[2/4] FX11HELP.TXT
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, how to change the control code. To do this, move the arrow to the number being changed (it will be highlighted by inversion) and press select. A
invitation to enter Token: will appear in the top line of the window. Now enter the value you need
(in the range 1..24) and press ENTER. The entered number will appear in
the table. To exit the code editor, move the arrow outside the window and press select.
After loading the program, the table looks like:
1 Rus
2 Lat
3 Wide ON
4 Wide OFF
5 Small ON
6 Small OFF
7 Underline ON
8 Underline OFF
9 Bold ON
10 Bold OFF
11 Double ON
12 Double OFF
21 New page
For the TLW2M editor it can be like this (according to the same book
"System programs for the ZX Spectrum", p. 75):
17 Rus
17 Lat
4 Wide ON
5 Wide OFF
6 Small ON
7 Small OFF
8 Underline ON
9 Underline OFF
10 Bold ON
11 Bold OFF
12 Double ON
13 Double OFF
1 New page
Let's move on. So,
Spacing - setting internal spacingintervals. If
Inline spacing is set, the paper between the printing of the top and bottom
half of the line is fed at 23/216 inches to eliminate
possible narrow gaps when the paper feed is not quite accurate;
otherwise - 24/216 inches. Outline spacing is set in 1/216ths of an inch and is usually 30/216" (as on a typewriter when printing at 2 intervals). When changing the spacing, keep track of the number of lines on the page.
Numeration - turn on/off page numbering when
printing. If numbering is turned on, then the number of the current page is printed in the top two lines
of the page, like this:
- 68 -
Pages are counted automatically, in increments of 1. After
page 65535 comes page 0. Using the First number function you can
set the number of the first page (after loading it is set to 1).
The First page function indicates whether or not to print the number of the first
page (usually the title page is not numbered, but is taken into account in
numbering).
Format feed - turn on/off feeding paper to the end of the sheet at the end of the page.
Line feed - select/cancel the output of a line feed code (LF: #0A) to the printer after issuing a carriage return code (CR: #0D).
The installation of this function depends on the setting
DIL microswitches toprinter (for the ROBOTRON CM
6329 printer, on which this program was tested, when Line
feed is selected, microswitch 7-1 must be in the OFF position).
_ under char. - a function with such an exotic name
indicates the position of the underline in the underline
(Underline) mode. If the switch is set, then the underscore
is performed below the lowest character elements (as is
usually done); if the switch is turned off, the underscore
line rises up by 2 points and falls into the area of the
character matrix, which is why the lower elements of the letters g, p, q and some
others will be closed, but in this case the underscore coincides in height with the underscore character (_), which is sometimes
necessary (for example, when printing certain types of tables).
Interface - select the interface type. There are several options for connecting the printer, each of which requires a corresponding driver. Print FX has built-in drivers for Centronics and IFSP interfaces. If your printer is connected in a non-standard way or you have a different interface, you will have to write your own driver (User). Instructions for writing a custom driver are given in the appendix.
Font editor - editor of printed fonts 12 x 14. For a description of the editor, seeapplication.
Version number - version number. The number of the version being used, the name and telephone number of the author, the year the program was created are reported.
The QUIT option of the main menu - exits the program in TR-DOS.
Allows you not to waste effort on pressing the reset button.
Now a few notes about the font. All modifications of the font - expansion, compression, selection - are made programmatically based on the base font. Please note that the Wide modifier stretches the font 2 times horizontally, and the Small modifier compresses it 2 times (usually a compressed font is 60% of the normal width).
Therefore, if you select a wide and compressed font at the same time, you will get a regular font width (the same as set by the
Set mode function of the PRINT menu), but coarser (blended). The underscore
is cut off on the left and right up to the first characters other than a
space, like this:
...Cutting...
^ ^
Underline ON Underline OFF
If the line contains a double
printing code at least once, then the line is printed in 4 passes - first the whole the upper
half, then those parts that are marked with double printing,
then the lower half is printed in the same way.
Appendix A.
Creating a custom printer driver.
Possibility of using a custom one(i.e.
created by the user) driver was included in Print
FX 1.1 in order to remove restrictions on the type of printer interface used and the scheme for connecting it to the computer.
Now, if you are not satisfied with the built-in programs drivers
Centronics and IFSP (IRPR) interfaces, you can write your own
driver configured specifically for your printer and interface.
However, writing your own driver requires some
assembly programming skills and knowledge machine architectures. But, fortunately, for most common
printer connection options, one of the built-in
drivers is suitable, and the need to write your own is quite rare.
In some cases, the examples of drivers
given below can help you.
What is a driver? printer? This is a small program that provides communication between the main program and an external device - a printer. In this case, the driver's responsibilities include
initializing the port (channel, stream, etc.) for data transfer
and directly issuing a byte to the printer.
For the user driver, 256 bytes are allocated in the buffer
of the ZX printer, located at addresses #5B00 - #5BFF (23296 -
23551). Print FX works with the driver as follows: at
address
#5В00 (23296)the procedure for issuing the contents
of the battery to the printer is called, and at address
#5B02 (23298) - the procedure for initializing the input/output port.
This procedure is called each time before printing the entire text.
You can also place issuing to the printer any
initializing sequence of bytes or signals.
You can write a driver using any available
assembler. Write the resulting object code into a separate file with some name, for example, fx drv. Now, to use it in the program, you need to load the driver into memory from address 23296 before starting Print FX. et
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