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29
. .
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.
L.
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 the printer to advance the
.^.
u.
L.
c
L.
paper one line is ASCII 10 (decimal). This code is commonly
referred to by all the following names:
Line feed
- its name
(LF)
- the abbreviation
of its name
ASCII 10
- its decimal value
ASCII &HOA - 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
c..
There's a chart in Appendix B 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 your printer with
commercial
software,
but we don't know what its documenta-
tion is going to call the various codes. So if you know all the dif-
ferent 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 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 your printer's advanced
features.
It may help,
L
however, if we look at a couple of examples.
USING YOUR PRINTER WITH SUPERCALC
.,
SuperCalc is typical of the many spreadsheet
programs that
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