The hexadecimal numbers are the codes received by the printer, and the guide section helps you find a certain place in the list of codes. Each character in the guide section corresponds to one of the codes. If the code is for a printable character, that character is printed. If the code is for a non-printable character, such as the ESCape code or the code for a line feed or carriage return, a dot is printed.

Therefore, if you ran the following BASIC program while your IX-86 was in the data dump mode, you would get the printout below it. The printer will print all but this last line and then stop. Press the ON LINE button to make the printer print the last line.

1 0 F O R X = 7 0 T O 7 3

2 0 L P R I N T C H R $ ( X ) : N E X T X

30LPRINT CHR$( 27) “E”

40LPRINT "Sample text"

50LPRINT CHR$( 27) “@”

You can consult Appendix A or the Quick Reference Card to see the meaning of the hexadecimal codes. We will explain the first line to put you on the right track for using the data dump mode.

The first code in line 0000 is hex 46, which is the same as decimal 70, which is the code for “F”; therefore “F” is printed in the first position in the guide section. Then, because there is no semicolon in line 20, MBASIC sends a carriage return and a line feed, hex codes 0D and 0A. Each of these is represented by a dot in the guide section. The program then sends the hex codes 47, 48, and 49, with each followed by a carriage return and line feed.

When the program gets to line 30, it sends ESCape “E” and a carriage return and line feed. These are hex codes lB, 45, 0D, and 0A, which are represented in the guide section by a dot, an “E”, and two more dots. Now you can follow a data dump printout on your own.

Some computer systems change one or more codes when sending them from BASIC to the printer. The ability of the Ix-86 to dump in hexadecimal lets you determine which codes are creating problems for your system.

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