Videoprinter

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Home / Publications / Rainbow / Rainbow 1981 / Rainbow 1981-10 - Videoprinter

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AND THEY SAID IT COULDN'T BE DONE!

We confess that we asked a lot of people about hard copy out of VIDEOTEX, all the BBS' and whatever other place good ideas and programs might reside.

Radio Shack Computer Center: "We've really asked. You can't do it. You know that both the printer and the modem come out of the same port, anyway, so I just guess it’s one of those things you can't do."

CompuServe: "We've asked. Frankly, a whole lot of people want to be able to get hard copy from their COLOR Computer. But Tandy says there's just no way."

Radio Shack Customer Service: "No, you Can't do that with a COLOR Computer."

Jorge Mir of New Berlin, WS and Al Morgan of Pittsfield, MA both found a way. Since there are advantages to both programs, both are reproduced below as separate articles. And, by the way, next month we'll show you how to get the programs you see listed into memory -- without typing them in.

VIDEOPRINTER BY MORGAN

We understand Al Morgan of Pittsfield, MA, has a LP VII for a left hand and an EPSON 80 F/T for a right. At any rate, he's been most interested in getting the most out of the interaction between a COLOR Computer and a printer.

Elsewhere in this issue of the RAINBOW is a print monitor from AI. This time he takes his hand to a VIDEOTEX screen dump.

Writes AI: "For downloading. Jorge Mir's VIDFIX is excellent. but I think his VIDPRINT seemed a little slow compared to what I came up with. Of course, it does have additional capabilities. Maybe the readers could decide."

OK readers. Here is VIDPRINT by Al Morgan. You decide which is best for YOUR application.

The Listing:

1 REM VIDPRINT
2 REM BY AL MORGAN
10 Y=1536:CLS
20 FOR X=2560 TO 16383
30 POKE X-Y,PEEK(X)
40 IF X-Y<>1535 THEN 90
50 Y=Y+512
60 I$=INKEY$: IF I$="" THEN 60
70 IF I$="P" GOSUB 100
80 CLS
90 NEXT X: END
100 L=0:FOR P=1024 TO 1535
110 A=PEEK(P)
120 IF A>90 THEN A=A-64
130 A$=A$+CHR$(A):L=L+1:IF L<>32 THEN 160
140 PRINT#-2,CHR$(16);"23";A$
150 L=0:A$=""
160 NEXT P
170 RETURN

To make this work, you:

First, load VIDEOTEX, but do not EXEC.

Second, type in the command mode: FOR X=2102 TO 2110: POKE X,18: NEXT. This allows the reset key to be pushed to get you back to Basic.

Then, EXEC VIDEOTEX.

Log on, do whatever it is you want, and then go offline. Once your session has ended, press the RESET button on the back of the COLOR Computer. This returns you to Basic.

In command mode, type in PCLEAR POKE25,6

You can now use the up and down arrows to "scroll" through the pages in the normal way. When you find a page, you wish to print out, press the "P" key. The page will be copied on the printer.

VIDEOPRINTER BY MIA

Are you one of those people who have been frustrated by not being able to use your printer with the VIDEOTEX program?

Certainly, you can save pages, go offline, and copy everything down. At least that doesn't cost you any CompuServe time charge. But you still have to copy the whole thing by hand -- and sometimes the messages are long.

Jorge Mir contributes the following program which will allow you to print VIDEOTEX.

First, load VIDEOTEX and, before you EXEC it, type in POKE 2103,255 directly from the keyboard. ENTER, that command.

Now, EXEC VIDEOTEX and run it in the normal way. When you are finished with VIDEOTEX and are offline, press the RESET button. This will return you to Basic.

Now, type POKE 25,6 and ENTER it. This will cause Basic to be loaded at HEX location 0601 (and will give you 1.5K more memory if you are using Extended Color Basic). This also reserves a place to load Basic where none of the pages from VIDEOTEX are stored.

Load the Basic program listed below (VIDPRINT). Type RUN and the first page stored from the VIDEOTEX program will appear on the screen. Now you can:

• Type P -- The program will ask for a page number. Type in any number between 6 and 31.A page of that number will appear on the screen.
• Type X -- The page you are viewing will be printed on the printer.
• Type <SPACE> -- The next page will be displayed.
• Type B -- The program goes back to the previous page for display.

If there is "garbage" on the screen, that is the end of saved pages. Just go (B)ack to the previous page.

In order to go back to VIDEOTEX, you will have to reload the program.

PROGRAM LISTING:

1 REM VIDPRINT
2 REM BY JORGE MIR
3 REM
10 PAGE=6:GOTO80
20 A$=INKEY$:IF A$="" THEN 20
30 IF A$=" " THEN PAGE=PAGE+l
40 IF A$="B" THEN PAGE=PAGE-l
50 IF A$="X" THEN 250
60 IF A$="P" THEN INPUT "PAGE";PAGE
70 IF PAGE>31 THEN PAGE=0:GOTO 20
80 FOR F=0 TO 1
90 FOR E=0 TO 1
100 FOR D=0 TO 1
110 FOR C=0 TO 1
120 FOR B=0 TO 1
130 FOR A=0 TO 1
140 IF PAGE=A*32+B*16+C*8+D*4+E*2+F
THEN 160
150 NEXT A,B,C,D,E,F
160 FOR X=65478 TO 65488 STEP 2
170 POKE X,200:NEXT X
180 IF F=1 THEN POKE 65479,100
190 IF E=1 THEN POKE 65481,100
200 IF D=1 THEN POKE 65483,100
210 IF C=l THEN POKE 65485,100
220 IF B=1 THEN POKE 65487,100
230 IF A=1 THEN POKE 65489,100
240 GOTO 20
250 L=0:A$="":P=PAGE*512
260 FOR X=P TO P+511
270 A=PEEK(X)
280 IF A>90 THENA$=A$+CHR$(A): L=L+1:IF L<>32 THEN 320
300 PRINT#-2,A$
310 L=0:A$=""
320 NEXT X:GOTO20

If you have 32K, you can increase the number of pages you can store. Just POKE 2112,58. As Jorge says, "That's all there is to it!"

If you have both 32K and Extended Color Basic, you will be able to store 53 pages total; reenter VIDEOTEX "at any time; and make extra copies of the new VIDEOTEX program.

Links

See this article as it appeared in the magazine, in Archive.org