???

This operator sends its operands directly to the printer … sort of.

Usage

??? cCodes

In FoxPro/DOS, this was an incredibly useful operator. In simple cases, we used it to send printer control codes so we didn’t have to mess with FoxPro’s complex printer driver system. Unlike characters sent with other commands, these don’t change FoxPro’s tracking of the position of the print head in PCOL().

In Visual FoxPro, however, ??? is useless. In order to actually send the characters, you have to issue SET PRINT TO (which terminates the print job and gets Print Manager to actually send something through). We don’t think our users want us to waste a sheet of paper every time we want to send control codes. Even if you can get the characters through to the printer, the next thing you send (like a report) reinitializes the printer and your settings are lost. Forget it—just don’t bother.

Besides, it’s not the Windows way. Printer drivers are our friends (at least most of the time).

See Also

?, ??, PCol(), Set Print