QTIPS - Suppressing Initial Form Feed

Published ByDateVersionKnowledge LevelKeywords
Sprezzatura Ltd01 JAN 19922.11+EXPERTFORM, FEED, HEADING, V6, SET-OPTIONS, @SENTENCE

When developing routines which use the HEADING statement and print to the printer, the omnipresent initial form feed can become a nuisance. As Dave Harmacek of Harmacek Database Solutions Inc points out, the verb responsible for RUN recognises and sets command line options. Thus RUN BP MY_PROG (PE) would actually suppress this initial form feed.

There are times when this might not be appropriate (such as in a subroutine that actually does the printing), thus a method to achieve the same functionality without the command line options is presented below. Note that it makes use of V6 - the SET-OPTIONS verb, and that SET- OPTIONS displays an informational message. This is probably not desirable in this case, so the message should be modified to make it an N type message by editing SYS.MESSAGES V6.1 and setting field 1 to N not A.

     /*
      Author   AMcA
      Date     Jan 12th 1992
      Purpose  To prevent initial form feed when using heading with printer
     */
      Printer On
      @Sentence = ". (PE"
      Call V6

      heading "Hello There"
      for t = 1 to 120
       print "Watch this"
      Next
      heading ""
      printer off

      * Now reset options to null or normal settings
      @Sentence = ". ()"
      Call V6

(Volume 3, Issue 8, Page 8)

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