Printing Lines in Two Directions on a Page

Lines can be printed in any of four directions, depending on the type of printer being used. Refer toyour printer's documentation for the print directions supported by your printer.

The four parameters for line direction are ACROSS, DOWN, BACK, and UP. The PPFA commands used to format a line-data file with lines printed in more than one direction (as shown in Figure A Printout with More Than One Line Direction) are stated in the following page definition:

PAGEDEF ATOG
        DIRECTION ACROSS ;
  FONT GS12 GS12;
  LAYOUT 'abc'  POSITION 1 IN  ABSOLUTE 1 IN ; /*LINES A-E   */
  LAYOUT 'def'  POSITION .5 IN ABSOLUTE 6 IN   /*LINE  F     */
          DIRECTION UP ;
  LAYOUT 'ghi'  POSITION 1 IN ABSOLUTE  6 IN ; /*LINE  G     */

A Printout with More Than One Line Direction

In this page definition, the logical page direction ACROSS is specified. This is actually the default, but its inclusion clarifies that no direction control is needed for lines A-E. The default direction of a layout is the direction specification of the logical page of which it is part. The LAYOUT command for the record F has a DIRECTION subcommand because the direction specification changes from that of the previous line. Record G is to be printed in the ACROSS direction again. A direction is not specified, however, because the ACROSS direction is the default for all lines in this page definition.