topic Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file in Operating System - OpenVMS

Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

Jennifer Werner — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:25:33 GMT

Is anyone out there able to tell me how to put an ESCAPE code into a file.
An ESCAPE P code is needed to make a DYMO label printer use a 16point font.

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

Karl Rohwedder — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:37:33 GMT

If you use EDT e.g. its:

27

>KP3> is called 'special insert' and 27 is the ascii code (in decimal) for .

regards Kalle

P.S. is the PF1 key and the 3 on the right edit keyboard.

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

Hein van den Heuvel — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 12:54:54 GMT

In EDT (EDITx/EDT) I just hit escape twice.
That'll do it.
That trick also allows you so 'see' escape sequences as issued by keystrokes.
For example, hit escape, followed by 'page-down' and you see: [6~

in TPU use: TPU COPY_TEXT(ASCII(27)

in DCL:

$ x = "x"
$ x[0,8] = 27
$ open/appe tmp tmp.tmp
$ write tmp x
$ dump/rec tmp.tmp
:
Record number 6 (00000006), 1 (0001) byte, RFA(0001,0000,0066)
1B ................................ 000000

Enjoy!

Hein.

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

John Gillings — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:54:10 GMT

In TPU (EVE), use ^V (Control V) to enter control characters into a file from the keyboard. The next character typed will be entered as text. It works for most control keys - I think the only ones excluded are ^S and ^Q.

The sequence ^V ^[ (Control V then Control [) will enter an escape character.

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

Robert Gezelter — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:27:06 GMT

Jennifer,

Do you need a one-shot? In which case EDT/TPU will do. Or, is the need for an ongoing creation of new files.

In the latter case, all of the languages have their own specific syntax for representing non-printable characters (e.g., ESCAPE).

In DCL, the assignment statements (=,==) have the square brackets syntax, to wit:

$ ESCAPE_CHARACTER_STRING[0,8] = 27

You will find examples of this syntax in files in SYS$EXAMPLES.

- Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

The Brit — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 06:42:52 GMT

Jennifer,
If you are inserting these characters into a DCL script, then the best approach is that described by Hein. If you don't do it this way, you will have fun trying to print the script because the escape characters will be translated in the process. Here is how I do it.

$ ESC[0,7] = 27
$ Bold = ESC + "[1;1m" ! Bold Text
$ Rev = ESC + "[7;1m" ! Reverse Video
$ Norm = ESC + "[0m" ! Back to normal

$ Write sys$output "''ESC'[17;9f" ! Move the cursor to Line 17, Column 9.

etc, etc.

Dave.

Re: Putting ESCAPE codes into a file

Jennifer Werner — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 13:09:38 GMT

Within minutes of the post I had helpful replies. The replies DID lead to the solution!
I just had to open a file with EDT (which I never use), press the ESC key twice and then press the letter of the escape code and save the file.
Then I had to use the following print command...
PRINT UT:LABUPITCH.COM /QUE=LABEL_TEST2
which sends the escape code.
Then print the file as usual.