Other considerations

Keep in mind that user-defined characters are stored in RAM, which is volatile in nature. Whenever the printer power is turned off, all of the user-defined characters are lost. Likewise, initializing the printer will clear the user-defined character area. Initializing can be done with the <ESC> “@” command. Also, your computer sometimes sends an initialization (INIT) signal. (Some computers do this each time BASIC is loaded.)

Defining Connecting Characters

Because character definitions include information about the width of the character, including the space around the character, you can define characters that connect horizontally. This feature has a variety of useful applications. You can create: a typeface with connecting scripts, a single extra-wide character that exceeds the size limits of a single character, or graphic characters that can be used as borders.

By defining only two characters (see Figure 5-5), three different border patterns can be created.

10 '*** User-Defined Character: Chain Borders ***

20 ’

30 ‘Select letter quality

40 LPRINT CHR$(27) “x" CHR$(1);

50 ’

60 ‘Define download character

70 LPRINT CHR$(27) “&” CHR$(0);

80 ’

90 ‘beginning at "=” and ending at ">”

100 LPRINT "=>“;

110 ’

120 ‘left margin, # of digits, right margin 130 LPRINT CHR$(O) CHR$(10) CHR$(0); 140 FOR I=1 TO 10*3

150 READ A

160LPRINT CHR$(A);

170NEXT

180LPRINT CHR$(0) CHR$(14) CHR$(0);

190 FOR I=1 TO 14*3

200READ A

210LPRINT CHR$(A);

220NEXT

62