OSBYTE &05

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OSBYTE &05 (5) - Select the printer type.

 On entry: A=&05
           X=new printer output
 On exit:  X=previous print output

Controls which printer output device will be used when output is sent to the printer. This does not activate and
send data to the printer. VDU 2 must be used to start output going to the selected printer channel, and VDU 3
to end the output.

When selecting a printer, the MOS waits for the printer buffer to empty and the current printer to become idle.

The value in X indicates the following printer drivers:

Value Meaning
0 Printer sink - all characters are lost, preventing the system 'hanging' with a full printer buffer.
1 Parallel printer output (built into MOS).
2 Serial output (built into MOS).
3 User printer driver.
4 Econet printer driver (built into NFS).
The following are conventional values used by user printer drivers
5 Output to a file, eg *PRINTTO <filename>
6 Output to NFS (Ethernet) printer.
13 Output to USB printer, eg *USBPRINT ON.

Selecting a printer 3 or higher causes all printer output to be vectored via NETV and then UPTV. Note that only
printer values 0-7 can be stored in configuration settings.

See also

Jgharston (talk) 19:00, 8 November 2020 (CET)