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File: TERMINAL.DOC -- OZCIS' TERMINAL MODE This section details use of the Online Terminal facility. THE ONLINE TERMINAL While OzCIS works hard to automate your online chores, there will always be times when you need to do something manually while connected to CIS. OzCIS provides you with a manual terminal, similar in many ways to other general-purpose communications terminal programs, to make these chores easier. The manual terminal also provides several special tools that can make accessing CIS in manual mode easier and faster. Some highlights of the manual terminal: o Access to your list of forums, and a quick method of selecting a forum from the list and GO-ing to that forum. o Access to your Address Book. o The ability to execute scripts from within the terminal. o The ability to capture incomming data to a file. o A 400-line scrollback buffer that lets you "look back" at data that has scrolled off the screen. o A "Split-screen" mode which makes conferencing and "chats" easier and faster. ACCESSING THE MANUAL TERMINAL There are two ways to access the manual terminal: while on-line in automated mode via the Alt-S or Alt-T commands, or from the main menu. When on-line in automated processing mode, pressing Alt-T tells OzCIS to complete processing the current area (Mail, Forum, etc.), then enter manual mode. Pressing Alt-S in that situation tells OzCIS to complete ALL automated processing before entering manual mode. When you're not on-line with CIS, access to the manual terminal is via the ONLINE > MANUAL TERMINAL menu option. When you select this option, a submenu pops up in which you can choose to have OzCIS log on to CIS for you before entering manual mode (AUTO LOGON), or enter manual mode directly (MANUAL). ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 142 USING THE MANUAL TERMINAL: THE CIS SIDE Once in manual mode, any text you enter via the keyboard will be sent to the modem, and any data received will be displayed. Certain keys or characters act as special commands to CIS. (The following information is taken from the CIS "General Help" area.) Every command must end with a carriage return. Pressing the carriage return key (which may be marked ENTER on some keyboards) transmits the command to CompuServe. In on-line information, the carriage return key is represented by the symbol <CR>. Pressing <CR> at the end of an article returns you to the previous menu. T - TOP menu page M - previous MENU H or ? - HELP GO word or GO page - GO directly to a service FIND topic - FIND all references to topic OFF or BYE - sign off S n - SCROLL from n R - RESEND a page F - FORWARD a page B - BACK a page N - display NEXT menu item P - display PREVIOUS menu item SET option - SET terminal option PER - exit to Personal File Area SCROLL allows you to to enter lists and/or ranges of menu selections. The ALL or SCROLL ALL command displays every choice on the current menu, including multiple page menus. Examples: ! ALL ! SCROLL ALL Multiple menu selections are valid. Menu choices can be entered as a list or a range, or any combination of the two. The same selections arguments are valid with the SCROLL command. Examples: ! 1,2,3 and ! S 1,2,3 ! 5-9 and ! S 5-9 ! 9-5 and ! S 9-5 ! 1,3-5 and ! S 1,3-5 ! 3-5,1 and ! S 3-5,1 ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 143 CONTROL CHARACTER COMMANDS NOTE: These commands are entered by pressing two keys together: the Control key and a letter key. Control C - Stops the program being used. Control O - Discontinues the flow of information to your computer or terminal without stopping the current program. Control S - Immediately suspends output from the host computer. Control Q - Resumes output at the point where it was interrupted by Control S. Control U - Deletes the line you currently are typing. COMMAND SUMMARY Most CompuServe commands can be abbreviated to uniqueness. One letter is sufficient in most cases. (Exceptions are FIND, SET, PER, EXIT, OFF and BYE.) Terminate all commands with a carriage return (which may be marked ENTER on some keyboards and is represented on-line as <CR>). On the following pages, you will find a listing of commands with their respective descriptions to assist you in using CompuServe. T - TOP Goes directly to the first page (TOP) of CompuServe. M - Menu Goes back to the menu page that points to the current page. A single <CR> will also return to the last menu if there isn't a next page. H or ? - HELP Displays this information. Other HELP messages area available within specific services. GO word or GO page - GO directly to a service. Takes you immediately to the service identified by word or page. "word" is any Quick Reference Word, as in GO WEATHER or GO TRAVEL. To display a list of these words, enter GO QUICK. "page" identifies a specific page (screen display) by database name and page number, as in GO HOM10. The database name by itself identifies the first page of the database (for instance, GO HOM is the same as GO HOM1). The page number by itself identifies a page in the current service. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 144 S n - SCROLL n SCROLLs remainder of an article, displaying pages continuously without pausing. At a menu, S n selects item n and scrolls through all the pages for that item. Please note that a space is required between the S and item n. B - BACKWARD Returns to the page preceding the current page. R - RESEND RESENDS the current page. This is useful if the current page has scrolled off the screen or after a HELP command. FIND topic Finds all index references to a topic and displays a menuized list with corresponding page numbers. N - NEXT Goes to the NEXT item from last selected menu. If 5 was the last choice, N will display item 6. P - PREVIOUS Goes to the PREVIOUS item from last selected menu. If 5 was the last choice, P will display item 4. F - FORWARD Displays the next page in a series of pages. A single <CR> will do the same thing. PER or EXIT EXITs to the Personal File Area. From some subsystems, EXIT takes you to the previous menu. OFF or BYE Disconnects you from CompuServe immediately. CONTROL CHARACTER COMMANDS Control characters transmit special commands to the host computer. These commands are entered by pressing two keys together: the Control key and a letter key. Control C Stops the program you are using. You then can type another menu selection or command. ^C is displayed on your screen. Control O Discontinues the flow of information from the host computer. Entering a second Control O turns the display back on at a later point in the transmission. ^O is displayed on your screen. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 145 Control S Immediately suspends output from the host computer. Control Q Resumes the running display of output at the point where it was interrupted by Control S. Control U Deletes the line currently being typed. ^U is displayed. For additional assistance type GO INSTRUCTIONS. A LOT TO LEARN... Detailing all of the available CIS menu options, and for that matter the dozens of available command words, would take a book. Such books are available! CompuServe sells a guidebook to the service, and third- party authors have written several exellent books on the subject. (My personal recommendation is David Peyton's GETTING THE MOST OUT OF COMPUSERVE.) Some of these books are available from your local bookseller, and CIS also provides an area (GO ORDER) where you can order books to be sent directly to you and charged to your CIS account. If you are a novice CIS user, one of these books will prove invaluable. USING THE MANUAL TERMINAL: THE OzCIS SIDE Whenever you are in manual mode, a menu is available at the top of the screen. You can access this menu with the mouse, or press F10 to select the menu in general. You can also select specific menu options via these commands: ALT-C Capture Captures all incomming data to a file. You are prompted for the file name. This command is a "toggle"; selecting it once turns capture ON, and selecting it again turns capture OFF. A status flag next to the "Capture" menu item keeps you informed of the state of capture. ALT-E Externals Gives you access to the external programs you have defined. An external can be run any time, whether or not you are connected to CIS. Note that running an external program that accesses the serial port for your modem may cause an existing connection to be broken unless the program was specifically designed for that purpose. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 146 ALT-S Script Allows you to execute an OzCIS command script you have created. See below for more information on scripts. ALT-V View (alternate key: PgUp) Displays the Scroll-Back Buffer. ALT-A AddressBook Provides access to your AddressBook. This access is display-only; you cannot currently add or edit Address Book entries when in manual-terminal mode. ALT-O Other This command brings up a submenu of services. What that submenu contains depends on whether or not you are in Conference (split- screen) mode. In normal manual mode, the options are: LOG ON - If you are not already connected to CIS, dials the current Host and logs on. LOG OFF - If you are currently connected to CIS, logs off and breaks the connection. ENTER - Presents the list of your defined forums for the current Host. Selecting a forum in this list causes OzCIS to issue the proper GO command to enter that forum. GO - GO to a service. You are prompted for the service page name. Can be a forum or non-forum service. CONF. - Enters Conference (split-screen) mode. In Conference mode, the options are: WIDTH - Set the wordwrap width for the split-screen "input" line. NORMAL - Return to normal manual mode. ALT-X Exit Exit manual mode. If you entered manual mode via the Alt-T command while performing automated processing, OzCIS will continue automated processing where it left off. If you entered manual mode via the ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 147 Alt-S command or via the ONLINE > MANUAL menu option, OzCIS will log off of CIS (if connected) and return to the main menu screen. A WORD ABOUT ON-LINE MODES... When you do a Profile Configuration pass in OzCIS, one of the general configuration options it sets up is the "access mode" used in the forums. CIS supports two primary modes of access operation in the forums: menu and command. OzCIS sets things up for command mode, which allows it to operate much faster... but command mode can be very intimidating for the CIS novice, because it requires you to remember all the special forum commands in order to do anything. But, if you can remember just one command, getting into menu mode is simple - and from there, accessing all of the forum's services is easy. The command is: OP;MODE MENU;S Type this command at the "Forum !" prompt when you first enter the forum and press <Enter>. This puts you into menu mode for that session only; once you leave the forum your setup will be restored to command mode so that OzCIS' automated capabilities will continue to work correctly. CONFERENCE (SPLIT-SCREEN) OPERATION This facility makes real-time conferencing much easier. The screen is split into two areas, the "received data" area and the "input" area. Text received from CIS is displayed in the main (upper) window. Text you type is displayed in the input area at the bottom of the screen. If the text you type exceeds the wordwrap length you have specified, OzCIS automatically wraps the text to the nearest word boundary, appends an elipsis (the "..." symbol that means "more to follow", an accepted convention on all CIS conferences), and sends the text to CIS. To send a shorter line of text, press <CR>. Note that a small arrowhead in the line separating the two windows shows you where the current wordwrap point is set. The input area acts as a line editor, with several of the same commands you are by now familar with in the various OzCIS dialogs, and a couple that are new. The available commands are: LEFT - Move the cursor left one character ^LEFT - Move the cursor left one word HOME - Move the cursor to the start of the line RIGHT - Move the cursor right one character ^RIGHT - Move the cursor right one word END - Move the cursor to the end of the line ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 148 DEL - Delete the character at the cursor BACKSP - Delete the character to the left of the cursor and move the cursor left one space INS - Toggle between Insert and Overwrite mode PG UP - Display the scrollback buffer F10 - Access the top menu A WORD ABOUT CONFERENCING... CompuServe makes real-time conferencing among many users easy. But as with any group of people talking together, common courtesy and a few simple rules of the road go a long way toward making the experience an enjoyable one. The PRACTICE forum keeps a list of information on conferencing rules, etiquette and commands; reviewing the information will help you understand conferencing and enable you to participate faster and more effectively. (For more information on the PRACTICE forum, see MISC.DOC.) There are two general catagories of conference: "formal" and "informal". Formal conferences are usually planned offerings by forums or other services, with a guest speaker or speakers and a moderator whose job is to keep the conference running smoothly. This type of conference may be held in a forum's conference area, or may be held in the special CIS Conference Center (GO CONFERENCE). In formal conferences, no one "speaks" until he or she is recognized by the moderator, at which time he or she enters the statement or question. To signify that you want to ask a question, enter a single question mark (?); to let the moderator know you want to make a statement, use a single exclamation mark (!). The moderator will recognize each questioner in turn. The Conference Center area maintains a list of formal conferences scheduled to be held in the Center, but does not keep track of conferences held in forums. Informal conferences are friendly free-for-alls, held in a forum's conference rooms. Everyone "talks" at once, and often there are a dozen or more conversation threads rolling by on the screen; keeping up with the chatter can be an enjoyable challenge. Many forums have regularly-scheduled periodic informal conferences, while others almost never have conferences or only have announced conferences for specific purposes. Usually the forum's Conference announcement will list the time and day for any regular conference, and/or show a schedule of any planned formal conferences. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 149 OzCIS SCRIPT LANGUAGE OzCIS' script language is simple but powerful. The rules: 1) Blank lines, and line beginning with a semicolon (;) are ignored. Leading spaces are acceptable. 2) Commands are single words of two or three characters. You can spell out the command if it's easier for you; e.g. the "SEN" command can be written as "SEND" or "SENDTEXT" or whatever you like as long as the first characters match the chars of the command. 3) Each line can contain one and only one command, plus any parameters that command allows or requires. No parentheses or other delimiters are used. 4) Commands that take text strings as parameters *require* either single- or double-quotes as delimiters. If you need to use a control character in a string, use standard carat notation (i.e., Control-C would be ^C, etc.) and make sure the ^char is unquoted; for example to send two strings with a carrage return between and after, you would send: SEN "This is the first string," ^M "and this is the second." ^M If you prefer, you can denote special characters using C-like hex notation; an unquoted lower-case "x" followed immediately by two hex digits will be interpreted as a single char of that ASCII value. Example using the same string as above: SEN "This is the first string," x0D "and this is the second." x0D WARNING: NEVER send high-bit characters this way! Any hex char should be x7F or less. Also, you should not prepend a zero (i.e., x0D is legal, 0x0D is not.) Lower-case alphas in hex numbers are acceptable. SCRIPT LANGUAGE COMMANDS SEND - Sends all following text as a string. Control chars can be embedded using normal carat notation. This command waits for the sent string to be echoed at the port before continuing. LSEND - Like SEND above, but automatically adds a <CR> to the end of the string. USEND - Unconditional Send; like SEND above but does not wait for sent-text echo. This one should be used wherever you may ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 150 not see the sent text echoed, such as at the "Password:" prompt or when sending the ^C at network logon. ULSEND - Like USEND above, but adds a <CR> to the end of the string. WAIT - Waits for a char or string to be received. If the string must contain control chars, use carat notation. There is a fixed limit of 250 chars to wait for, though the smaller the string the better to improve speed and reduce potential for line hits and other errors causing a match to "miss". GO - GO to a CIS service page. This will GO to any CIS service page, whether it is a forum or some other service. NOTE: other script commands that logically only work in a forum, such as the SL command below, will not work when you have used the GO command to enter the forum; for these forum- only commands to work you must have used the ENTER command to reach the forum. ENTER - Like GO, but specifically for forums. The processor deals with ENTER differently from how it deals with GO; GO makes no effort to determine what kind of CIS service area you are going to, while ENTER processes forum entry just like the normal on-line processor, and expects the proper forum entry prompts to be received. Some other script commands, like the SL command below, require ENTER to be used to enter the forum before they will work. CAPTURE - Control capturing of data to a file. This command takes different parameters depending on use: to open a capture file, use a first param of "ON", and a second param of the filename. Opening a capture file appends to any existing file of the same name; to force an overwrite, add a "/O" as a third param. To close a open capture, use a parameter of "OFF". Issuing an "ON" command automatically closes any open capture file before performing the "ON" command. See the example scripts below for details. ERASE - Erase an existing file. Provide a filename. TIMEOUT - Set the number of seconds the program will wait during a WAIt command before timing out. DELAY - Delay the number of system timer tics specified in the parameter. Ignored if no parameter provided. Note this is TICS, not SECONDS; there are approx. 18 tics per second, so a 2-second delay would use a parameter of 36. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 151 DOS - Shell to DOS. If a parameter string is provided, executes that string as a DOS command or program to exec. Properly saves and restores the port around the shell, so you can execute other comm programs from within the shell. Uses a "swapping" shell, so you will have all but about 5K of your normal free RAM available. RUN - Run a "sub-script". Once the sub-script is done, returns to the "parent" script at the point of subscript execution. TERM - Enter "Manual terminal" mode. Press <Esc> or select "Exit" from the Terminal menu to return to script processing. GIF - Sets the program's internal GIF capture file name for the next time an on-line GIF view/capture is performed. Since there are many places and ways GIFs can be viewed on-line, this command simply tells the program to 1) use this name on the next GIF capture, and 2) don't pause after capture is complete. The internal GIF capture file name is cleared each time a GIF is captured, so you will need to use this command before each capture. GWM - Get Weather Map. A special GIF view command, used only in the AWM (Acu-Weather Maps) area of CompuServe. Since AWM has a complex structure with several possible prompts depending on map number, this command covers the whole base for you. Once you have issued a "GO AWM" in your script, just add a "GWM <map#> <region#>" line for each map you wish to capture (see example below.) Map files are named "MAP#.GIF" where "#" is the map number. SL - "SCANLIB LONG" command; special command to ease scans processing. Syntax: SL [lib numbers] {modifiers} {/U} "[lib numbers]" is a string of comma-delimited numbers for the libs you wish to scan. "{Modifiers}" are any special CIS sub commands for lib scans you wish to use, like "/AGE:xx". "{/U}" tells OzCIS to save the scan file as an Update file rather than a main catalog file, which will then be merged into the main file at the next opportunity. OzCIS goes thru the libs specified, issuing a "DIR *.* /DES" command with any provided modifiers appended. All parameters except the lib numbers should be quoted. if the /U switch is used, it *must* be the last parameter. Example: SL 1,2,3,7,10 " /USER /AGE:10 /U" ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 152 DL - Download Library file. Useful only in forums, as a simple method of downloading one or more files from forum library(s). Syntax: DL <lib#>;<CIS filename>;<local filename> <Lib#> is the number of the library where the file is stored. <CIS filename> is the name of the file to be downloaded as it is stored on CIS. (note that this field can include a PPN to accomodate ambiguous file names within a library.) <Local filename> is the name for the file on your local storage. All fields are required, as are the separating semicolons. You must be in the forum of choice, but do not have to be in the correct library. Examples: DL 9;OZCIS1.EXE [70007,3574];OZCIS1.EXE DL 6;OPRO.BRO;E:\DNLDS\OPRO.BRO BREAK - Sends a BREAK signal out the port. Handy for some specialty type logon scripts to connect to modem servers, etc. WRITE - Writes text parameter(s) to the screen. Example: SET $1 "Steve Sneed" WRITE "Welcome to OzCIS, " $1 "!" ^M^J LWRITE - Like WRITE but uses appends CR/LF to string. CLS - Clear the screen. WMH - Writes a "fake" Mail Message Header to the capture file. This capability makes it possible for scripts to capture text info, such as weather reports, to the CISMAIL.MES file for easy reading. WMH only writes the fake header; you are responsible for opening and closing the file. JUMP - Jump to a label in the script. Unconditional branch; the (GOTO) flow of execution never automatically returns to the jump point. GOSUB - Jump to a label, with the intention of returning to the jump point. Must be matched with a RETurn command somewhere after the jumped-to label unless an END or FAIL command in issued in the jumped-to block. GOSUBs can be nested up to 255 levels. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 153 RETURN - Return to the jump point of the associated GOSUB. ONERROR - Set a label to be automatically jumped to when an error, such as a wait timing out, occurs. If no such error label is assigned, the script aborts. Example syntax: "ONERROR ErrorPoint" END - Terminate the script. Performs a clean termination of the script processor and returns a "success" status to following code. *ALL* scripts should have either an END or FAIL command to assure proper termination of the script. FAIL - Terminate the script. Performs a clean termination of the script processor and returns a "failed" status to following code. This would be useful in logon scripts to indicate the connection could not be made, so that subsequent on-line processing was not performed. SET - Sets one of the ten available string or integer variables. Note that literal values assigned to numeric variables must still be enclosed in quotes. The string variables are accessed by a dollar sign ($) followed by a number 0 to 9, and the integer variables are accessed by a pound sign (#) followed by a number 0 to 9. Examples: SET $1 "This is string variable #1" SET #0 "10" INC - Increments a integer variable. Default increment is 1. Examples: INC #1 {increments int var 1 by 1} INC #1 "10" {increments int var 1 by 10} DEC - Same as INC but decrements rather than increments. IF - Compares two variables or literals, performs following action if the comparison is true. Examples: IF $1 = "LIB 0 !" jump LoopDone IF #1 <> "10" jump DoScan {"!=" can be used for "<>"} IF #1 <= #2 Fail PROMPT - Request input from the user and places that input in a variable you designate. ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 154 Syntax: PROMPT {var} {prompt txt} Examples: PROMPT $1 "Which ENS Folder to view?" PROMPT #1 "Which library to scan?" UPCASE - Forces a string variable to all uppercase, to simplify some compare operations. Example: PROMPT $1 "Do you want to abort? (Y/N)" UPCASE $1 IF $1 = "Y" Fail Here's an example script that can be used for LOGON.SCR to log on to CIS via a CIS Net node. ;Example for LOGON.SCR for CIS Net node ;first, delay 2 seconds (36 tics) to let node "settle"... Delay 36 ;send a <CR> to wake things up... send ^M ;wait for the "Host:" prompt and respond... wait "Host:" lsend "CIS" ;wait for the "User ID" prompt... wait "User ID:" ;all done! end This is a more complex script that uses most of the script commands. It can be run from the "Custom Pass" option of the "Online" menu, and will grab the current weather reports for the Colorado region and a couple of GIF weather maps, displaying the GIF maps as it downloads them. ; **Example script to get weather information** ;first, set up an error handler ONERROR ErrorHandler ;initialize a counter for later set #1 "1" ;now, go to the general WEATHER area... ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 155 CLS LWrite "--- Processing script to capture weather information ---" GO WEA-1 ;request State Summary (SS) report for Colorado... lsend "SS CO" ;jump to the subroutine that performs the capture... gosub CapWeather ;see if the user wants the Extended Forcast as well PROMPT $1 "Do you want the Extended forcast as well? (Y/N)" UPCASE $1 if $1 = "N" goto SkipEF ;request Extended Forecast (EF) report... lsend "EF CO" ;capture the report... gosub CapWeather ;our label to jump to if the user wanted to skip the EF report SkipEF: ;see if the user wants the Extended Forcast as well PROMPT $1 "Do you want the Weather Maps? (Y/N)" UPCASE $1 if $1 = "N" goto SkipMaps ;now, go to AWM and get maps. First set timeout to 180 secs... timeout 180 GO AWM ;use the GWM (GetWeatherMap) command to get some weather map GIFs ;the GWM <#> <#> command is only for use in AWM!!! ;get map #3, Satelite photograph... gwm 3 ;get map #7, regional review, for region #6 (southwest)... gwm 7 6 SkipMaps: ;now drop into terminal mode... Terminal ;complete, end script processing End ;subroutine to capture weather info ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 156 CapWeather: timeout 30 ;open the capture file, in this case the normal CISMail file capture ON CISMAIL.MES ;if we're on the first loop thru this subroutine, write a fake ;mail msg header so we can find the report if #1 = "1" WMH ;increment the counter variable so we skip the header next time inc #1 wait "ID:" capture OFF send ^M wait "choice!" ;go back to the main script return ErrorHandler: Off Fail This simple script will update the Forum Names List file (OZCIS.FN) without having to perform a complete Profile Config pass. You would run this script from the ONLINE > CUSTOM PASS menu item. ;go to the INDEX area go INDEX ;ask for listing lsend "1" wait ":" ;ask for all forum names lsend "FORUMS" ;capture the resultant listing timeout 0 capture ON OZCIS.FN /O wait "PAGE!" capture OFF timeout 300 END # # # ------------------------------------------------------------------ OzCIS 1.0 Copyright 1992 Steve Sneed Page 157