Rules for Creating a PPFA Command Stream

When you create a PPFA command stream, follow these rules:

  • Before processing the commands, PPFA converts lowercase characters into uppercase characters, except those in literals. Thus, it does not discriminate between uppercase and lowercase characters. For example, OVERLAY abc and overlay ABC produce the same results because both overlay and abc are converted to uppercase.
  • User names for form definitions and page definitions must not be the same as PPFA command names and subcommand names. These are reserved words. For a list of the reserved words, see PPFA Keywords. For example, REPEAT or CHANNEL must not be form-definition names.
  • The subcommands governed by a command can be entered in any order; however, the name of a font or form definition, for example, must come immediately after the object being named. Parameters defined in a subcommand must be entered immediately after the subcommand.
  • Commands must end with a semicolon.
  • A command or subcommand can start in any column and can continue on the next line without a continuation indicator.
  • More than one form definition and page definition can be specified in a job stream.
  • PPFA neither checks nor sets default values for items that depend on printer hardware.

In this section:

  1. Token Rules
  2. Character Set
  3. Command Delimiters
    A command always ends with a semicolon. One command can extend over several lines and does not end until a semicolon appears.
  4. Blanks and Blank Lines
    Blanks and blank lines can occur anywhere and have no effect on the processing of PPFA. The semicolon (;) is the command delimiter.
  5. Names
  6. Comments
  7. Literals
  8. Numeric Values
    Numeric variables are specified as decimal numbers; up to three decimal places can be specified.
Parent topic: PPFA Command Syntax