IBM Extended Characters

[TCC Software Developer]

In article <256 at conexch.UUCP> root at conexch.UUCP (Larry Dighera) writes:
>In article <651 at jclyde.UUCP> john at jclyde.UUCP (John B. Meaders Jr.) writes:
>>I would like to be able to print the IBM Extended Character set on my
>>printer.  However, I can't get Xenix to do it.  For test purposes I
>>have been 'echo \octal code for character'.  All that gets printed is
>>'\whatever the octal code was'.  I am running SCO Xenix V Rel 2.1.3.
>>I would also like to print Extended Characters on the screen.  The characters
>>that are important to me are the Greek characters, and the bullets and squares
>>(ie the upper 32 characters of the extended set).  Any help would be greatly
>>appreciated.
>In fact, prepending a zero to the octal number yields the desired result.
>So, If you want to print octal character 376:
>
>	echo "\376"	yields		\376
>
>while
>
>	echo "\0376"	yields		(a small squar character)
>

Larry is correct about getting the shell to echo the extended character set.
John also asks about sending such characters to the printer, I tried to do
this without success, I have a Brother M1509 running in epson mode and 
according to documentation it should be able to do it, but so far I have had
no luck,it may be me. What I really wanted to add here was that sending extended
character set graphics to the screen is quite simple. If you have a file with
such characters already in them just catting it to the screen should work. The
trick is that Xenix 2.1.3 sets all serial I/O to 7E1 so the eighth bit is being
stripped. All you need to do is set the multiscreens to 8N1 and it works fine.
Of course, it is another matter altogether trying to create or edit files with
these characters under Xenix. vi will strip the bit, in fact the only editor
I have found that leave high-bit characters alone is micro-emacs (another one
of its many wonders!!!). I have many screens of such character graphics used
in turnkey's XBBS which you can see if you call in with a PC (the number is
714-662-7450 if you are curious, John). The problem is that they can only be
created at the moment under DOS :-{, but I am working on that. At least once
transfered to the Xenix system they can be edited under uemacs.

					Hope this helps,

-- 
Jack F. Vogel
Turnkey Computer Consultants, Costa Mesa, CA
UUCP: ...!uunet!turnkey!jack 
Internet: jack at turnkey.TCC.COM