Re: Applesoft BASIC PRINTs 7 bit data?

["Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org>]

In reading this, I busted out my Epson MX-80FT printer manual to see what I
could find. Looking at this printer's ASCII chart, everything after ASCII
127 (7-bit) is pretty much blank, except for the following:

128 - NUL
135 - BEL
137 - HT
138 - LF
139 - VT
140 - FF
141 - CR
142 - SO
143 - SI
145 - DC1
147 - DC3
148 - DC4
152 - CAN
155 - ESC

So at least this with this printer in Epson MX-80 mode, the Apple II only
printed in 7-bit, which is what I always thought it was. I remember this
because when I first started using PCs in 1983, it was the first time I saw
a computer use the 8th bit for printing, which on the PC was used for those
special characters that allowed you to draw boxes and stuff. Also, if I
recall, the upper 128 was used for inverse text. I remember flipping the 8th
bit on to make the character on the display inverse (or flash, my Apple
programming memory is almost 20 years old).

--- Bryan


"Heynony" <nospam@noway.com> wrote in message
nospam-7D36A7.05265904122002@news.east.cox.net">news:nospam-7D36A7.05265904122002@news.east.cox.net...
> It seems that even though when I set the //c port for 9600,N,8,1
> Applesoft actually PRINTs 7 bit data through the Super Serial Card.
> Could this be right? When I read the PRINTed data onscreen in a PC
> terminal program (I've tried several) the Apple's output shows as
> garbage unless I reset the PC to 7 data bits. How can this be, when
> printers set at 8 data bits take the output fine?
>
> A solution has been suggested by several people, basically to output the
> data to the Super Serial Card through machine language, since the
> problem is created by Applesoft BASIC. This is stated as if the
> implementation is obvious.
>
> I know how to read the output string one character at a time in BASIC
> and I know in general how to imbed a ML routine within the Applesoft
> BASIC program. So I could feed one output character at a time into a ML
> routine and call it, but the actual ML code to send that to the port is
> beyond me. Is there an existing routine around that would take single
> characters or longer strings and send them to the port, bypassing
> Applesoft BASIC's PRINT command? I don't suppose it's as simple as
> POKEing an ASCII value somewhere and toggling something?
>
> Any other thoughts on how to get Applesoft to PRINT 8 bit?
>
> Any leads or hints would be greatly appreciated.