Guardian Programmer's Guide

Table Of Contents
Communicating With Printers
Guardian Programmer’s Guide 421922-014
11 - 7
Controlling the Printer
Two types of escape sequences can be sent to Tandem printers: two-character escape
sequences and parameterized escape sequences. Two-character escape sequences
have the following general format:
Parameterized escape sequences have the following general format:
The following are examples of parameterized escape sequences:
esc&a99M
esc&a9L
The first example sets the right margin at character position 99. The second example
sets the left margin at character position 9. These examples can be combined as
follows:
esc&a99m9L
Syntax for a two-character escape sequence:
esc x
esc
is the escape character (ASCII %33).
x
is an ASCII character that specifies the function the printer is to perform.
Syntax for a parameterized escape sequence:
esc param-char group-char parameters term-char
esc
is the escape character (ASCII %33).
param-char
is an ASCII character—&, (, or )—that specifies that the escape
sequence is a parameterized escape sequence.
group-char
is an ASCII character that specifies the type of function the printer is
to perform.
parameters
is a string of ASCII characters. The meaning of these characters
depends on the function specified by group-char and term-char.
term-char
is an ASCII character that specifies the precise function that the
printer is to perform and marks the end of the parameters. This
character can be uppercase or lowercase:
²
An uppercase character specifies the end of the escape
sequence.
²
A lowercase character specifies that another escape sequence
immediately follows. The esc, param-char, and group-char
must be omitted from the escape sequence that follows this
lowercase letter.