PS TEXT FORMAT Reference Manual

Introduction to TFORM
3–34 11387 Tandem Computers Incorporated
FILE WRITE Option
FILE WRITE outputs the value of each expression listed in the
command to a separate record (one EDIT line) in the specified file,
converting numeric values to strings before writing them.
FILE WRITE filename exp
This command writes one output record (one EDIT line) to the
named file for each expression in the output list. If an expression
has a numeric value, TFORM converts it to a string before writing
it. TFORM adds the edit lines to the end of the auxiliary file you
name in the command.
If the specified file hasn’t been opened as a write-only file, the FILE
WRITE command assigns the appropriate GUARDIAN 90 file
system error number to SYS_FILEERROR and does nothing else.
FILE WRITE * exp
This command writes each expression in the output list as an
output line to the output device, converting any numeric values to
strings in the process. Lines sent this way are strictly verbatim; that
is, neither the content nor the current line spacing is meaningful.
TFORM sends no line-feed or carriage-return information that
normally ends an output line, and doesn’t count such lines as part
of the text area. With this option you can send any data you wish,
including device-specific information (such as bit-map data), to the
printer without any interference by TFORM.
No FILE OPEN is necessary with the FILE WRITE * command,
since the output device is always open.