Doc Print-Pro
Doc Print-Pro is here to save you from crummy-looking paper copies of onscreen documentation files. This BASIC program works on all 8-bit Atari computers of any memory size, with disk drive.
Have you ever tried to print hardcopies of onscreen documentation that looks fine when displayed in 40-column video but becomes a mess when you print it on paper? The text gets all crammed against the left margin and there are no page breaks. When you separate two sheets of paper, sometimes a line of text is cut in half. Even worse, sometimes there are no provisions at all for printing the screen documentation.
Doc Print-Pro puts in top and bottom margins and page numbers-and it centers the 40-column text. Best of all, it works on any printer, because it has no printer control codes.
Doc Print-Pro also makes it easier for you to read onscreen documentation. When you view a file, the screen displays about 18 text lines at once. Just press any key to scroll to the next screen.
Doc Print-Pro is a short program that makes good-looking printouts of documentation files which were printed to disk with a word processor. Most online text and onscreen text files are formatted this way. However, the program cannot read a normal word processor file.
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
Type in Listing 1, DOCPRINT.BAS, check it with TYPO II and SAVE a copy
before you RUN it. If you want Doc Print-Pro to RUN automatically when
you insert the disk, SAVE it with the filename MENU and copy the AUTORUN.SYS
file from any Antic Monthly Disk.
In screen mode, the program opens the disk file in line 240. In line 250 it counts the number of times the buffer is accessed. If that number is 18, then it goes to the scroll routine in line 470.
The print section starts on line 350 and counts how many times the print buffer is accessed. If it's 57, then it goes to the page-printing routine in line 490 and prints a page number.
Roland Fetzer has been teaching mathematics for 30 years, and computer science for six years, at Brooklyn junior high schools. He is an original Antic subscriber who owns every issue of this magazine.
Listing 1: DOCPRINT.BAS Download