Serial Printing With SpeedScript

Although the Commodore 64 version of COMPUTE!'s SpeedScript word processor does not support output to the RS-232 interface (device 2), it is possible to print to an RS-232 printer by performing a few POKEs before you run the program. Here is the procedure to use:

1. Load SpeedScript into memory but do not run it.

2. Type the following lines in direct mode (without line numbers) and press

RETURN:

POKE 5832, 2
POKE 5837, 0

3. POKE locations 659 and 660 with the correct values to set the baud rate, parity, and other RS-232 parameters you wish to use. For instance, the next two POKEs set the RS-232 interface for 1200 baud, eight-bit word size, one stop bit, full handshaking, and no parity.

POKE 659, 8
POKE 660, 3

4. Run SpeedScript as usual. If you perform the preparatory POKEs, the CTRL-P command now routes output to the RS-232 interface rather than to the serial bus. Location 5832 contains the number of the output device, normally 4 for a printer on the serial bus; and location 5837 contains the secondary address for output, normally 7 (the value for uppercase/lowercase printing on Commodore printers). By changing the device number to 2 and setting the necessary RS-232 parameters before-hand, SpeedScript prints to the RS-232 port rather than to the serial port.

Michel R. Vinette

Thank you for this information.