Epson FX-185 User Manual - Page 54

Chapter 2 BASIC and the Printer While you read this manual, you'll be testing your FX with programs in the BASIC language. You can, of course, use another language 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 personal 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 computer systems use PRINT # in place of LPRINT Another group uses PR#l to route information to the printer and PR#0 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 2-1. 37