AMT Datasouth 600 User Manual

Fastmark 600 Series User's Guide 

54

The following procedure is defined in Pal_Procs_and_Formats.txt and illustrates how PAL

TM

 commands may be

combined in a procedure to create a completely new function or capability.  The file Pal_Procs_and_Formats.txt must
be copied to the printer prior to using any of these utilities.  The following utility shows how PAL

TM

 operators are

used to create a simple Box draw procedure.  This Box procedure makes use of another procedure defined called
inchtopts.  This procedure takes measurements in inches and converts to points which is the native unit used by
PAL

TM

.  The advantage of using a procedure like this to draw boxes is to simplify the use of the PAL

TM

 language.

Instead of issuing 7 PAL

TM

 commands to draw a box, this single procedure may be called with 5 parameters (lower

left corner x,y, upper right corner x,y, and line width).

%========================================================================
% Box draw procedure
% Usage:   botX(in.)  botY(in.)   topX(in.)   topY(in.)   lwidth(in.)  Box
% Example: 0.1        0.1         3.9         1.9         0.01         Box
%
%                  (topX, topY)
%              +--------*
%              |        |
%              |        |
%              *--------+

%         (botX, botY)
%
%========================================================================
/Box
{

  /lwidth exch def
  /topY exch def
  /topX exch def
  /botY exch def
  /botX exch def

  botX inchtopts botY inchtopts moveto
  botX inchtopts topY inchtopts lineto
  topX inchtopts topY inchtopts lineto
  topX inchtopts botY inchtopts lineto
  closepath
  lwidth inchtopts setlinewidth
  stroke

} bind def

The two lines preceded by % are comment lines ignored by the PAL

TM

 interpreter and don't actually need to be

transmitted to the printer.  The last line shows the actual call to the procedure named Box defined in
Pal_Procs_and_Formats.txt.  Note that floating point numbers must have a leading 0 for example 0.1 instead of .1.
Also note while the example below uses many spaces between parameters, this is only for clarity and only a single
whitespace character is actually needed i.e. 0.1 0.1 3.9 1.9 0.01 Box would also work.

% Box draw

% botX(in.) botY(in.)  topX(in.) topY(in.) lwidth(in.) Box

  0.1       0.1        3.9       1.9       0.01        Box