Epson MX-80 User Manual page 50

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Chapter 9

Life in the Fast Lane

Everybody add line 5:

5 L P R I N T C H R $ ( 2 7 ) " A "

C H R $ ( 1 4 0 )

C H R $ ( 2 7 ) " 2 "

and RUN.

Same as before. We changed nothing. Then what is line 5 all about?

Line 5 contains the following 3 distinct commands:

1. An Escape "A". It opens Pandora's box to let us set the vertical line spac-

ing accurate to a single dot — l/72nd of an inch. Mercy!

2. A C H R $ ( # # + 128). Here we can specify how many dots we wish to roll

down between the top of one line's printing and the top of the next. We pick

our number of dots and add 128. Remember, our "standard" 6 lines per inch

means we need 12 vertical dots. 12+ 1 28 = 140. (Aha!)

3. An Escape " 2 " . This activates the charcoal. We must " h i t " an Escape 2 for the

previous scheme to work. It doesn't have to be on the same program line as

we have it here. It can be placed in a later line when we actually want the

change in spacing to take place (if we want to). This can allow us to cut back

and forth between different line spacings. Oh.

To dramatically illustrate the possibilities this feaure opens up, add or change the

following lines:

2 S = 1 2 9

' 1 +

1 2 8

5 L P R I N T C H R $ ( 2 7 ) " A "

C H R $ ( S )

C H R $ ( 2 7 ) " 2 "

1 0 L P R I N T " L I N E

O N E " , S - 1 2 8

4 0 S = S + 1

GOTO 5

Line 2 starts us off with a dot spacing of 1.

Line 5 brings the dot number " S " in as a variable

Line 10 is changed to print out the dot spacing

Line 40 adds one dot to S, and sends us back to 5

Let it RUN it until the dot spacing reaches at least 24.

WOW!