COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs

Printer and Spooler Output
HP COBOL Manual for TNS and TNS/R Programs—522555-006
30-18
Controlling Vertical Spacing in a Printed Report
This command tells the spooler to skip forward to page 98 of the job. The skipping
capability is related to the device, not to the job.
Skipping capability is useful is when the printer has jammed or the ribbon failed and
ruined part of your listing. If the spooler delivered 56 pages of the job, but the pages
from 50 onward are not usable, the job’s owner (or the system operator) can take the
printer offline, fix the mechanical problem, put the printer back online, and issue the
SPOOLCOM command:
DEV $LP1, SKIPTO 49
For the full syntax of the JOB and DEV commands, see the Guardian User’s Guide.
You can often get the information you need from SPOOLCOM command HELP; for
example, this command gives the syntax and capabilities of the JOB command:
HELP JOB
Controlling Vertical Spacing in a Printed
Report
When you write to a printer or to a spooler, you can transmit not only data but also
control information. Control information skips numbers of lines or skips to VFU
channels. Some printers supplied by HP use a punched paper tape to control vertical
formatting; others use an electronic device to perform that function.
The control information is not embedded in each print line but is transmitted separately
from your program to the device or to the spooler collector. The spooler stores the
information in a manner that enables it to generate the same image on paper as would
have been generated if your program had been writing directly to a printer.
You control vertical spacing in a report with the ADVANCING clause of the sequential
form of the WRITE statement.
Topics:
•
Skipping Lines
•
Overprinting Lines
•
Skipping to a Printer Control Tape Channel Punch
•
Skipping to a New Page
If you do not use an ADVANCING clause, the WRITE statement behaves as if it
contained the clause AFTER ADVANCING 1 LINE; that is, the printer prints the record
in the WRITE statement after advancing one record.