Every Possible Dip Switch

I own an Atari 800 with the works, 48K, disk-drive, 850 interface, 830 modem, and a NEC 8023A printer. All work well, but there is one glitch.

I discovered this when trying out the program to dump graphics to the printer. To wit, a two line program like this:

10 LPRINT "hello";
20 GOTO 10
Does not yield HELLOHELLOHELLOHELLO (etc.)
Instead, the printer does this...
HELLO HELLO
HELLO HELLO
HELLO HELLO

See? It finds the ";" or even a "," to mean that it should go not to the next available space, but to a predetermined tab position. I have tried what seems to be every combination of dip switches and CHR$() commands, but to no avail. This glitch prevents me from using your program suggestions and from using other software like it.

Can you help?

Dave Kruh

LPRINT is a convenient command. Used in place of PRINT, it routes output to the printer. On the Atari, LPRINT is equivalent to an OPEN, a PRINT#, and a CLOSE. However, this prevents two LPRINTs from printing continuously (using the semicolon). You can bypass LPRINT and use PRINT# directly, by OPENing a file to the printer yourself. Using your sample program, this will give the desired output:

5 OPEN #l, 8, 0, "P:"
10 PRINT #1:"HELLO";
20 GOTO 10

You will need to CLOSE the file (CLOSE#1) if you want to re-use it for another file. END will automatically close all files.