Paxar 9401 manual Online Information, Data Stream Structure

11. Online Information

MPCL is a standard printer control language developed for Monarch printers. It is designed to work in ASCII (MS-DOS) or EBCDIC (mainframe) environments. This chapter describes MPCL structure and syntax.

Data Stream Structure

The computer sends data to the printer in packets. A packet is a string of ASCII characters consisting of

∙a starting token: {

∙a sequence of characters and instructions

∙an ending token: }

There are four types of packets: check digit packets, format packets, batch packets, and exception packets.

A data stream is made up of a series of records. A text field definition is an example of a record. Records are constructed with a set of parameters, which are separated by commas. A format can contain up to 14 text, non-printable text, and bar code records. Additionally, a format may contain lines, boxes, and constant text overlays. Use only uppercase characters, except in character strings enclosed in quotation marks.

Online Information

11-1