Using carriage control characters in line data records

CC characters are used in traditional line data to control writing, spacing, and skipping operations as the data is being formatted. The FCB is used to map CC characters to the physical actions that line printers perform to format print data vertically. For page printers, the page definition replaces the function of the FCB. If you are using a page definition with a page printer to replace an FCB, the page definition must specify the same number of lines per inch and have the same actions defined for CC characters as the FCB used with the line printer.

You can use the Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA) product to create page definitions that specify exactly the same skipping and spacing instructions as the FCBs used with existing traditional line data applications.

Table 4 lists the hexadecimal CC characters you can use. The decimal representations of the ANSI codes are in parentheses.

If your application creates line data records containing CC characters that skip to a channel, the page definition used to print the application output must contain instructions for processing those channel codes. If the skipping or spacing actions you specified in a page definition move the print position past the last line of the current page, PSF starts a new page at the first print position indicated by the page format.

An alternative to using CC characters or channel codes in line data records is to define data placement entirely within the page definition by using line count or field formatting.