Star Micronics SB-15 user manual Next I Lprint Next J

m Block graphics characters and special symbols

Besides the upper and lower case letters and symbols that we are by now familiar with, SD-lo/l 5 has a whole different set of characters that are for special uses. These characters include block graphics characters for drawing forms and graphs, and special symbols for mathematical, engineering and professional uses. The following program will print out all of the graphics characters available in STAR mode.

10 'Demo all block graphic characters.

24)WIDTH "LPT1:",255

30 LPRINT CHR$(27) "D" CHR$(lQ)) CHR$(20) ;

40 LPRINT CHR$(30) CHR$(40) CHR$(5@) CHRS(60) ; 59)LPRINT CHR$(7Q)) CHR$(Q)) ; 'Set tabs.

60 FOR J = 160 TO 255 STEP 8

70 FOR I = J TO J + 7

80 LPRINT I I'=" ;

98 LPRINT CHR$(I) ; 'Send graphic char.

100 LPRINT CHR$(9) ; 'Tab.

110 NEXT I : LPRINT : NEXT J

Figure 8-l shows what this program will print. If your chart doesn’t look like this because it has regular letters and numbers instead of the special symbols, then your computer is only using seven bits. You can get the correct printout by adding these lines:

85 LPRINT CHR$(27) ">'I ; 'Turn on 8th bit. 95 LPRINT CHR$(27) "=" ; 'Turn off 8th bit.

The special characters for IBM mode are included in two character sets. The character set you normally use is called character set #l. The special characters are printed out when you send ASCII codes 160-255 to the printer.

SD-lo/l 5 also offers character set #2 which is almost the same as character set #I except for the addition of ASCII codes 3-6, 21, and 128-l 59. Character set #2 is selected with < ESC > “6”; to go back to character set #1, use < ESC > “7”.

You can also specify the power-on default character set by setting DIP switch l-2 on for character set #l and off for character set 82 when DIP switch 2-2 is set off. The following program will print out all of the graphics characters available.

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