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IBM Machine Code Printer Control Characters
Early mainframe printers were usually line printers. Line printers provide a limited set of commands to control how the paper is advanced when print lines are printed. The application writing reports, list, etc. to be printed has to include those commands in the print data. These single character print commands are called ''printer control characters''. Introduction into Print Control Characters ''Printer control characters'' and ''Carriage control characters'' are IBM mainframe terms that denote the special meaning which the first character on a line of printable text may have. The first character of each line of text is interpreted as a ''control character'' or ''printer command'' instead of a character to be printed if a corresponding attribute is set for the print data set (''data set'' is mainframe speak for what is known as a ''file'' on other operating systems). How ''Printer Control Characters'' work While mostly replaced by an electronic versions later on, line printer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line Printer
A line printer prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were impact printers. Line printers are mostly associated with unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the technology is still in use. Print speeds of 600 lines per minute (approximately 10 pages per minute) were achieved in the 1950s, later increasing to as much as 1200 lpm. Line printers print a complete line at a time and have speeds in the range of 150 to 2500 lines per minute. The types of line printers are drum printers, band-printers, and chain printers. Other non-impact technologies have also been used, as thermal line printers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and some inkjet and laser printers produce output a line or a page at a time. Designs Many impact printers, such as the daisywheel printer and dot matrix printer, used a print head that printed a character then moved on until an entire line was printed. Line printers we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Set (IBM Mainframe)
In the context of IBM mainframe computers in the S/360 line, a data set (IBM preferred) or dataset is a computer file having a record organization. Use of this term began with, e.g., DOS/360, OS/360, and is still used by their successors, including the current z/OS. Documentation for these systems historically preferred this term rather than ''file''. A data set is typically stored on a direct access storage device (DASD) or magnetic tape, however unit record devices, such as punch card readers, card punches, line printers and page printers can provide input/output (I/O) for a data set (file). Data sets are not unstructured streams of bytes, but rather are organized in various logical record and block structures determined by the DSORG (data set organization), RECFM (record format), and other parameters. These parameters are specified at the time of the data set allocation (creation), for example with Job Control Language DD statements. Within a running program they are stored ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer File
A computer file is a computer resource for recording data in a computer storage device, primarily identified by its file name. Just as words can be written to paper, so can data be written to a computer file. Files can be shared with and transferred between computers and mobile devices via removable media, networks, or the Internet. Different types of computer files are designed for different purposes. A file may be designed to store an Image, a written message, a video, a computer program, or any wide variety of other kinds of data. Certain files can store multiple data types at once. By using computer programs, a person can open, read, change, save, and close a computer file. Computer files may be reopened, modified, and copied an arbitrary number of times. Files are typically organized in a file system, which tracks file locations on the disk and enables user access. Etymology The word "file" derives from the Latin ''filum'' ("a thread"). "File" was used in the conte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paper Tape
Five- and eight-hole punched paper tape Paper tape reader on the Harwell computer with a small piece of five-hole tape connected in a circle – creating a physical program loop Punched tape or perforated paper tape is a form of data storage that consists of a long strip of paper in which holes are punched. It developed from and was subsequently used alongside punched cards, differing in that the tape is continuous. Punched cards, and chains of punched cards, were used for control of looms in the 18th century. Use for telegraphy systems started in 1842. Punched tape was used throughout the 19th and for much of the 20th centuries for programmable looms, teleprinter communication, for input to computers of the 1950s and 1960s, and later as a storage medium for minicomputers and CNC machine tools. During the Second World War, high-speed punched tape systems using optical readout methods were used in code breaking systems. Punched tape was used to transmit data for manufacture o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carriage Control Tape
A carriage control tape was a loop of punched tape that was used to synchronize rapid vertical page movement in most IBM and many other line printers from unit record days through the 1980's. The tape loop was as long as the length of a single page. A pin wheel moved the tape accurately using holes in the center of the tape. A hole punched in one of the other channels represented a particular position on the page. Channel one was typically used to indicate the top of the page and might be the only channel used. Another channel might indicate the summary line on an invoice, enabling rapid skipping to that line. IBM provides a special manual punch that allowed accurate placement of the channel punches. Skipping occurred under computer control, but a form feed switch on the printer control panel allowed a manual skip to the top of the page. The tapes could be easily changed when new, continuously fed forms were loaded into the printer. Forms control buffer Newer printers use a "form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fanfold Paper
Continuous stationery (UK) or continuous form paper (US) is paper which is designed for use with dot-matrix and line printers with appropriate paper-feed mechanisms. Other names include ''fan-fold paper'', ''sprocket-feed paper'', ''burst paper'', ''lineflow'' (New Zealand), ''tractor-feed paper'', and ''pin-feed paper''. It can be single-ply (usually woodfree uncoated paper) or multi-ply (either with carbon paper between the paper layers, or multiple layers of carbonless copy paper), often described as multipart stationery or forms. Continuous stationery is often used when the final print medium is less critical in terms of the appearance at the edges, and when continuously connected individual sheets are not inconvenient for the application. Individual sheets can be separated at the perforation (leaving a slight serration), and sheets also have edges with punched holes, which also can be removed at the perforation (one typical format). Shape and form Most continuous form paper ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ASA Carriage Control Characters
ASA control characters are simple printing command characters used to control the movement of paper through line printers. These commands are presented as special characters in the first column of each text line to be printed, and affect how the paper is advanced before the line is printed. The remainder of the line is printed starting in the first printable position. "ASA" is the abbreviation of the American Standards Association, a former name for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), which has standardized these control characters in ''ANSI X3.78-1981(R1992) representation of vertical carriage positioning characters in information interchange''. These are also called "FORTRAN control characters" because they first appeared in versions of FORTRAN II in the early 1960s, although they have since been used by other programming languages such as COBOL and PL/I. Operation Overstriking can be used to make boldface text by printing the same line twice without advanc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
COBOL
COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily used in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments. COBOL is still widely used in applications deployed on mainframe computers, such as large-scale batch and transaction processing jobs. However, due to its declining popularity and the retirement of experienced COBOL programmers, programs are being migrated to new platforms, rewritten in modern languages or replaced with software packages. Most programming in COBOL is now purely to maintain existing applications; however, many large financial institutions were still developing new systems in COBOL as late as 2006. COBOL was designed in 1959 by CODASYL and was partly based on the programming language FLOW-MATIC designed by Grace Hopper. It was created as part ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
PL/I
PL/I (Programming Language One, pronounced and sometimes written PL/1) is a procedural, imperative computer programming language developed and published by IBM. It is designed for scientific, engineering, business and system programming. It has been used by academic, commercial and industrial organizations since it was introduced in the 1960s, and is still used. PL/I's main domains are data processing, numerical computation, scientific computing, and system programming. It supports recursion, structured programming, linked data structure handling, fixed-point, floating-point, complex, character string handling, and bit string handling. The language syntax is English-like and suited for describing complex data formats with a wide set of functions available to verify and manipulate them. Early history In the 1950s and early 1960s, business and scientific users programmed for different computer hardware using different programming languages. Business users were moving from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line Printer
A line printer prints one entire line of text before advancing to another line. Most early line printers were impact printers. Line printers are mostly associated with unit record equipment and the early days of digital computing, but the technology is still in use. Print speeds of 600 lines per minute (approximately 10 pages per minute) were achieved in the 1950s, later increasing to as much as 1200 lpm. Line printers print a complete line at a time and have speeds in the range of 150 to 2500 lines per minute. The types of line printers are drum printers, band-printers, and chain printers. Other non-impact technologies have also been used, as thermal line printers were popular in the 1970s and 1980s, and some inkjet and laser printers produce output a line or a page at a time. Designs Many impact printers, such as the daisywheel printer and dot matrix printer, used a print head that printed a character then moved on until an entire line was printed. Line printers we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carriage Control Tape
A carriage control tape was a loop of punched tape that was used to synchronize rapid vertical page movement in most IBM and many other line printers from unit record days through the 1980's. The tape loop was as long as the length of a single page. A pin wheel moved the tape accurately using holes in the center of the tape. A hole punched in one of the other channels represented a particular position on the page. Channel one was typically used to indicate the top of the page and might be the only channel used. Another channel might indicate the summary line on an invoice, enabling rapid skipping to that line. IBM provides a special manual punch that allowed accurate placement of the channel punches. Skipping occurred under computer control, but a form feed switch on the printer control panel allowed a manual skip to the top of the page. The tapes could be easily changed when new, continuously fed forms were loaded into the printer. Forms control buffer Newer printers use a "form ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
