255 Tutorial

To print to a printer, BR uses the file number 255, which has been reserved for this purpose.

Printing with #255, means it must also first be OPENed, PRINTed to, and then CLOSEd, as in this short example:

00010 OPEN #255: "name=PREVIEW:/DEFAULT,recl=32000", DISPLAY,OUTPUT 00020 PRINT #255: "My first printout!" 00030 CLOSE #255:

We use a print preview to save paper during this exercise. To print to an actual printer, change PREVIEW to PRN.

To print correctly on the page, its important to pay attention to the lines and spaces so that everything lines up correctly. Printing most often uses the FORM statement to format the printout. For example:

print #255,using nameform: A$(1),A$(2),A$(3)
nameform: form Pos 14,C 30,Skip 1,Pos 14,C 30,Skip 1,Pos 14,C 30,Skip 8

print #255:

will simple print a blank line. Skip 1 will do the same. All lines will perform a carriage return and start the next line one down, unless it's followed by a semi-colon (;).

   print #255, using curform:B(2),B(4),B(5),B(12),sum(mat B(13:21)) !get variables from previous program 
   curform: form pos 102,pic(z,zz#.##), skip 1

The syntax then, for PRINT USING, is as follows:

PRINT #255, USING line-ref or string expression : data item or MAT array-name

In the example above, curform is the line ref and the data items are listed after the colon. Within the line curform, notice that normal format specifications apply to print statements too.

Using a file Printer.sys, you can set fonts and styles using subattributes too.

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