Basic And The Printer - Epson FX Series User Manual

While you read this manual, you'll be testing your FX with pro-
grams in the BASIC language. You can, of course, use another lan-
guage with your printer; see Appendixes A through D for the ASCII
and ESCape codes that your software manual will explain how to use.
Here we use BASIC because it is the most popular language for per-
sonal computers.
One of the simplest things you can do with any FX printer is print
listings of your BASIC programs. You merely load a BASIC program
into the computer and send the LISTing output to the printer instead
of to the screen.
Unfortunately, different computer systems access the printer in
different ways. For example, most computers that use Microsoft
BASIC send PRINT or LIST commands to the printer by adding a
leading L to a screen command: LPRINT, LLIST, etc. Some other com-
puter systems use PRINT# in place of LPRINT Another group uses
PR#l to route information to the printer and PR#O to restore the flow
of information to the screen. If you aren't familiar with your system's
command conventions, consult its manual.
We will use the LPRINT and LLIST commands for our examples in
this manual because the widespread acceptance of Microsoft BASIC
makes these commands as close to a standard as exists in this industry.
But remember that you may need to modify such commands to match
the unique aspects of your system. The Preface and Appendix F can
help.
Once you have discovered how your computer communicates with
the printer, load a BASIC program into memory. Now list it onto the
printer, using your computer's version of the LLIST command. Some
examples are shown in Table
Chapter 2

BASIC and the Printer

2-1.
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