PAR_BUFF

Syntax

PAR_BUFF [size] or

PAR_BUFF port_number, size(SMSQ/E only)

Location

ST/QL, SMSQ/E

Normally, SMSQ/E and the Emulator will use all available memory as a buffer for its serial and parallel ports (this is known as a dynamic buffer). Although this enables control to be returned to programs very quickly after sending output to one of the ports, it can however mean that the whole of the memory can be filled up with printer output.

The command PAR_BUFF therefore allows you to specify a fixed size in bytes for the parallel buffer for each channel opened to it.

If no size is specified, or a size of 0 bytes is set, then the parallel buffer becomes dynamic once again. Otherwise, size should be at least 5 bytes to ensure future compatibility.

Example

PAR_BUFF 10000

sets the parallel buffer to 10000 bytes.

NOTE

Although the SMSQ/E implementation allows a port to be specified, there are currently no implementations of the QL which have more than one parallel port, therefore trying to pass a port_number at present results in a bad parameter error.

CROSS-REFERENCE

PRT_USE sets up a dynamic printer buffer except under SMSQ/E.