The print
statement is used to display text to standard output while a USE script is executing.
print [-n]
word|{buffer_name} [... word|{buffer_name]
The print
statement enables user-defined output to be generated during the execution of a USE script. When retrieving data from external sources it may take some time for a lengthy series of operations to complete, so one use of the print
statement is to provide periodic status updates during this time.
The print
statement will process as many arguments as it is given, but at least one argument is required. If the first argument is -n
then no newline will be output after the last argument has been echoed to standard output, else a newline is output after the last argument.
Arguments that are normal words will be sent to standard output followed by a space. Arguments referencing a named buffer will result in the contents of the buffer being displayed.
Note that print
will stop output of data from a named buffer as soon as a NUL
(ASCII value 0) character is encountered