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Does anyone know of a banner program that will print out on 8-1/2"
high continuous paper? Preferable capable of using the various
computer fonts and/or multiple lines?
Banner programs used to be a dime a dozen. Kind of looks like dimes
have gone out of style, doesn't it? I'll see if I can put something
simple together.
DOS doesn't have font support. There's a font library or so in the
PB/DOS Downloads here, though it's intended for video displays, not
printers. Might be possible to get there from here, I dunno... at
worst, I guess, you could read the character pixels off the display
and translate the result to printed output.
Ok. This is rude and crude, but it should be good for a start. First,
a wee program to grab the simple 8x8 character definitions from your
display adapter. We switch to "high res" CGA mode, display each character
one at a time, capture the results, and dump it to a file.
Code:
SCREEN 2
DEFINT a-z
open "8x8font.dat" for binary as #1
for z = 0 to 255
cls
print chr$(z);
FOR x = 0 TO 7
FOR y = 0 TO 7
w = w * 2 OR point(x, y)
NEXT
put$ #1, chr$(w)
w = 0
NEXT
next
close #1
Now, we've got a font file that tells us what the characters look like.
Ask for a string to print, and print it out using a magnified version of
the font data.
Code:
defint a-z
dim font(0 to 255) as string * 8
open "8x8font.dat" for binary as #1
for x = 0 to 255
get$ #1, 8, font(x)
next
close #1
cls
line input "Text? "; s$
for x = 1 to len(s$)
for y = 1 to 8
w = 1
for z = 1 to 8
if (asc(font(asc(s$, x)), y) and w) then
o$ = o$ + string$(9, "#")
else
o$ = o$ + space$(9)
end if
w = w * 2
next
for z = 1 to 4
lprint o$
next
o$ = ""
next
next
Not too opaque, I hope. Public domain, in any event-- do what you want
with it.
Thanks for the program, however, there appears to be some problem
in the following statement: "if (asc(font(asc(s$, x)), y) then".
I get an error message 414, indicating that a closing bracket
should be after s$. Please indicate where the problem is.
I'm still using PowerBASIC version 3.0 so it appears that I'm due
an upgrade, but being on a pension I have limited funds. It appears
that that version 3.0 only supports ASC(s$) with no extensions.
The problem line wants me to put all the closing brackets after
the 1 followed by a THEN, and ignore "y and w".
Any suggestions?
I was able to get the problem statement coded however I only get
blue lines running down the screen. No output to the printer. I'm
using DOSPRINT to print out. As suggestions?
First I assume that you adapted the LPRINT statements in Tom's code, so that the print data is actually being was written to a disk file? It would also be a good idea to make sure the file is closed before launching DOSPRINT.
Assuming the file is created correctly, and DOSPRINT is being launched correctly, you'll likely need to enable DOSPRINT's auto-formfeed mode (/FF) if you want the print job to extend beyond the first page (because Windows-based printing is page-centric).
If you still haven't got it runing at this stage, I'dd suggest that you enable the Log File option (/LF) and then examine the log file for error values, etc.
a = ASC(MID$(s$, x, 1))
IF ASC(MID$(font(a), y, 1)) AND w THEN
Do you see any problem?
In the "from" the ASC value is bitswise AND'd with W before the condition is evaluated.
In the "to" the "AND w" is treated as a second condition to the IF.
You need to add another set of parens...
Code:
IF (ASC(MID$(font(a), y, 1)) AND w) THEN
This is a byproduct of "short-circuit" evaluation, which is better performance when it really is two conditions rather than a 'bitswise AND' you are testing.
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