Star Micronics NX-10 user manual ESC+CHR$l

77

which refers to an instruction that “calls,” or uses a group of nor- mal instructions. In computer programming macro-instructions (which are similar to subroutines) save programmers a lot of time and effort. Your printer’s macro can save you a lot of time and effort also.

Here is how the printer’s macro works. You define macro by telling the printer what normal control codes are to be included in the macro. Then you can use the macro any time that you want and the printer will do all the things that you included the macro definition. You can include up to 16 codes in a single macro. You can even use the macro to store a frequently used word or phrase. There are two control codes for the macro: one to define it, and one to use it. They are given in the Table 5-9.

	Table 5-9
Macro	instruction commands
Function	Control code
Define macro	(ESC)“+“...(codes you include)
	... CHR$(30)
Use macro	(ESC)“+“CHR$(l)

To see how this works we can build a macro that will reset the printing style to normal, no matter what style it may be to start with. The following program will define a macro to do this.

10	LPRINT	CHR$(27);"+";	'Start	macro
20	LPRINT	CHR$(27);"h";CHR$(O);	'Big character
	off
30	LPRINT	CHR$(27);"!";CHR$(O>;	'Select	normal
	pica
40	LPRINT	~~~$(27);"Tfl;	'Super	&
50	subscripts off		lSet l/6 inch
	LPRINT	~H~$(27);'*211;
	line spacing
60	LPRINT CHR$(27);"a";CHR$(O);		'Left-aligned
	printing
70	LPRINT	CHR$(30)	'End macro

definition

As the comments in the program, we started to define macro in line 10. Line 20 cancels the big character printing. Line 30 sets the normal pica, and also this command cancels the propor-