either of these capabilites on and off, as a mode, with an ESCape sequence.

Half-Speed Mode

The FX can print at the fine rate of 160 characters per second (cps). But it will also print more slowly if you want it to: the Half-Speed Mode prints at 80 cps. The command sequence uses lowercase s plus zero and one as a toggle:

LPRINT CHR$(27)"s1"

turns Half Speed Mode on, and, as usual, the zero version of the command turns the mode off. If your system can’t send lowercase letters, use the longer format:

LPRINT CHR$(27)CHR$(115)CHR$(1)
to get the same results.

The FX uses Half-Speed, as we explained in Chapter 4, to enable extra-dense printing. But why would you want to make the printer work at half its normal speed? The main advantage to Half-Speed printing is a quieter run (e.g., for those late night printing sessions).

Immediate-Print Mode (FX-80 only)

The FX-80 can move even more slowly-at the speed of your typ- ing. In the Immediate-Print Mode, the print head prints one character at a time, as you send it. The FX-80 also moves the paper up so that you can see the current line and then down to continue printing. This kind of instant feedback can be especially helpful in telecommunica- tions.

You turn Immediate Print on with CHR$(27)“i1” or, to avoid the lowercase i, CHR$(27)CHR$(105)"1". But before looking at it, let’s review the normal operation of the printer buffer. Enter this program:

NEW

20 A$=“” : INPUT "TYPE A LETTER A$ 30 IF A$="" THEN 50
40 LPRINT A$;: GOT0 2050 LPRINT

Now type several characters, and after each press the RETURN key. True to form, the printer just stuffs the characters into its buffer while it waits for a carriage-return code. To end this version of the program

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