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Transparency modes (group #60), 60 — allow ibm 35h transparency – Xerox ALLY PLUSTM 6287 User Manual

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CONFIGURATION

Transparency Modes (Group #60)

Most ASCII and EBCDIC printers have features that are not available on

IBM printers. If the user’s host application is aware that the destination of

the data may be a non-IBM printer attached to a protocol converter, the

application can take advantage of the printer’s advanced features. To

activate a particular printer feature, the application will send a transparent

command in the data stream. (Refer to the printer user’s manual for a list of

available printer commands.)
A transparent printer command, or transparency, consists of a trigger

(character code) followed by the sequence that will activate a particular

printer feature. The trigger alerts the protocol converter that the data that

follows it is a printer command that should be sent directly to the printer

without translation. If the appropriate form of transparency is activated in

this option group, the ALLY PLUS will recognize the trigger and respond

appropriately to that form of transparency. The ALLY PLUS can use

standard IBM 35h and Xerox 36h transparency, and the ALLY PLUS also

provides its own versions of transparency.
Note: If the user or the user’s application embeds transparent or pseudo

transparent strings in the data stream, Option #12 — SCS right margin and

Option #22 — DSC right margin should be set to 00 (infinite line length),

Option #14 — SCS bottom margin and Option #24 — DSC bottom margin

should be set to 00 (infinite page length), and Option #70 — DisplayWrite

370 support should be set to 00 (disabled). Otherwise, unpredictable

formatting errors could occur.

60 — Allow IBM 35h transparency

This form of transparency is valid only in SCS data streams. In IBM 35h

transparency, the trigger character is 35h, and it indicates the start of the

transparent data stream. The 35h is followed by a count byte that indicates

the length, in bytes, of the transparent data stream, not counting the count

byte itself. The count byte is followed by the actual data to be sent. For

instance, the following code will send a Xerox 4045 printer reset command

(s+X CR/LF) using 35h transparency:

35051B2B580D0A

This includes the trigger (35), the count byte (05), and the three bytes for

s+X CR/LF (1B, 2B, 58, 0D, 0A).
The user can generate any possible 8-bit command or data byte that is to be

sent to the printer. There is a one-to-one correspondence between what is

received by the ALLY PLUS and what is sent to the printer.