EMPHASIZED. This line is EMPHASIZED printing.

This line is

riurmal printing.

Line 20 turns on double-strike with < ESC > “G” and line

30 prints a line of text.

< ESC > “E”.

Line 50 prints a line of text in double-strike and

In line 40 emphasized is turned on with

emphasized. Line 60 then turns double-strike off with < ESC > “H” so that line 70 can print in emphasized only. Finally, line 80 turns emphasized off, so that SD-IO/l5 is set for normal printing.

Look closely at the different lines of printing. In the line of double-strike printing each character has been printed twice, and they are moved down just slightly the second time they are printed. In emphasized printing, they are moved slightly to the right the second time SD- lo/ 15 prints. The last line combined both of these so that each character was printed 4 times. Now that’s pretty nice printing, isn’t it?

SUMMARY

Control code

< ESC > “B” CHR$(4) < ESC > “B” CHR$(S) < ESC > “4” < ESC > “5” < ESC > “4” < ESC > “5”

< ESC > “I” 1 < ESC > “I” 0 <ESC> “-” 1 <ESC> “-” 0

< ESC > “S” 0

--c ESC > “S” 1 < ESC > “T”

< ESC > “B” CHR$( 1 < ESC > “p”

< ESC > “B” CHR$(2) < ESC > “M”

-=c ESC > “B” CHR$(3) < ESC > “p” 1

< ESC > “p” 0 CHR$( 18) CHRS(15) CHR$(l4)

< ESC > CHR$( 14)

Function

Near letter quality on (for STAR mod Near letter quality off (for STAR mot Near letter quality on (for IBM mode: Near letter quality off (for IBM mode Italic on (for STAR mode) Italic off (for STAR mode) Italic on (for IBM mode)

Italic off (for IBM mode) Underline on

Underline off Superscript on

Subscript on Super & subscript off

Sets pica pitch (for STAR mode) Sets pica pitch (for IBM mode) Sets elite pitch (for STAR mode) Sets elite pitch (for IBM mode) Sets condensed pitch (for STAR mode Proportional on Proportional off Sets pica pitch Sets condensed pitch

One line expanded One line expanded

CHR$(20)

<ESC> “W” 1 < ESC > “W” 0

< ESC > “G” < ESC > “H” < ESC > “E” < ESC > “F”

One line expanded off Expanded on Expanded off Double-strike on Double-strike off Emphasized on Emphasized off

CHAPTER 6

LINE SPACING AND

FORMS CONTROL

We have learned how to print in many different ways, but so

far we haven’t looked at how to position the printing on the page.

In this chapter we will learn how to:

l Change the vertical spacing l Change the length of the page l Set top and bottom margins

STARTING NEW LINES

Up until now the only time we have thought about printing on a new line is when we didn’t want it to happen. We learned that putting a semicolon (;) at the end of a BASIC line will not end the line of printing. So somehow, the computer is telling the printer when to end one line and start another.

There are two codes that are used to end one line and start

another. They are carriage return (CHR$(l3)) and line ,feed (CHR$(IO)). Like the espace code, they have been given abbreviations which you’ll find in many texts (including this one):

<CR > and < LF > . The codes are simple, but their action is a little confusing (especially with BASIC). Carriage return is the easiest. Each time that the printer receives a CHR$( 13) it returns the print head to the left margin. It does not advance the paper (if DIP switch 2-3 is on; see below).

Line feed is more complicated. Each time the printer receives a CHR$(lO) it both advances the paper one line and returns the print head to the left margin, ready to start a new line.

Now to add a little confusion - most (but not all) versions of BASIC add a line feed (CHR$( 10)) to every carriage return (CHR$( 13)) that they send. If your version of BASIC doesn’t do this, then you should turn DIP switch 2-3 off so that SD-IO/l 5

will add the line feed for you. When you have DIP switch 2-3

off the printer will do the same thing when it receives a carriage return as it does when it receives a line feed.

If you find that your printer double spaces when it should single

space, then you probably need to turn DIP switch 2-3 on.

Table 6-l

Line feed commands

Function

Return print head to left margin STAR

Mode Control code

CHR$(13)

TRM

Advance paper one line STAR 1 CHR$(lO)

IBM 1 CHR!NlO)

. .

-.-

CHANGING LINE SPACING

When you turn SD-lo/l 5 on the line spacing is set to 6 lines per inch. This is fine for most printing applications, but sometimes you may want something different. SD-lo/l5 makes it easy to

set the line spacing to whatever value you want.

Try this program with STAR mode to see how easy it is to

change the line spacing:

NEW

10 FOR I = 1 TO 25 20 IF I = 13 THEN 50

30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "A" CHR$(I);

48 LPRINT "This line spacing is set to" I

50 NEXT 60 LPRINT "Line spacing is set to l/6 inch (normal)." 70 LPRINT CHR$(27) "2"

Line 30 changes the line spacing. The command < ESC > “A” CHR$(n) changes the line spacing to n/72 of an inch. The loop that is started in line 10 increases the value of n (the variable I in the program) each time it is executed. So the line spacing increases as the program continues. Line 20 just shortcuts the loop when I = 13, since BASIC won’t let us send CHR$( 13) without adding an unwanted CHR$(lO) to it. Finally, the < ESC > “2” in line 60 resets the line spacing to 6 lines per inch. This is a shortcut that is.the same as < ESC > “A” CHR$(12).

- -.

This is what you will get:

This line s-pacing is cet to 11

This line spacing is set to 12

This line

This line spacing is set to 15

This line spacing is set to 10 This line spacing is set to 17 Thir 1 ine

This 1 lne %z.pacing is set to 19 Thic line spacing is set ta 20

This line spacing is set to 21

c.pacirig i 5. set to 14

spacing is set to 18

.-.

This line

spacing is E.et to 22

This line spacing is set to 23

This line spacing is ~-et to 24

This line spacing it. set to 25

Line

cpacing i E set to l/t, i rich

inomal 1) .

When you run this program with IBM mode, you cannot get

the printout as shown above.

The command < ESC> “A” CHR$(n) in IBM mode only defines the line spacing as n/72 of an inch; the < ESC > “2” command changes the line spacing to the amount defind by the previous < ESC > “A”.

So, you need to change the following lines to the previous

program as shown below for the IBM mode:

30 LPRINT CHR$ (27) “A” CHR$ (I) ; : LPRINT CHR$( 27)

II 11.

2 ,

79 LPRINT CHR$( 27) “A” CHR$ (12) ; : LPRINT CHR$( 27)

If 11

You may wonder why they picked l/72 of an inch as the increment for the line spacing command. There’s a good reason: the dots that the printer makes are l/72 inch apart. So this means that you can vary the line spacing in increments as tine as one dot-unless you want finer spacing, like one half dot spacing (STAR mode) or one third dot spacing (IBM mode).

The < ESC > “3” CHR$(n) command sets the line spacing in increments of 1/144inch (STARmode) or l/216 inch(IMBmode). Change line 30 in your program so it is like this:

30 LPRINT CHR$(27) “3” CHR$(I);

and run the program again. Now the results will look like this: (STAR mode)

This line spacing is set to 20

This line spacing is set to 21

This line This line spacing is set to 23 This line spacing is set to 2’4

This line spacing is set to 25 Line cpacing is set to l/b inch !n@mal~.

spacing is set tc! 22

(IBM mode)

(riomal ) .

The program works just the same as before, but the line spacing

are just half (STAR mode) or one-third (IBM mode) what they

were. This is because < ESC > “3” CHR$(n) sets the line spacing

to n/144 inch in the STAR mode, or n/216 inch in the IBM mode.

Table 6-2 shows all the line spacing commands, including

several “shortcut” commands for commonly used line spacings.

Table 6-2

Line spacing commands

Set line spacing to l/S inch

Note: If your computer does not support lowercase characters, use

CHR$(97) for “a.”

W Moving down the page without a carriage return

So far, all the commands that move the paper also move the print head to the left margin. And normally this is what you want. Sometimes, though, you may wish to move down the page

without moving the printhead back to the left margin. The fol-

lowing commands do just that.

The < ESC > “J” CHR$(n) command causes the printer to

make one line feed of n/144 inch (STAR mode), or n/216 inch

(IBM mode), but does not change the setting of the line spacing. Try this program to see how it works:

10 'Demo one-time line feeds

20 LPRINT "Line number 1."

30 LPRINT "Line number 2.” ; 441 'One time line feed.

50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "J" CHR$(l 60 LPRINT "Line number 3." 70 LPRINT "Line number 4."

00) ;

Here is what SD-lo/l 5 will produce:

Line number 1.

Line number 2.

Line number 3.

Line number 4.

The < ESC > “J” CHR$( 100) in line 50 changes the spacing to lOO/ 144 inches (100/216 inches for IBM mode) for one line only without moving the printhead. The rest of the lines printed with the normal line spacing. Notice that both line 30 and line

50 end with semicolons. This prevents the normal line feed from

occuring.

The < ESC > “a” CHR$(n) command advances the paper n

lines (using whatever the current line spacing is) without moving

the printhead. Change line 40 and 50 of your program so that they are like this.

.--

- -

44) 'Advance paper 3 lines. 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "a" CHRS(3) ;

Now when you run the program the results will look like this.

The new line 50 moves the paper up 3 lines, but the printhead doesn’t move. Therefore, line 60 prints its message starting in the column that the printhead was left in at the end of line 30.

FORMS CONTROLS

We have seen how to control the spacing between lines on a page. SD-lo/l5 also has commands that control the placement of printing on the page, and even adjust for different size pages.

n Form feed

The simplest forms control code is the form feed. (or < FF > ) is CHR$( 12) and causes the printer to move the paper to the top of the next sheet. Try it by changing lines 40

and 50 to this:

40 ‘Form feed. 50 LPRINT CHR$ (12) ;

Before you run the program, turn your printer off and adjust the paper so that the top of the sheet is even with the top of the ribbon guide on the print head, then turn the printer back on. If you don’t remember how to do this, review Chapter 2. When you run the program, the results will look like this:

Form feed

- 0

Line number- 1.

I.-i ne number 2.

O I

Line number 3.

, 1-i ne number 4.

The form feed (CHR$( 12))

in line 50 caused the printer to

move to the top of a new page before printing the last two lines.

A note to TRS-80 users: CHR$(12) is a problem code for the TRS-80. To send a form feed command to SD-lo/l 5 you must add 128 to it making it CHR$(140). Use CHR$( 140) where we use CHR$(12) in these programs.

CHANGING THE PAGE LENGTH

You may have some computer forms that you wish to use with SD-lo/l 5 that are not 11 inches high. That’s no problem, because you can tell SD-lo/l 5 how high the forms are that you are using. There are two commands for doing this, shown in this table:

Table 6-3

Form length commands

Function

Set the page length to n lines

Set the page length to n inches STAR < ESC > “c” CHR$(O) CHR!$(n)

Mode Control code

STAR <ESC> “C” CHR$@) IBM

IBM

<ESC> “c” CHR!$(n)

< ESC > “c” CHR$(O) CHR$(n)

Let’s set up a 7 inch high form length, which is typical of many

computer checks.

10 'Demo variable form lengths. 241 LPRINT CHR$(27) "C" CHR$(@) CHR$(7) ; 'Form length 7

inches.

34) LPRINT "Pay to the order of:” 40 LPRINT CHR$(12) ; 'Form feed.

50 LPRINT "Pay to the order of:"

The following program will do it.

This program should print “Pay to the order of:” twice, and they should be 7 inches apart. Line 20 sets the form length to 7 inches. After line 30 prints, line 40 sends a form feed advance

the paper to the top of the next form. Line 50 then prints its message.

After you have run this program, turn off the printer and adjust

the top of form position.

When you turn the printer back on the page length will be reset to its normal setting (usually 11 inches).

. .

TOP AND BOTTOM MARGI

Many programs that use a printe :r don’t keep track of where they are printing on the page. This causes a problem when you get to the bottom of a page because these programs just keep on printing, right over the perforation. This makes it very hard to read, especially if a line happens to fall right on the perforation. And if you separate the pages then you are really in trouble.

Of course SD- 1 O/l 5 has a solution to this predicament. SD- lo/ 15 can keep track of the position on the page, and advance the paper so that you won’t print too near the perforation. There are two commands to do this. One controls the space at the top of the page and the other controls the space at the bottom of the page. The control codes are given in the following table.

Table 6-4

Top and bottom margin commands

Function

Set top margin STAR

Set bottom margin STAR

Clear top and bottom margins

Mode Control code

< ESC > “R” CHR$(n)

IBM < ESC > “r” CHR$(n)

< ESC > “N” CHR$(n)

IBM STAR

IBM

1 < ESC > “N” CHR!Nn’l

< ESC > “0” <ESC> “0”

\ ,

In both cases the value of n tells SD- 10/l 5 how many lines to skip, although there is a slight difference in the usage. When you set the top margin with < ESC > “R” CHR$(n) in STAR mode, or with < ESC > “r" CHRS(n) in IBM mode, the value of n tells SD-lo/l 5 what line to start printing on. When you set the bottom margin with < ESC > “N” CHR$(n), the value of n tells SD-lo/l5 how many blank lines should be left at the bottom of the page.

Let’s try a simple application to see how these margins work. Enter this program, which will print 150 lines without top and bottom margins.

10 'Demo top and bottom margins

20 LPRINT CHR$(12) ; 'Form feed.

30 FOR I = 1 TO 150

40 LPRINT "This is line" I

50 NEXT I

60 LPRINT CHR$(12) ; 'Form feed.

When you run this program it will print 150 lines right down the page and across the perforations. When it’s done line 60 sends a form feed to advance the paper to the top of the next page. Look at the lines that have printed near the perforations. Separate the sheets and see if any of the lines have been torn in half.

These

are the problems that the top and bottom margins will solve.

Now add the following lines to your program. (Don’t forget the semicolons or you won’t get quite the same results that we did.)

11 'Leave 6 blank lines at bottom of page.

12 LPRINT CHR$(27) "N" CHRS(6) ;

13 'Start top of page at line 6. 14 LPRINT CHR$(27) "R" CHR$(6) ;

55 LPRINT CHR$(27) "0" ;

'Clear top & bottom margins.

Now when you run the program with STAR mode SD-lo/l 5 will skip the first six lines and the last six lines on each page.

Always send a form feed after setting the top margin, or it will not work on the first page printed. That’s because the top margin only takes effect after a form feed.

Line 14 sets the top margin, line 12 sets the bottom margin,

and line 55 clears both margins when we are done.

SUMMARY

Control code,

CHR$( 10) CHRS(13)

< ESC > “A” CHR$(n)

Function

Line feed Carriage return Set line spacing to n/72 inch (for STAR mode)

< ESC > “3” CHR$(n)

Set line spacing to n/144 inch

(for STAR mode) < ESC > “0” < ESC > “1” < ESC > “2”

Set line spacing to l/S inch

Set line spacing to 7/72 inch Set line spacing to l/6 inch (for STAR mode)

< ESC > “J” CHR$(n)

One-time line feed of n/144 inch (for STAR mode)

L-..

< ESC > “a” CHR$(n) < ESC > “A” CHR$(n)

&..

< ESC > “2”

Advance the paper n lines Define line spacing of n/72 inch (for IBM mode) Use <ESCp

“A” definition

(for IBM mode)

< ESC > “3” CHR$(n)

Set line spacing to n/21 6 inch (for IBM mode)

< ESC > “J”CHR$(n)

One-time line feed of n/216 inch (for IBM mode)

CHR$( 12)

< ESC > “C” CHR$(n)

Form feed Set page length to n lines

< ESC > “C” CHR$(O) CHR$(n)

Set page length to n inches

L...

< ESC > “R” CHR$(n)

< ESC > “r” CHR$(n)

Set top margin; start printing on line n (for STAR mode) Set top margin; start printing on line n (for IBM mode)

< ESC > “N” CHR$(n)

Set bottom margin; leave n lines blank

< ESC > “0”

Clear top and bottom margins

:I*. -

CHAPTER 7

FORMATTING YOUR

OUTPUT

You have probably used the tab and margm features on a typewriter. They make it easier to format the text on a page. SD-lOi15 also has tabs and margins that you can set. But it goes beyond the capabilities of a typewriter because besides having tabs that go across the page, called horizontal tabs, SD-lo/l5 has vertical tabs that go down the page.

l Horizontal tabs l Vertical tabs l Left and right margins

USING HORIZONTAL TABS

When you turn SD-lo/l 5 on there are horizontal tabs set automatically every eight spaces. It’s easy to use these tabs; you

just send a CHR$(9) to SD- lo/15 and the print head will move

to the next tab position. CHR$(9) is the ASCII code <HT>

for horizontal tab.

Try this one line program to demonstrate the use of the default horizontal tabs.

In this chapter we will discover how to use:

18 'Tabs demo 20 LPRINT "one" CHR$(9) rrtwo" CHR$(9) “three” CHR$(9)

"four"

Here’s what will print:

one

two

three four

Even though the words are different lengths, they are spaced

out evenly by the horizontal tabs.

CHR$(9) is a problem with some computers. Some BASICS

convert CHR$(9) to a group of spaces that act like a sort of

pseudo-tab. This is line if the computer and the printer have the

same tab settings, but it doesn’t allow us to use our own tab

settings on SD-lOjl5. We can

“outsmart” these computer by adding 128 to the ASCII value that we use. Instead of using CHR$(9), use CHR$(137) for a tab command. Even this trick

won’t work for Apple II computers, for they use CHR$(9) for

something else entirely. Apple users can get some help in Appendix J.

Now add the following line to your program to set different

horizontal tabs:

15 LPRINT CHR$(27) I'D" CHR$(7) CHR$(lb) CHR$(21) CHR$(@)

< ESC > “D” is the command to begin setting horizontal tabs. It must be followed by characters representing the positions that you want the tabs set. In our program we are setting tabs in columns 7, 14, and 21. The CHR$(O) at the end ends the string of tabs. In fact, any character that is not greater than the previous one will stop setting tabs. This means that you must put all your tab values in order, from least to greatest, or they won’t all get

set. (It also means that a CHR$(l) is just as good as a CHR$(O)

for ending a group of tabs; some computers have trouble sending

CHRS(O).)

When you run the program now it produces this:

one

t. WC2

three f out-

The words are now closer together, but still evenly spaced.

Turn your printer off and on again to reset the default tabs.

n A one-shot tab command

Suppose you need to move to a position across the page, but

you only need to do it once. It doesn’t make much sense to set up a tab to use only one time. There must be an easier way-and of course there is.

The solution is called a one-time tab and is < ESC > “b”

CHR$(n). This command moves the print head n columns to the

right. It has the same effect as sending n spaces to the printer.

Table 7-1

Horizontal tab commands

Function

Mode Control code

Advance to next tab position STAR CHR$(9)

Set tabs at nl, n2, etc.

IBM STAR

CHRS(9)

< ESC > “D” CHR$(nl)

CHR$(n2). . .CHRS(O)

IBM

< ESC > “D” CHR$(nl)

CHR!$(n2)...CHR$(O)

One-time tab of n spaces

STAR < ESC> “b” CHRS(n)

IBM <ESC > “b” CHR$(n)

Note: If your computer does not support lowercase characters, use

CHR$(98) for “b.”

SETTING LEFT AND RIGHT MARGINS

SD-lo/ 15’s left and right margins work just like a

typewriter-once they are set all the printing is done between them.

The commands to set the margins are given in the following table:

Table 7-2

Left and right margin commands

Function

Set left margin at column n

Set right margin at column n STAR

Note: If your computer does not support lowercase characters, use

CHR$( 108) for “1”.

Mode Control code

STAR

< ESC > “M”CHR$(n)

IBM < ESC > “1” CHR$(n)

< ESC > “Q” CHR$(n)

IBM < ESC > “Q” CHR$(n)

Try setting SD-10/l 5’s margins with this program for STAR

mode:

18 'Demo margins. 20 GOSUB 70

30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "M" CHR$(lQ)) ; ‘Left margin = 10. 40 LPRINT CHR$(27) "Q" CHR$(70) ; 'Right margin = 70.

50 GOSLJB 70 60 END

70 FOR I = 1 TO 80

80 LPRINT "X" ; 90 NEXT I

100 LPRINT

110 RETURN

The first thing that this program does is to branch to the

subroutine that starts in line 70. This subroutine prints 80 X’s in a row. The first time that the subroutine is used, all the X’s fit in one line. Then line 30 sets the left margin to 10, and line 40 sets the right margin to 70. Once again the subroutine is used, but this time the X’s won’t all lit on one line since there is now only room for 60 characters between the margins.

Run the program. The results will look like this:

When you want to reset the margins to the default values, you have two choices. You can either turn the printer off and back on, or you can set margin values equal to the default values. This means that you should set a left margin of 0 and a right margin of 80 on SD-10 or 136 on SD-15

If you change the pitch of your printing after you set your margins, the margins will not change. They stay at the same place on the page. So if you set the margins to give you 65 columns of printing when you are using pica type, and then you change to elite type you will have room for more than 65 columns of elite printing between the margins.

USING VERTICAL TABS

Vertical tabs have the same kinds of uses that horizontal tabs do-they just work in the other direction. Horizontal tabs allow you to reach a specific column on the page no matter where you

start from. Vertical tabs are the same. If you have a vertical tab set at line 20, a <VT > (or vertical tab) will move you to line 20 whether you start from line 5 or line 19.

The vertical tab is not set at the power-on default. If you send

a CHR$(l l), which is the ASCII code for < VT > , before we have set up tabs it will advance the paper one line. Enter this program to see how this works.

10 'Demo vertical tabs.

20 LPRINT CHR$(ll) "First tab."

39) LPRINT CHR$(ll) "Second tab."

44) SPRINT CHR$(ll) "Third tab."

50 LPRINT CHR$(ll) "Fourth tab."

Now, let’s set some vertical tabs of our own. Add these lines

to the program:

12 LPRINT CHR$(27) "P" CHR$(l@) ; 14 LPRINT CHR$(2@) CHR$(4@) CHR$(5Q)) CHR$(@) ;

< ESC > “P” is the command to set vertical tabs for the STAR mode. Like the horizontal tab setting command, tab positions must be defined in ascending order. Our example sets vertical tabs at lines 10, 20, 40 and 50. Then the CHR$( 11) in each of the following lines advances the paper to the next vertical tab. The printout is shown below.

First tab.

Second tab.

Third tab.

Fourth tab.

Add one more line to the program to demonstrate one more

feature of vertical tabs.

60 LPRINT CHR$(ll) "Fifth tab."

Now when you run the program the tirst page looks just like

before, but line 60 sends one more < VT > than there are tabs.

6.5

This doesn’t confuse SD- 10/l 5---it advances the paper to the next tab position which happens to be the first tab position on the next page. That’s nice, isn’t it?

n A one-shot vertical tab command

There’s a one-time vertical tab command that works just like the one-time horizontal tab command. It is < ESC > “a” CHR$(n), and it causes the paper to advance n lines. It doesn’t change the settings of the vertical tabs.

Table 7-3

Vertical tab commands

Function

Advance paper to next tab

DOSitiOll

Mode Control code

STAR CHR$( 11) IBM

CHR$(ll)

< ESC > ‘Y CHR$(nl)

Advance paper n lines

Note:If your computer does not support lowercase characters, use CHR$(97) for “a.”

STAR < ESC > “a” CHR$[n)

IBM

< ESC > “a” CHR$(n)

SUMMARY

Control code

CHR$(9)

Function

Horizontal tab < ESC > “D” nl n2 n3 . ..CHR!$(O) Set horizontal tabs < ESC > “b” n One-time horizontal tab of yt

spaces < ESC > “M” n

Set left margin (for STAR

mode)

-=c ESC > “1” n Set left margin (for IBM

mode)

-=I ESC > “Q” n Set right margin

CHR$( 11)

< ESC > “I”’ nl n2 n3 . ..CHR$(O)

Vertical tab Set vertical tabs (for STAR mode)

< ESC > “B” nl n2 n3 . ..CHR$(O) Set vertical tabs (for IBM

mode)

< ESC > “a” n

One-time vertical tab of n lines

CHAPTER 8

SPECIAL FEATURES

OF THE SD-lo/l5

In the previous chapters we have learned about several groups of control codes. In this chapter we will look at more control codes. These codes don’t fit neatly into any of the groupings that we have studied, but they add a lot of capability to SD-lOjl5. So here goes.

Commands covered in this chapter include:

l Bell l Master reset l Unidirectional printing l Eighth bit control l Block graphics l International character sets l Macro instruction

n Now hear this

You may have heard SD- 10/l 5’s bell if you have ever run out

of paper. And you may have wondered why it’s called a bell

when it beeps instead of ringing! It’s a long story that goes back

to the early days of computers, when teletype machines were used for computer terminals. These mechanical marvels had a bell in them that could be heard for blocks. This bell was used to signal the operator that something needed attention. The code that the

computer sent to the teletype machine to ring the bell was, rea-

sonably enough, called a bell code. Well the name bell code is still with us, even if the bell has changed to a beeper, and a lot of people still call the beeper a bell, even if it doesn’t sound like one. So with our trivia lesson out of the way, let’s see how we

can “ring the bell.”

The code to sound SD- 10/l 5’s “bell” is CHR$(7), which is

ASCII code 7 or < BEL > . Any time SD- 10/l 5 receives this code

it will sound the bell for a quarter of a second. This can be used

* to remind an operator to change the paper or to make another

adjustment to the printer. Note to Apple users: Entering a CHR$(7) will sound Apple’s bell; the code will not be sent to SD-10/15.

You can try this by typing:

LPRINT CHR$(7);

There are two other codes that affect the bell. One disables the bell, so that SD-lo/l5 will ignore a CHR$(7), and the other turns the bell back on. All three codes that affect the bell are shown

in the following table.

Table 8-l ”

Bell commands

Function

Sound bell

Mode Control code

STAR CHR$(7) IBM CHR$(7)

Disable bell

Enable bell

STAR < ESC > “Y” 0 IBM

< ESC > “y” 0

STAR <ESC> “Y” 1 IBM

< ESC > “y” ]

Note: If your computer does not support lowercase characters, use CHR$( 12 1) for “y”.

n Initializing SD- X0/ 15

Up to now when we wanted to reset SD-lo/l5 to the power on condition we have had to either turn the printer off and then on again, or to send the specific codes that reset the particular

features. There is an easier way. The control code < ESC > “@” will reset all of SD-lo/l 5’s features to the power on condition (as determined by the DIP switches), with two excep.tions. Those exceptions are that < ESC > “@” will not erase any characters

that you have stored in SD-lo/l 5’s RAM memory (Chapter 9

tells you how to create your own characters), and it won’t erase the macro if you have one stored in SD-lo/l 5’s RAM (this chapter will tell you how to create a macro).

W Putting SD- IO/l 5 to sleep

You know how to put SD-lo/l5 offlline with the On Line

button. SD-lo/l 5 has another ofFline state that can be controlled

from your computer. When you turn SD-lo/l 5 off-fine from your computer. SD- 1 O/l 5 will ignore anything that you send it, except

for the code to go on-line again. CHR$(l9) is the code to turn SD- 10/l 5 off-line; CHR$( 17) returns SD- 10/l 5 to on-line status.

n Printing to the bottom of the sheet

Sometimes when you are using individual sheets of paper you may want to print near the bottom of a sheet. The paper-out detector usually stops SD- IO/l 5 when you are about 2 % inches from the bottom of the sheet. This is to notify you if you are running out of continuous paper.

SD-lo/l5 has the ability to print right to the bottom of the sheet. You can disable the paper-out detector so that it doesn’t stop the printer. This will allow you to print to the end of the sheet, and even beyond if you are not careful. The codes to control the paper-out detector, along with the other codes that we have

just learned are in the following table.

Table 8-2

Some miscellaneous commands

Function

Master reset

Off line

Mode Control code

STAR <ESC > “@

IBM 1

STAR 1 CHR$(19)

< ESC > “@I”

I 1 IBM 1 CHRFfX19) I

On-line

Paper-out detector off

1 Paper-out detector on

Move print head back one space

Delete last character sent

Cancel text in print buffer

Print “zero” with slash

Print “zero” without slash

STAR CHR$( 17) IBM STAR <ESC> “8” IBM

1 STAR 1 < ESC > “9”

IBM 1 < ESC > “9” STAR 1 CHR$@) IBM STAR CHR$( 127) IBM 1 CHR$(127) STAR 1 CHR$(24) IBM CHR$(24) STAR <ESC > “v’ 1 IBM 1 STAR 1 < ESC > “y’ 0

1 IBM 1

CHR$( 17)

< ESC > “8”

CHR$(8)

< ESC > “\” 1

< ESC > “v’ 0

n Backspace, delete, and cancel text

Backspace (CHR$(8)) “backs up” the printhead so that you can print two characters right on top of each other. Each time SD-lo/l5 receives a backspace it moves the printhead one character to the left, instead of to the right. You can strike over multiple letters by sending more than one backspace code.

Delete (CHR$(127)) also “backs up” one character, but then it “erases” the previous character (it’s erased from SD-10/15’s buffer, not from the paper).

Cancel text (CHR$(24)) deletes all the text in the print buffer; that is, in the line before the delete text command. Since SD-lo/ 15 prints one line of text at a time, only that line will be deleted.

The following program shows how these three codes work.

NEW

10 LPRINT "BACKSPACE DOES NOT";

24) LPRINT CHRS(8) CHR$(8) CHR$(8);

3@ LPRINT 'I=== WORK"

44) LPRINT "DELETE DOES NOT"; 50 LPRINT CHR$(127) CHR$(127) CHR$(127);

60 LPRINT "WORK"

74) LPRINT "CANCEL TEXT";

80 LPRINT CHR$(24); 9@ LPRINT "DOES NOT PRINT"

Here is what this program will print:

PACKSF’ACE DOES WQT WORK DELETE DOES WORK DOES NOT F'RI NT

The backspace codes in line 20 move the printhead a total of three spaces to the left so that the first part of line 30 will overprint the word “NOT”. The delete codes in line 50 ‘Lerase” the three

letters in the word “NOT” so that it doesn’t even print.

In line 80, CHR$(24) deletes the words in line 70. The semicolon at the end of line 70 prevents a line feed from causing that line

to print before SD-IO/IS receives the CHR$(24) code. The text in line 90 prints as it normally would because it is after CHR$(24).

n “Zero” printing

Sometimes. you want to print “zero” with slash to distinguish between “0” and “0”. Your SD-lo/l 5 can print either “0” or “8” as you wish.

- _

n Unidirectional printing

Unidirectional printing is a big word that means printing in

one direction on@. SD-IO/l5 normally prints when the printhead

is moving in both directions. But once in a while you may have

an application where you are more concerned about how the

vertical lines align than with how fast it prints. SD-lo/IS lets you make this choice. The table below shows the commands for controlling how SD- 1 O/l 5 prints.

. . .

Printing direction commands

. .

Function

Print in one direction

Print in both directions

Table 8-3

Mode Control code

STAR < ESC > “U” 1 1 IBM <ESC> “U” 1 STAR <ESC> “U” 0 IBM < ESC > “U” 0

One-time print in one direction

Try this program to see the difference that printing in one

STAR <ESC > “<” IBM

<ESC> “c”

direction makes.

10 'Demo unidirectional printing.

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "A" CHR$(7) ; 'Line spacing = 7/72". 30 FOR I = 1 TO 10 40 LPRINT "I" 50 NEXT I 60 LPRINT : LPRINT

70 LPRINT CHR$(27) "U" CHR$(l)

'Turn on unid

;

irectional

printing.

80 FOR I

= 1 TO 10

90 LPRINT "I"

100 NEXT I 110 LPRINT CHR$(12) CHR$(27)

“@” i

'Form feed, master

reset.

Here is what you will get. The top line is printed bidirectionally, and the bottom is printed undirectionally. You will have to look hard because there isn’t much difference.

Let’s analyze the program. Line 20 sets the line spacing to 7/72 of an inch so that the characters that we print will touch top to bottom. Lines 30-50 print 10 vertical line characters. Then line 70 sets one-direction printing and the vertical lines are printed

again. Finally line 110 sends a form feed to advance the paper

to the top of a new page, and then uses the master reset to restore

SD-10/l 5 to the power-on condition.

You can also set SD-lo/l 5 to print in one direction for one line only by using the command < ESC > “ < “. This command immediately moves the printhead to the left margin and then prints the remainder of the line from left to right.

n The seven bit dilemma

Certain computers (most notably the Apple II) don’t have the capability to send eight bits on their parallel interface. They can only send seven bits. This would make it impossible for these computers to use SD- 1 O/ 15’s block graphics characters and special symbols if Star’s engineers hadn’t thought of a solution. (All of these characters have ASCII codes greater than 127 which means that the eighth bit must be on to use them.) The solution lies in the three control codes given in the following table.

Table 8-4

Eight bit control commands

Function

Turn the eighth bit ON STAR

Turn the eighth bit OFF

Accept the eighth bit “as is” STAR < ESC > “#” from the computer

Mode Control code

<ESC> “>”

IBM STAR <ESC > “=” IBM

IBM

<ESC> “>”

<ESC> “=”

<ESC> “#”

m Block graphics characters and special symbols

Besides the upper and lower case letters and symbols that we are by now familiar with, SD-lo/l 5 has a whole different set of characters that are for special uses. These characters include block graphics characters for drawing forms and graphs, and special symbols for mathematical, engineering and professional uses. The following program will print out all of the graphics characters available in STAR mode.

10 'Demo all block graphic characters.

24) WIDTH "LPT1:",255 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "D" CHR$(lQ)) CHR$(20) ;

40 LPRINT CHR$(30) CHR$(40) CHR$(5@) CHRS(60) ;

59) LPRINT CHR$(7Q)) CHR$(Q)) ; 'Set tabs. 60 FOR J = 160 TO 255 STEP 8

70 FOR I = J TO J + 7 80 LPRINT I I'= " ; 98 LPRINT CHR$(I) ; 'Send graphic char.

100 LPRINT CHR$(9) ; 'Tab.

110 NEXT I : LPRINT : NEXT J

Figure 8-l shows what this program will print. If your chart doesn’t look like this because it has regular letters and numbers instead of the special symbols, then your computer is only using seven bits. You can get the correct printout by adding these lines:

85 LPRINT CHR$(27) ">'I ; 'Turn on 8th bit. 95 LPRINT CHR$(27) "=" ; 'Turn off 8th bit.

The special characters for IBM mode are included in two character sets. The character set you normally use is called character set #l. The special characters are printed out when

you send ASCII codes 160-255 to the printer.

SD-lo/l 5 also offers character set #2 which is almost the same

as character set #I except for the addition of ASCII codes 3-6, 21, and 128-l 59. Character set #2 is selected with < ESC > “6”; to go back to character set #1, use < ESC > “7”.

You can also specify the power-on default character set by setting DIP switch l-2 on for character set #l and off for character set 82 when DIP switch 2-2 is set off. The following program will print out all of the graphics characters available.

Figure 8-1.

6 4

131 8

141 i 151 I:( 161 i 171 !i 131 1 191 ,

Figure 8-2.

20 1 211 L

221 I 231 q-

241 i: 251 d

144 &

154 ii

164 i; 1 7 4 .::::'

134 7 194 -,-

2 (:,Aq.

214 f 224 ,x

NEW

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) "0"

20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "6"

30 FOR J = 3 TO 6

40 LPRINT " " J CHR$(J) " 'I;

50 NEXT

60 LPRINT " 21 " CHR$(21)

70 LPRINT

80 FOR J = 128 TO 254 STEP 10

98 FOR I = J TO J + 9 95 IF I > 254 THEN 110 188 LPRINT I CHR$(I) " "; 110 NEXT I : LPRINT : LPRINT : NEXT J

Figure 8-2 shows what this program will print. If your chart doesn’t look like this because it has regular letters and numbers instead of the special symbols, then your computer is only using seven bits. You can get the correct printout by changing line 100 to this:

I@$? LPRINT I CHR$(27) I'>" CHR$(I) CHR$(27) "="

CHR$(9);

n International character sets

Country

U.S.A.

France

Germany

England

Denmark

Sweden

Italy

Spain

Table 8-5

International character set commands

Mode Control code

STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(O) IBM

< ESC > “R” CHR$(O)

1 STAR / < ESC > “7” CHR$(l)

IBM < ESC > “R” CHR$(l)

STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(2)

IBM STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(3)

< ESC > “R” CHR$(2)

IBM < ESC > “R” CHR$(3)

STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(4) IBM < ESC > “R” CHR$(4) STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(S) IBM STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(6) IBM < ESC > “R” CHR$(6) STAR < ESC > “7” CHR$(7)

1 IBM 1 < ESC > “R” CHR$(7)

< ESC > “R” CHR$(S)

SD-10/l 5 is a multi-lingual printer for it can speak in eight languages! SD- 10/l 5 changes languages by changing 11 characters that are different for the different languages. These sets of characters are called international character sets. The control codes to select the international character sets are given in Table

8-5.

The characters that change are shown beneath their ASCII code in Table 8-6.

Table 8-6

International character sets

Country 1 35 1 64 91 92 93 94

U.S.A 1 # 1 g (

Snain I # I ‘0

\ 1 h

% 123 124 125 126

- I I _-

n The macro control code

The last of our group of miscellaneous control codes is definitely not the least. It is a user-defined control code, called a macro

control code. The term WZUCYO is from the jargonese macro-instruction which refers to an instruction that “calls,” or

uses a group of normal instructions. In computer programming macro-instructions (which are similar to subroutines) save programmers a lot of time and effort.

SD- 10/l 5’s macro can save

you a lot of time and effort also.

Here is how SD-lo/l 5’s macro works. You define your macro by telling SD- lo/ 15 what normal control codes are to be included in the macro. Then you can use the macro any time that you want and SD-lo/l5 will do all the things that you included in the macro definition. You can include up to 16 codes in a single macro. You can even use the macro to store a frequently used

word or phrase. There are two control codes for the macro: one

to define it, and one to use it. They are given in the Table 8-7.

To see how this works we can build a macro that will reset the printing style to normal, no matter what style it may be to start with. The following program will define a macro to do this.

Function

Define macro

use macro

Table 8-7

Macro instruction commands

Mode Control code

STAR < ESC > “ + “....codes

you include...CHR$(30)

IBM

STAR < ESC > “!” IBM

< ESC > “+“....codes

you include...CHR$(30)

<ESC> “r.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) "+";

OF MACRO 20 LPRINT CHR$(18); ' PICA 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "Wfl"; ' EXPANDED OFF 40 LPRINT CHR$(27) "F"; 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "H"; 60 LPRINT CHR$(27) "-0"; ' UNDERLINE OFF

70 LPRINT CHR$(27) "T";

OFF 80 LPRINT CHR$(3Q));

' START DEFINITION

' EMPHASIZED OFF ' DOUBLE-STRIKE OFF

' SUPER & SUBSCRIPTS

' END MACRO DEFINITION

As the comments in the program listing show this will define a macro that will reset all the print style functions. SD-lo/l5 will remember this macro until the power is turned off or until

a new macro is defined. A macro can hold up to 16 bytes (characters) of information. The one that we defined contains thirteen.

Now that you have defined a macro, let’s see how to use it.

This program will print one line using several printing style

features. Then it “calls” the macro in line 60. When line 70 prints the style is “plain vanilla” because the macro has reset it.

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) "-1"; ' UNDERLINE 20 LPRINT CHR$(27) "G"; ' DOUBLE- STRIKE 30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "Wl"; ' EXPANDED 40 LPRINT "TESTING ONE, TWO, THREE" 50 LPRINT CHR$(27) 'I!"; 60 LPRINT "TESTING FOUR, FIVE, SIX"

' USE THE MACRO

If you are using with the IBM mode, change the line 50 as shown

below.

50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "?"; ' USE THE MACRO

ne~53T1NC=i C3NEm

TESTING FOUR, FIVE, SIX

-l-MO, “T-t-iF;:EE

In this chapter we have learned many different commands that have many different uses. In the next chapter we will make up for this diversity-the whole chapter only covers three commands! But they are some of the most powerful that SD-lo/15 offers. They give you the ability to create your own characters.

be.-

L..

SUMMARY

Control code

CHRS(7)

Function

Bell < ESC > “Y” 0 Disable bell (for STAR mode) < ESC > “Y” 1 Enable bell (for STAR mode)

< ESC > “y” 0

Disable bell (for IBM mode)

< ESC > “y” 1 Enable bell (for IBM mode) < ESC > “@”

CHR$( 19) CHR$( 17)

< ESC > “8” < ESC > “9” <ESC> “<”

<ESC> “U” 1 < ESC > “U” 0

CHRS(8) CHR$( 127) CHR$(24)

Reset

Off-line

On-line

Paper-out detector off Paper-out detector on Print in one direction for one line only

Unidirectional printing

Bidirectional printing

Backspace

Delete character

Cancel line < ESC > “\” 1 Print “zero” with slash < ESC > “\” 0

<ESC> “>” <ESC> “=” <ESC> “#”

Print “zero” without slash

Eighth bit on

Eighth bit off

Eighth bit as-is < ESC > “7” 12 Select international character set (for

STAR mode)

< ESC > “R” n Select international character set (for

STAR mode)

<ESC> “+” < ESC > “!” < ESC> “?,’

..CHR$(30) Define macro

Use macro (for STAR mode)

Use macro (for IBM mode)

CHAPTER 9

’

.- .-

CREATING YOUR

OWN CHARACTERS

In this chapter we’ll cover:

l Designing and printing your own characters l Designing proportional characters

In the previous four chapters of this manual you’ve learned

how to control the SD-lo/l 5 printer to give you dozens of dif-

ferent typefaces.

character weights, and font selections, you can create nearly any

effect you want to in text. And with international character sets and the special text and graphics characters described in Chapter 8, you can print almost any character you can think of.

But if “almost any character” isn’t good enough for you, then it’s a good thing you have an SD-lo/l 5 printer! With it you can actually create your own characters. As you’ll see in this chapter, download characters can be used to print a logo, special characters for foreign languages, scientific and professional applications, or any other specific printing task.

By using various combinations of pitches,

DOT MATRIX PRINTING

In order to create download characters, you’ll need some understanding of how dot matrix printers work. They’re called “dot matrix” because each character is made up of a group of dots. Look closely at some printed characters produced by your SD-lo/l 5 and you will see the dots. Figure 9-l shows how the letter “C” is formed by printing 15 dots.

The printhead in SD-lo/l 5 consists of nine thin wires stacked one atop the other. Figure 9-2 shows an enlarged schematic view of the front of the printhead, showing the ends of the wires and their relationship to the printed characters. As you can see, the capital letters use the top seven wires of the printhead, and the

Figure 9-l. The letter “C” is created by printing 15 dots.

descenders (such as the lower case “p” shown) use the bottom seven pins. As the printhead moves across the page (in either direction-that’s what is meant by bi-directional printing) it prints one column of dots at a time. Each time a dot is supposed to print an electromagnet inside the printhead causes the appropriate wire to strike the ribbon (making the SD-10/l 5 an impact printer).

0.0.

: . 0

00 0

: .

0.0.

l o.0

0.0.

eooo :-

Figure 9-2. As the printhead moves across the page, each of the wires prints one row of dots.

THE PRINT MATRIX

All of the standard characters that the SD-lo/l 5 prints are

formed from patterns of dots that are permanently stored in the

printer’s ROM (read-only memory). This includes all of the

standard ASCII characters, the block graphics and special

characters, the international character sets, the NLQ characters

and the italic characters.

But there is another area of *memory in the SD- lo/ 15 reserved for user-defined characters. These are characters that you design and download into SD-10/15. When download characters are defined they are stored in RAM (random access memory), which allows you to define or modify them at any time.

Each of these characters, whether it is from the standard character ROM or in download RAM, is constructed on a grid which is six “boxes” wide by nine “boxes” high. The dots used to print a character can be inside any of the boxes. In addition,

a dot can straddle any of the vertical lines. As an example, take a look at the enlarged “9” superimposed on the grid in Figure 9-3. As you can see, some dots are inside the boxes, and some are centered on the vertical lines. This, in effect, makes the character grid 11 dots wide by 9 dots high. To see how the rest of the characters in the standard character ROM are constructed, take a look at Appendix C.

Figure 9-3. Dots can be inside boxes or straddle the vertical lines of the grid.

DEFINING YOUR OWN CHARACTERS

You’ve seen how the engineers at Star designed their characters

by using a grid to lay out the dots. Now you can define characters exactly the same way. Make up some grids (photocopy Figure 9-4 if you wish) and get ready to be creative! (Just in case you are not feeling creative, and to make our explanations a little clearer, we’ll be using a picture of a chemist’s flask as an example of a download character. You can see how we’ve laid it out in

Figure 9-5. Later in this chapter we’ll use this character to create a small graph.)

You’ll notice that Figure 9-4 includes a lot of information around the grid. Don’t be intimidated; we’ll explain each item as we come to it in our discussion of defining and actually printing download characters. You may have noticed another difference between this grid and the one shown in Figure 9-3: it’s only eight boxes high. Which leads us to...

m, m, m, m, n m, m, m. m, m,, m,,

ASCII Code

Descender

Total

Star1 column End column

M, = Descender + 126 + (Start * 16) + End

Figure 9-4. Use this grid (or one similar to it) to define your own characters.

n Rule 1: Download characters are eight dots high

As you noticed in Figure 9-2, capital letters, most lowercase letters, and most special characters.use only the top seven pins of the printhead. Download characters can go one better: they can use as many as eight of the nine wires in the print head. So our grid is eight dots high.

It’s also possible to use the bottom eight pins, just as the “g”,

““3 ‘6 3.

J- P*

“q”, and “y” of the standard character sets do. These

are called descenders (because the bottom of the character de-

scends below the baseline of the rest of the characters).

One bit in the download character definition command is used

to tell SD- 10/l 5 whether a character is to be treated as a descender or not. We’ll get to the command in due time. For now, if your

character uses the top eight dots, write in a one next to the word “Descender” on the layout grid; if it uses the bottom eight dots, write in a zero. In our example, we’ll want the bottom of the flask to line up with the baseline of the other characters, so it will not be a descender. As shown in Figure 9-5, we’ve written in a “1” on our grid.

m,m,m,m,m,m,m,m,m,m,,m,,

Start column End column

M, = Descender * 126 + (Start * 16) + End

Total

Figure 9-5. We’ve designed a character and decided that it would not

be a descender, hence the “1” written in.

W Rule 2: Dots cannot overlap

As you can see in Figure 9-5 our flask has a nearly continuous outline. But, you may ask, why not make it a really solid line and print all the intermediate dots, as shown in Figure 9-6? Because the dots that straddle the vertical lines in the grid actually overlap those inside the boxes. If we tried to print overlapping dots, the SD-lo/l5 printhead would have to slow down and back up to print both dotsnot very efficient! To avoid this inefficiency, SD- 10/l 5 will not allow you to detine a character like Figure 9-6. (Actually, you can define it, but when it prints, SD-lo/l5 will leave out the overlapping dots, so that it would print like Figure 9-5.)

m m2 m, m m5 m6 m, m, m, m,, m,,

ASCII Code

WRONG!

Total

Figure 9-6. Dots cannot overlap; those in immediately adjacent “half

columns” will be ignored when the character is printed.

H Add up each column of dots

Now it’s time to give our creative side a break and get down to some basic arithmetic. That’s where the numbers down the left side of the grid come in. Notice that there is a number for

each row of dots and that each number is twice the number below it. By making these numbers powers of two we can take any combination of dots in a vertical column and assign them a unique

Descender

M, = Descender * 126 + (Start l 16) + End

128

64 32 16

Sum

l - 64

0 - 32

o-4

o-2 O-2

O-l

0 - 32 0 - 16 O-8

103 58

O-128 0 - 64 0 - 32 0 - 16 O-8 o-4 o-2 O-l

Figure 9-7. By adding the values of each dot in a column, you’ll get a

unique description for any combination of dots.

value. Some examples will make this clearer. As shown in Figure 9-7, if we add the numbers for the dots that print in a column, the sum will be a number in the range of 0 to 255. Each number from O-255 represents a unique combination of dots.

So add up the values of the dots in each column using this system. In Figure 9-8 we’ve shown our grid with the sums of the columns filled in across the bottom (see if these agree with your answers!). Across the top of the grid you’ve probably noticed the cryptic labeling of each column: ml, m2, m3, etc. These labels correspond to the labels in the command syntax statement, which we’ll get to shortly.

m,m,m,m,m,m,m.m,m,m,,m,,

128

Figure 9-8. Add the values of the dots in each column and write the sum

of each column at the bottom.

~ l !

q-~i ~

f’-

;* _~---~~

ASCII Code

Descender

Start column End column

M, = Descender * 126 + (Start * 16) + End

H Assigning a value to your character

We’ve done a pretty thorough job of designing and describing a user-defined character. But the SD-lo/l5 has room for 240 download characters-how does it know which user-defined character we want to print? Exactly the same way it knows which

standard character we want to print: every character is assigned

a unique number.

The standard characters are assigned the ASCII codesnumbers from 0 to 255. For the download character sets you

can define any positions except the defined control code positions. This means that once a character is defined and assigned a value (and the download character set is selected), you can use that character on the printer the same way you would any standard

character. You can send the character with the same ASCII value

(for instance, if you had assigned your character a code of 66, it would print each time you sent a character “B” to the printer). You can also access the character from a BASIC program with the CHR$ function-in this case LPRINT CHR$(66) would print the character.

Except for the limitation that download characters must be avoid the defined control code positions, there are no rules or restrictions on the use of numbers. This means you can use whatever is most convenient for you-perhaps seldom-used keys

can be replaced by more useful characters. In our example, we’ll

assign the flask a value of 160, which is the code for the character “J” or “a”. A rather arbitrary selection, but SD-lo/l 5 doesn’t

care!

Figure 9-9. Character designs for the three graph symbols.

Our chart would hardly be complete with just a picture of a chemist’s flask, so in Figure 9-9 we’ve made completed grids for some other symbols: an automobile and a gun (quite a strange mix of characters!). The information on the grids is now complete (except for proportional width data-a more advanced topic we’ll take up shortly).

n Download character definition command

You’ve read through a long explanation of download characters

and we haven’t even told you the command syntax yet! Now the

wait is over. This is the most complex command in the SD-lo/15

repertoire and now you’ve got the necessary knowledge to im-

plement it. Here it is:

(For STAR mode)

<ESC>

"~~" 1 nl n2 rn@ ml m2 m3 m4 m5 m6 m7 m8

m9 ml@ ml1

(For IBM mode)

<ESC>

"6" CHR$(Q)) nl n2 rng ml m2 m3 m4 m5 m6

m7 m8 m9 ml0 ml1

Like the other SD-lo/l5 commands, it starts with an < ESC > (CHR$(27)). The next character is an asterisk (*) (CHR$(42)) followed by 1, or an ampersand (6~) (CHR$(38)) followed by a CHR$(O).

nl and n2 are used to specify the ASCII values of the characters you are defining. The reason that there are two bytes reserved for this is that SD-lo/l 5 allows you to define many characters with just a single command. nl is used to specify the beginning of a range of characters to be defined; n2 specifies the end of the range.

For instance, if you wanted to change the appearance

of the numerals from 0 to 9 (which have ASCII codes 48 through

57) for the STAR mode, the command would begin with < ESC > ‘I*” CHR$(l) CHR$(48) CHR$(57)... Of course, you can also define individual characters by making nl and n2 equal.

mCJ is called the attribute byte, for it describes two attributes of the character we have designed: descender data and proportional width information. A byte consists of eigth bits. In the attribute byte, the first (high order) bit is used for the descender data, and the last seven bits are used for proportional widths.

We’ll be discussing proportional character widths in detail later in this chapter; for now, we’ll leave it at 11. The descender data was discussed earlier: to use the top eight pins, this bit should be 1; to use the bottom eight pins this bit should be 0. Figure 9-10 shows the bits of the attribute byte as we’ll use them for our flask character. By now you’ve probably seen an easier way to determine the value of the attribute byte. Instead of translating everything to binary, merely assign the descender data a value of 128 (the value of the first bit) if you dont’t want descenders, or 0 if you want descenders. Then just add the descender data to the proportional width. This way, it’s simply a matter of adding two decimal numbers. (In our case, it’s 128 + 11 = 139.)

0 000 1011 = Il(decimal)

Descender

data

I-

Figure 9-10. The attribute byte (4) for our flask character.

You’ll probably recognize ml...&1 from the top of our layout grid. That’s right, each column is described by one byte. Now we’ve got everything we need to download one character to the printer. The complete command for our flask character with the STAR mode is shown in Figure 9- 11.

Starting Ending

print column

~R$(27)CHR$(42)CHR$(l)CHR$(l6~)CHR$(l6~)CHR$(l39)

Escape

1 nl

CHR$(2)CHR$(5)CHR$(8)CHR$(24l)CHR$(@)CHR$(@)

ml m2

m3 m4 m5

CHR$(241)CHR$(8)CHR$(5)CHR$(2)CHR$(@)

Figure 9-11. This is the complete command to send our flask character

ml@

ml1

to the SD-lo/l5 printer.

Now let’s send the information to the printer. But, before you send the information, be sure that the DIP switch l-5 is set off position. If not, set it correctly while the power is off, then, turn the power on again. The following program will send the character

definitions for all three characters with the STAR mode to the printer. Enter the program and run it.

10 LPRINT CHR$ (27) “k” CHR$(

CHR$(162); 20 FOR N = 160 TO 162 30 FOR M = 0 TO 11

44) READ MM 50 LPRINT CHR$(MM); 60 NEXT M

70 NEXT N 80 LPRINT 90 DATA

100 DATA

110 DATA 139,46,16,2,60,0,48,0,48,0,48,0

139,2,5,8,241,0,0,241,8,5,2,0

139,124,0,66,4,64,36,16,2,16,12,0

1) CHRS(160)

When you run this program, it looks like nothing happens. That’s OK. We’ll see why in just a moment. Save this program. We’ll need it again shortly.

PRINTING DOWNLOAD CHARACTERS

You’ve now defined and sent three characters to SD-10/15.

But how do you know that? If you try printing those characters now (type LPRINT CHR$( 160) CHR$(161) CHR$( 162)) you don’t get a flask, car and gun. Instead you get.../ > < or a%. That’s because the download characters are stored in a different part of SD-lo/l 5’s memory. To tell it to look in download

character RAM instead of standard character ROM it requires

another command:

(For STAR mode)

<ESC> "$" n

(For IBM mode)

<ESC>

"%" n 0

This command is used to select the download character set (if

it= 1) or to select the standard character set (if n=O). Let’s try

it out. Enter this command:

LPRINT CHR$(27) "$1" CHR$(16Q)) CHRS(161) CHR$(162)

Voila! It should have printed out the three characters we de-

fined. Your printout should look like this:

(If it doesn’t, check the last program we ran for errors, then

rerun it.)

Let’s find out if there are any other characters in the download

RAM. Try this program:

10 LPRINT CHR$(27) "$1"

20 FOR I=33 TO 126 : LPRINT CHR$(I); : NEXT I 30 FOR I=160 TO 254 : LPRINT CHR$(I); : NEXT I 40 LPRINT

50 LPRINT CHR$(27) "$8"

As you can see, in addition to the characters you have defined (they are the last ones on the printout), SD-lo/15 also printed all characters. This makes it very easy to combine user-defined characters with regular text.

If SD- 10/l 5 didn’t have this feature, mixing download and standard characters would be rather inconvenient: every time you wanted to use a download character you would have to switch back and forth between character sets.

To demonstrate how to use these characters, let’s use this character set to print a small graph. This program, which has been built around the first program in this chapter, will do just that:

5 ESC$= CHR$(27) : 10 LPRINT ESC$ "*l" CHR$(160) CHR$(

20 FOR ~=160 TO 162 30 FOR M=0 TO 11 40 READ MM

50 LPRINT CHR$(MM);

60 NEXT M 70 NEXT N

89) LPRINT 90 DATA

100 DATA 110 DATA 120 LPRINT ESC$ "D" CHR$(ll) CHR$(0) 130 LPRINT CHR$(l4) "

139,2,5,8,241,0,0,241,8,5,2,0

139,124,0,66,4,64,36,16,2,16,12,0

139,46,16,2,60,0,48,0,48,0,48,0

TB$=CHR$(9)

U.S. Exports"

162) ;

Star Micronics SB-15 User Manual

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User Manual