Printed page format control

The PAGE= keyword of the DEV statement provides much of the formatting control of the format of output messages sent to printer devices.

The WIDTH= keyword provides additional formatting control. In conjunction with the FEAT=(1…10) keyword, WIDTH= provides additional formatting control for printer devices specified as 3270P. (See WIDTH= under the DEV statement for additional information.) The WIDTH= keyword, in conjunction with the HTAB=, VTAB=, VT=, SLDI= and SLDP= keywords, provides additional formatting control for 3770 or SLU 1 printer devices.

Using a PAGE= operand (DEFN, SPACE, FLOAT, or EJECT), with the page depth (the number of lines per page), determines how MFS controls the printing of the output message. These are the PAGE= operands:

DEFN

MFS prints each line as defined by DFLD statements. In this mode, if the first DFLD defined line is greater than 1, the printer position is moved to the first defined line. The printer position is also moved over the blank lines between defined DFLDs. However, MFS does not add blank lines to the bottom of the page of output if the last defined line is less than the page depth. The next page of output begins on the line following the current line of output. The number specified in the PAGE= keyword is used to check the validity of the line specification of the DFLD POS= keyword.

SPACE

This produces the same printing mode as DEFN except that lines are added to the bottom of the page if the last defined line is less than the page depth. The printer is positioned through a series of new lines. This option can be used for devices that do not have the page eject feature so that pages are not grouped together.

FLOAT

This operand is used to request that lines not be printed if they are defined by DFLD statements, or if they contain no data after formatting (all blank or NULL).

EJECT

This operand is specified for FIN, 3770, or SLU 1 printers. The following options can be specified for EJECT (or any combination of these):

BGNPP or ENDPP: MFS ejects the page before (BGNPP) or after (ENDPP) each physical page of the output message.
BGNMSG: MFS ejects the page before any data in the output message is printed.
ENDMSG: MFS ejects the page after all the data in the output message is printed.

MFS does not add lines to or delete lines from the page. EJECT can be specified for FIN, 3770, or SLU 1 printers.