Technical Information Database TI369D.txt - Printing the Run of a Program Category :Turbo Pascal Platform :All-32Bit Product :All32Bit, Description: Educators teaching structured programming in PASCAL often require students to submit a printout of the "Run" of assigned programs. The "Run" represents the output of the program as it normally appears on screen. In mainframe environments, printing the "Run" is nothing unusual. Time and access are often very limited in academic computer rooms and such a printout can be useful when correcting code off-line. The Integrated Development Environment of Turbo Pascal has no provision for printing the "Run" of a program. On a personal computer, output may take a variety of forms; simple text, graphics, sound etc. Printing a "run" in the fashion of an academic mainframe is only relevant to code producing simple text as output. More substantial programs involving color and graphics must use other means to print the "run". Techniques dealing with graphics and color are not addressed in this document. Printing the Run Using the DOS Version of Turbo Pascal In DOS, the operating system is capable of echoing to printer characters sent to the screen. This feature only functions from the DOS prompt and only for Turbo Pascal programs not using CRT or GRAPH units. The echoing function is toggled on and off with the key sequence. 1. Set the destination of the compiler to disk via the Compile|Destination menu selection. 2. Compile the program. Doing so will generate a .EXE file. 3. Exit Turbo Pascal. 4. Ensure your printer is on and on-line. 5. At a DOS prompt, hold down the key marked and press the letter "P". Then let up on both keys. 6. Type the name of your program. Do not include the three letter extension. For instance, the program TEST.PAS is taken as just TEST. Screen and printer output will occur simultaneously. 7. When the program is done, hold down the key marked and press the letter "L". Then let up on both keys. Next hold down again and press the letter "P". Let up on both keys. Printing the Run Using the Windows Version of Turbo Pascal Turbo Pascal for Windows is not ideally suited for introductory Computer Science coursework. Such coursework normally relies on some terminal-type interface being involved. Windows by its very nature suspends all terminal-like devices available when running DOS alone. It is designed to function exclusively in an event- driven, graphical environment. Display functions are provided by Windows and not by Turbo Pascal. Hence, standard PASCAL statements such as Write and Writeln do not function with the screen display as they do with the DOS version. For Computer Science coursework, it is strongly recommended that the DOS version of Turbo Pascal be used. A unit called WinCRT ships with Turbo Pascal for Windows. This unit causes an output window to be displayed when the statements Write, Writeln, Read, or Readln are used. It mimics the function of a terminal device and serves as a temporary aid for those learning to use Windows API functions. This unit allows some traditional programming to be done but provides nothing to "print" a run. If printing the output of a program in Windows is absolutely required, follow these steps. 1. Run the program. 2. Enlarge the output window to fill the entire screen. 3. Press the key. The key will copy the contents of the Windows Desktop to the clipboard. 4. Bring up the Windows Paintbrush program. 5. Create an image large enough to hold the most of the screen. See Microsoft Windows documentation for details. 6. Using the Edit|Paste command, copy the contents of the clipboard into the image used by PaintBrush. 7. To print, use the PaintBrush's printing commands as detailed in the Microsoft Windows documentation. This method will only print the visible portion of the Window. If program output has scrolled from view, it may need to be scrolled back into view and the screen again copied to the clipboard, copied from there to Paintbrush and then printed. For programs with significant output, this process may need to be repeated many times. Reference: 4/22/99 12:40:58 PM
Last Modified: 01-SEP-99