This printer driver by Julie Boswell was published in Electron User in August 1987 and enables 16 different highlights to be set up.

I have made a small modification to the program that allows you to confirm each entry before continuing as I found it all too easy to make a mistake and cause an error report then need to start all over again. The changes are:

      685 PRINT'"Correct? (Y/N)"
      686 IF INSTR("Nn",GET$) GOTO 650

I mentioned this mod way back in EUG #6 when I sent a review of my printer - a Seikosha SP1900+.

To set up your printer driver, run the source program (DrvrSrc). This first asks for a pad character. This prevents View justifying, splitting or word-wrapping words. It was suggested that the £ sign be used for this since, if you need to print this sign, you need to change to the UK character set and print a #. You are then asked for the on and off codes for each highlight. These are numbered 128 onwards and may be used with View highlights 1 or 2.

My printer manual lists the codes in this form:-

      ESC W n [1B,57,n]H [27,87,n]D

This is the code for double width printing and it is set if n=1 and ended by n=0.

The codes can be entered in three ways or a mixture of these:-

I find the decimal codes easiest to use and have included a program that will print out some of the most commonly used codes. These are printed as they would be used as VDU commands where the 1 is used to ensure the codes are only sent to the printer. It is not necessary to enter these into the driver as they are sent by the coding. The program is filed as "PLISTER".

When you have entered all your highlights and respond by pressing N, the coding is assembled and SAVEd as Driver. This can be renamed to suit and set up by PRINTER (filename).

To use the highlights, on a blank line, first enter command mode and enter HT followed by RETURN. Then add on the same line print 1 or 2 and the number of the highlight (e.g. HT 1 128). Do not add anything else to this line - it will not be printed.

Then when you want to change the printing, use the View highlights in the usual way.

I have also included a program to demonstrate the types available on my printer. It shows the use of the VDU codes and is filed as "Demo".

Richard Dimond, EUG #43

Richard Dimond