Printer

Overview

The Printer is the standard NCS/e document output peripheral.

Programs create a print job, append text to it, and finalize the completed document for pickup.

A basic print operation consists of:

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "Hello, world!\n"
PRINT.DONE

Larger documents may be assembled using multiple PRINT.DATA calls:

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "NCS/e SYSTEM REPORT\n"
PRINT.DATA "-------------------\n"
PRINT.DATA "STATUS: OK\n"
PRINT.DONE

The Printer maintains the current job between calls.

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Print jobs

A normal print job follows three steps:

1. PRINT.NEW begins a new empty document.
2. One or more PRINT.DATA calls append text to the document.
3. PRINT.DONE completes the document and makes it available for pickup.

PRINT.NEW and PRINT.CANCEL may be issued at any time.

Both discard any existing job and clear the Printer's current error state. PRINT.NEW then begins a new empty job, while PRINT.CANCEL returns the Printer to its ready state without starting one.

This applies regardless of whether the Printer is currently processing a job, reporting an error, or holding a completed document awaiting pickup.

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PRINT.NEW — New Print Job

PRINT.NEW

Discards any existing print job and begins a new empty job.

Operands

This operation takes no operands.

Modified registers

This operation does not modify any registers.

Examples

-- Begin a new print job.
PRINT.NEW

PRINT.DATA "Hello, world!\n"
PRINT.DONE

Calling PRINT.NEW while another job exists abandons the old job and immediately begins another:

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "This document will be discarded.\n"

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "Replacement document\n"
PRINT.DONE

Notes

• Any existing print data is discarded.
• Any existing Printer error is cleared.
• A job currently in progress is abandoned.
• A completed document awaiting pickup is discarded.
• A new empty print job is started.

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PRINT.DATA — Append Print Data

PRINT.DATA <text>

Appends text to the current print job.

Operands

Position	Name	Type	Description
1	text	String value	Text to append to the document.

Modified registers

This operation does not modify any registers.

Examples

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "Hello, world!\n"
PRINT.DONE

A document may be assembled incrementally:

PRINT.NEW

PRINT.DATA "Line one\n"
PRINT.DATA "Line two\n"
PRINT.DATA "Line three\n"

PRINT.DONE

The resulting document contains:

Line one
Line two
Line three

Values may also be converted to strings normally when passed as print data:

MOVE r0 42

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "The answer is "
PRINT.DATA r0
PRINT.DATA ".\n"
PRINT.DONE

Notes

• Each call appends to the end of the current document.
• Existing print data is preserved between calls.
• Multiple calls may be used to construct a document incrementally.

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PRINT.DONE — Complete Print Job

PRINT.DONE

Completes the current print job and makes the resulting document available for pickup.

Operands

This operation takes no operands.

Modified registers

This operation does not modify any registers.

Examples

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "PRINT TEST\n"
PRINT.DATA "Hello from NCL!\n"
PRINT.DONE

Notes

• PRINT.DONE finalizes the current document.
• The completed document remains available until it is picked up, discarded or replaced.
• PRINT.NEW may be used to discard the completed document and immediately begin another job.
• PRINT.CANCEL may be used to discard the completed document and return the Printer to ready.

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PRINT.CANCEL — Cancel Print Job

PRINT.CANCEL

Discards any existing print job and returns the Printer to its ready state.

Unlike PRINT.NEW, no new job is started.

Operands

This operation takes no operands.

Modified registers

This operation does not modify any registers.

Examples

PRINT.NEW
PRINT.DATA "This document will not be printed.\n"
PRINT.CANCEL

PRINT.CANCEL may also be used to reset the Printer from another state:

PRINT.CANCEL
-- > Printer returns to ready

Notes

• Any existing print data is discarded.
• Any existing Printer error is cleared.
• A job currently in progress is abandoned.
• A completed document awaiting pickup is discarded.
• No new print job is started.
• The Printer returns to its ready state.

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Starting over

Programs do not need to determine the Printer's current state before resetting it.

To discard whatever the Printer is currently doing and immediately begin a fresh document:

PRINT.NEW

To discard whatever the Printer is currently doing without beginning another document:

PRINT.CANCEL

This makes either operation suitable for recovering to a known Printer state before continuing.