1
Mostprogramminglanguages,andsomeversionsof BASIC,let you treat
theprinteras a fileto whichyoucansenddata.Whenyouwritea program
withoneoftheselanguagesyou“open”theprinterfile,printintoit,andthen
“close”the filewhenyou’redone.Thisprogrammingjargon soundsfunny
if you’renotusedto it—butit works.
A fewprogramminglanguagesletyousendcommandsto theprinterathird
way. Applesoft BASIC is one. Withit, you can switchbetweenprinter
outputand screenoutput.
1.2.8Printeremulations
You noticedthat we said “in FX-850mode”up there? Your Star Laser-
Printer4respondstothesameescapesequencecommandsthatseveraloiher
printemuse.Beingableto emulateprintersliketheEpsonFX-850letsyou
useyourStarLaserPrinter4witholderprogramsthathaven’tbeenupdated
to take advantageof laserprinters.In fact,becauseit emulatestwo of the
mostpopularprinters,youcanusetheStarLaserPrinter4withjustaboutany
microcomputerprogramaround.
Unfortunatelythose printers often use different escape sequences for
exactlythe same function.Thoseprinters,moreover,provideescapese-
quencesfor functionsthe Star LaserPrinter4 doesn’tneed, such as the
Epson’s Half-SpeedCommand.When your printer gets a command it
doesn’tsupport,itjust ignoresthecommand.
Macrosaresinglecontrolcodesyoucandefineyourself,whichdothework
ofawholelongseriesofprintercommands.Ifyouareaprogrammeryouwill
be happyto hearthe StarLaserPrinter4 supportsup to 99 macrosat once.
11
