Entering the 4 is no problem; it’s a printing character so Easy-
Writer won’t object (although in this case it’s not going to print).
The Escape, however, is a non-printing character so it requires
special handling. To enter the Escape code lirst enter control-O
(hold the Ctrl key while you press the letter 0). Then press the
Esc key. The Escape character shows on the screen as a left
pointing arrow. Now just type the number 4 and you’re done.
When you want to end the italic, you need to enter Escape 5.
Use the same procedure: enter control-O, Esc, and then 5.
You can use many of SD-lo/l 5’s features this way. Find the
codes that you need in Appendix D, and then if necessary, use
Appendix F to translate the codes into the form your word
processor uses.
A note to WordStar users: WordStar is probably the most
popular word processing program in the world. But it provides
no way to enter special printer control codes from the keyboard.
WordStar does, however, provide you with a way to use some
of SD- 10/l 5’s advanced features. WordStar has four special
commands that you can use to access SD- 10/15’s features. These
are called “user printer controls” and are control-P Q, control-P
W, control-P E, and control-P R. You might use two of these
to turn italic on and off and the other two for some other function.
The process of setting up these codes is called “patching” and
is done with the install program that comes with WordStar. The
procedure is fairly involved, but it is explained in the WordStar
manual. If you have trouble figuring it out, ask for assistance
where you bought WordStar.
n Using this book without learning BASIC
Throughout the latter part of this book we will be teaching
you how to use all of SD-lo/l 5’s features using the BASIC
programming language in our examples. This is because it is easy
to communicate with SD- lo/ 15 from BASIC and because, despite
its shortcomings, BASIC is the nearest thing to a universal lan-
guage among users of personal computers. But it’s not the only
way to communicate with SD-lOjl5. Even if you don’t know
BASIC, you can learn how to use SD-IO/IS’s features by reading
on. When you find a function that you want to use, just apply
what you already know about translating from one name for codes
to another. The examples will still show you how the commands
are used, even if you are not using BASIC.
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