Star Micronics 4

Mostprogramminglanguages,andsomeversionsof BASIC, letyou treat

theprinteras afile towhich youcan senddata.When youwriteaprogram

withoneoftheselanguagesyou“open”theprinterfile,printintoit, andthen

“close”thefile whenyou’redone.This programmingjargonsoundsfunny

ifyou’re notused to it—but it works.

Afewprogramminglanguagesletyousend commandstotheprinterathird

way. Applesoft BASICis one. With it, you can switchbetween printer

outputand screenoutput.

1.2.8Printeremulations

Younoticed that we said “in FX-850mode” up there?Your Star Laser-

Printer4respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveraloiher

printemuse.Beingableto emulateprinterslikethe EpsonFX-850letsyou

useyourStar LaserPrinter4witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeenupdated

to takeadvantageof laserprinters.In fact,because it emulatestwo of the

mostpopularprinters,youcanusetheStarLaserPrinter4withjustaboutany

microcomputerprogramaround.

Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequences for

exactlythe same function.Those printers,moreover,provide escapese-

quencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter4doesn’t need, such as the

Epson’s Half-SpeedCommand.When your printer gets acommand it

doesn’tsupport,itjust ignoresthe command.

Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework

ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill

behappy tohear theStar LaserPrinter4supportsupto 99 macrosat once.