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CHAPTER 4
PROGRAMMABLE FUNCTION
STRINGS
Overview
The 5250 ALLY has a total PFS storage of 20K bytes. Programmable
Function Strings (PFSs) are used by the AGILE 5250 ALLY to control all
functions that vary from printer to printer. Whenever some special
formatting or control function is required, the 5250 ALLY looks up the
appropriate PFS and sends it to the printer. For example, if the System
requests emphasized printing, the 5250 ALLY looks up and sends PFS 23
BOLD ON.
The 5250 ALLY will load the appropriate PFSs for the printer when the
configuration for the printer is loaded. If the printer is among the listed
printer configurations, the user will probably not have to make any
modifications to the PFSs. If the output device is not listed among the
supported printer configurations, the user either will have to define a set of
PFSs or modify an existing set as part of the output port configuration. By
changing or defining PFSs, almost any printer can be driven by the 5250
ALLY.
If the user would like to use the PFSs in a way not anticipated by AGILE,
the user can modify them with commands in the twinax or alternate host
data stream. For example, if the printer can double underline, and if the
user would like to configure the 5250 ALLY to double underline instead of
single underline, enter the appropriate control string into PFS 27 UNDL
ON. The user also will have to enter into PFS 28 UNDLOFF the
appropriate control string that turns off double underlining.
PFSs can also be used to send printable characters to the printer. Printable
characters must be entered between quote marks (") to distinguish them
from hexadecimal codes.
PFSs in the 5250 ALLY are entered as a string of hexadecimal or printable
ASCII characters. Most printer reference manuals have examples of
control strings in hexadecimal, and this makes it easy to enter them
directly into the 5250 ALLY as PFSs.