Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!ames!oliveb!pyramid!voder!kontron!optilink!cramer
From: cramer@optilink.UUCP (Clayton Cramer)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: MSDOS 3.3 PRINT Command In Need Of Toasting
Message-ID: <2008@optilink.UUCP>
Date: 7 Apr 88 20:30:49 GMT
Organization: Optilink Corporation, Petaluma, CA
Lines: 27

I've been trying to figure out why the command:

    COPY TEST.LST LPT1:

and 

    PRINT TEST.LST

produce different results on my printer -- and I finally figured it
out.

FLAMES ON HIGH

THE DAMN PRINT COMMAND DOES TAB REPLACEMENT WITH BLANKS!!!  AND IT
EVEN DOES WHEN THE THE TAB CHARACTER IS PART OF A PRINTER COMMAND
SEQUENCE!!!!!!!!!!

The Epson has a command sequence ESC A n, where n controls the line
spacing.  I was printing a document that sent ESC A 9, and the PRINT
command replaced it 8 blanks.  There doesn't even some to be a way
to turn this off in PRINT.

Now I know why MS Word doesn't use the native PRINT command to spool
jobs -- they know better.

FLAMES OFF

Clayton E. Cramer