TCP/IP - Special formats

You can use two types of special formats to send commands or resources to printers: Hexadecimal and Transparent.

• Hexadecimal command plus data

• Hexadecimal in-line

• Hexadecimal command

• Transparent command plus data

• Transparent command

The Siemens DPRN program frequently generates hexadecimal formats to send resources or command information to TCP/IP-compatible Siemens printers.

You can use transparent formats to send EBCDIC resources or command information to printers. No conversion from ASCII to EBCDIC is performed.

Hexadecimal command plus data

Special applications generate the Hexadecimal Command Plus Data format to send channel commands (machine carriage control) plus data to the printer. You would typically use this format to load printer resources. It handles both 7-bit and 8-bit data.

In Hexadecimal Command Plus Data format, each data byte is given in hexadecimal as two ASCII characters (0 to 9 and A to F). For example, byte 11 would be coded in the VAX Acronym for Virtual Address Extension. A family of 32-bit minicomputers introduced by Digital Equipment Corporation in 1978. files as 31 31. When the Barr software receives the data, it converts the ASCII 31 31 back to EBCDIC 11.

A five-byte format string terminated by a carriage return (CR) precedes the command data. A line feed, carriage return (LF CR) command turns off Hexadecimal Command Plus Data format. Use this format:

An example string with an explanation of each byte follows:

1F 4B 35 33 0D 46 36 30 30 30 30 31 41 0A 0D

Resulting hexadecimal stream (in S/370 receive mode):

05 00 53 F6 00 00 1A 05 00

Hexadecimal in-line

Hexadecimal In-Line format is similar to Hexadecimal Command Plus Data format, but you use it to issue a command within a line of print data. You can use Hexadecimal In-Line format to issue printer escape sequences to activate a previously loaded resource and to combine short print lines. The format header can be one or two bytes, depending on whether the escape sequence begins in position 1.

For an in-line command specified anywhere within a print line except position 1, use this format:

For example, to code the escape sequence FF 34 within a line of data, the format string looks like this:

. . . 48 49 1F 46 46 33 34 1F 54 48 45 52 45 . . .

Resulting hexadecimal stream:

48 49 FF 34 54 48 45 52 45

When you use Hexadecimal In-Line format, the carriage return, line feed (0D 0A) characters are ignored, but a space (20) is inserted. This is a convenient way to make a line that exceeds the maximum allowable line length appear as two short lines to TCP/IP and thus print correctly as one line.

To concatenate two short print lines, turn on Hexadecimal In-Line mode at the end of the first line and turn it off at the beginning of the second line. For example, to combine a line containing the text HI with the next line THERE, specify the following:

48 49 1F 0D 0A 1F 54 48 45 52 45 0D 0A

Resulting hexadecimal stream:

48 49 20 54 48 45 52 45 0D 0A

To print lines longer than 255 characters, use the command IF 52 in the input stream. When the software encounters this command, the current contents of the line buffer are flushed to the output without a carriage control.

Hexadecimal command

Special applications generate the Hexadecimal Command format to send channel commands to the printer without data. Data can be 7-bit or 8-bit data.

A five-byte format string must begin in position 1. Use this format:

An example string with an explanation of each byte follows.

1F 4D 38 42 0D

Resulting hexadecimal stream (in S/370 receive mode):

01 00 8B 01 00

Transparent command plus data

Special applications generate the Transparent Command Plus Data format to send channel commands (machine carriage control) plus data to the printer, usually for loading printer resources. You can use it for 8-bit data.

A five-byte format string precedes the command data. After the software processes a specified number of bytes, the transfer mode switches back to ASCII. Transparent data must be structured this way:

An example string with an explanation of each byte follows.

1F 4A 53 00 04 F6 00 00 1A

Resulting hexadecimal stream (in S/370 receive mode):

53 F6 00 00 1A

Transparent command

Special applications generate Transparent Command format to send only channel commands to the printer without command data. Data must be 8-bit data.

A four-byte format string must begin in position 1. Use this format:

An example string with an explanation of each byte follows.

1F 4C 8B 0D

Resulting hexadecimal stream (in S/370 receive mode):

01 00 8B 01 00