Simtel MSDOS 1992 June

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Simtel MSDOS 1992 June / SIMTEL_0692.cdr / msdos / modem / dgterm.arc / DGTERM.DOC < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1988-11-07 | 14.0 KB | 398 lines

DGTERM - Background VT102 Emulator with X/Ymodem Version 1.0 By Dale Gass P.O. Box 82 Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia Canada B0N 2H0 I. Shareware DGTERM is distributed as Shareware. If you use the program regularly and find it useful, please contribute $30 US (or any amount within your means) to the author. If there is sufficient interest (and donations) various features will be added to the program, such as a powerful script language, and the Kermit file transfer protocol. Users who give the $30 shareware donation for this version will not be expected to do so for future versions. Any further development and future releases of this program depend solely upon contributions received from the current release. (Translation: if it doesn't pay, I'm not spending any more time on it :-) So if you wish to see new versions of this and other high quality shareware programs from me, please contribute what you can. II. Overview DGTERM is designed to be a small yet reliable and useful background terminal program with full VT-102 emulation and file transfer capabilities. III. Function Keys ALT-B Send BREAK exactly as long as key is held down ALT-C Change COMmunications port ALT-D Change directory ALT-E Toggle local echo ALT-K Set hot keys (Defaults to Ctrl-LeftShift) ALT-L Set line speed (baud rate) ALT-M Toggle echoing of incoming characters back to COM port ALT-O Toggle DTR (data terminal ready) line ALT-P Set parity ALT-R Reset VT-102 terminal 1 ALT-S Save all settings into .COM file ALT-X Terminal DGTERM (remove it from memory) PgUp Perform YMODEM batch upload ^PgUp Perform XMODEM upload (CTRL-PgUp) PgDn Perform XMODEM download/YMODEM batch download IV. Notes A. DGTERM's current directory defaults to the default directory when the program was first executed. B. Multiple copies of DGTERM may be executed, each running on different communication ports. The hot keys for each copy of DGTERM should be unique to avoid confusion. C. DGTERM attempts to choose an attribute set which will work best with the video card and video mode. There are currently three attribute sets: Mono, for use with monochrome displays; Color, for use with CGA's, EGA's, etc.; and B&W for use with CGA's, EGA's when connected to a B&W monitor. See the 'Technical Information' section on how to change these attributes. D. To perform an XMODEM download, use PgDn, then type the file's name. To perform a YMODEM download, use PgDn, then just hit return--the host end will supply all the filenames. E. With YMODEM batch uploads, several wildcard patterns may be specified, separated by spaces. For example, you may specify "*.ASM *.DOC *.OBJ". F. All uploads/downloads take place in DGTERM's current directory (as set by ALT-D). G. ESC will abort any upload/download. H. Currently, no screen retrace checking is done, so some snow may occur on older graphics cards. If this turns out to be a major problem, it will be added. I. All resident programs (like DGTERM, Sidekick, etc.) should be removed in the *reverse* of order that they were installed, otherwise crashes may occur. As well, uninstalling *any* resident program can be dangerous when another application program (which takes over sytem interrupts) is currently runing on top of it. J. Be careful with ALT-O (toggling DTR). If you leave the 2 DTR low, depending upon the dip switch settings of your modem, your modem may ignore your commands (until you hit ALT-O to bring DTR high again). V. Hot Keys When choosing hot keys (with ALT-K), press the desired shift keys you with (choosing from ALT, CTRL, Left Shift, and Right Shift) then press and release the key you wish to use in conjunction with these shift keys. For example, if you want ALT-. to be the hot key, press ALT- K, then press ALT, press and release the . key, then release the ALT key. Both the shifts and the auxiliary key are optional. Use the 'N' key if you just want to use shifts and no auxiliary key. (I.E. Press CTRL-SHIFT-N to make CTRL-SHIFT the hot key). Similarly, just press a key without any shifts to use that key as the hot key (I.E. Press F10 to use F10 as the hot key). (I find SysReq to be a handy solo hot key, on keyboards which have it). Pressing ALT-N (choosing ALT as the hot key) can get you into trouble, as you won't be able to access any of the ALT functions, and thus can't change the hot keys again (the instant you press ALT, you will be toggled out of the program, before you get a chance to hit the other key of an ALT combination). Note: when toggling between DGTERM and a graphics screen, DGTERM will not reset to text mode, and you will see graphics garbage. No crashes will occur, it will just confuse you. Toggling again will put you safely back in your graphics screen. It is best to avoid toggling when in graphics mode. Graphics mode toggling was left due to the amount of code and extra storage space it would require. VI. VT-102 Emulation Relatively complete VT-102 emulation is implemented (include insert/delete spaces on line). All feasible features were included. The numeric keypad is implemented with the PC's function keys F1-F4 taking the place of the VT-102's top row, and the remaining keys on a standard PC numeric pad corresponding to the VT-102 positions. The NumLock key must be pressed to make use of the application keypad. 3 Deviations: PC's PrtSc key is VT-102 - PC's Numeric - is VT-102 , PC's Numeric + is VT-102 ENTER VII. Technical Information The following details will be of interest to technical types. DGTERM is written solely in 8088 assembly language. The background kernel and minimal terminal emulation is just over one kilobyte of code. With the VT-102 emulation, file transfer options, and various other functions, it weighs in around 11K. When executed, it allocates an extra 4K for communications buffer, 2K for screen buffer, 4K for a file buffer, and 2K for various other uninitialized data, bringing the total resident memory to about 24K. It takes over the following BIOS interrupts: INT 08 - Timer interrupt, for timeouts & multitasking INT 09 - Keystroke interrupt, for trapping hot keys INT 0B/0C - Communications interrupt, for obvious reasons INT 21 - For capturing the use of DOS in the background INT 28 - For capturing the use of DOS in the background Great pains have been taken to make the it reliable in the interrupt handling (even at 19,200 baud), and to perform reliably yet safely with capturing DOS. All of DGTERM's saveable parameters are located near the beginning of the program, as are the attribute sets. For those interested, here are the actual values (which can be modified with DEBUG.COM). Note: Please do not distribute modified versions of this program: only distribute the original DGTERM.ARC file containing an untouched DGTERM.COM and DGTERM.DOC. Addr Default Description ----------------------------------------------------------- 0100: - - - Jump to main program 0103: 01 Communications port, 1-4 0104: B0 04 Baud rate (04B0H == 1200 baud) 0106: 03 Parity, data, stop bit info (default 8,N,1) 0107: 00 Local echo flag 0108: 00 Communications echo flag 4 0109: 0A Hot shift keys (01=Rshift, 02=Lshift, 04=Ctrl, 08=Alt) 010A: 00 Hot shift scan code (00==no key required, just the shifts as defined above) 010B: 0B Line Control Register status--defaults to DTR and RTS set, interrupts enabled. The following 18 bytes are the attributes for Color displays: I = inverse B = blinking U = underline H = high intensity (bold) I B U H ----------------------------------------------------- 010C: 17 No No No No White on blue 010D: 1F No No No Yes Bright white on blue 010E: 47 No No Yes No White on red 010F: 4F No No Yes Yes Bright white on red 0110: 97 No Yes No No Blinking white on blue 0111: 9F No Yes No Yes Blinking bright white on blue 0112: C7 No Yes Yes No Blinking bright white on red 0113: CF No Yes Yes Yes Blinking bright white on red 0114: 71 Yes No No No Blue on white 0115: 79 Yes No No Yes Bright blue on white 0116: 74 Yes No Yes No Red on white 0117: 7C Yes No Yes Yes Bright red on white 0118: F1 Yes Yes No No Blinking blue on white 0119: F9 Yes Yes No Yes Blinking bright blue on white 011A: F4 Yes Yes Yes No Blinking red on white 011B: FC Yes Yes Yes Yes Blinking bright red on white 011C: 2E Normal status attribute Yellow on green 011D: 2F Bold status attribute White on green The following 18 bytes are similar to the above 18 attribute bytes, but are tailored for B&W modes on color cards: 011E: 07 0F 70 7F 87 08 F7 FF 70 7F 7F 7F F0 FF FF FF 7F 70 The following 18 bytes are similar to the above 18 attribute bytes, but are tailored for Monochrome display devices: 0130: 07 00 01 09 87 8F 81 89 70 70 70 70 F0 F0 F0 F0 70 07 VIII. BUGS In this initial release, I believe when errors occur during uploads, the resulting uploaded file may not be reliable. Downloading seems secure. The next release should have more reliable uploads when errors occur (if user response and [more importantly] contributions warrant a new release). 5 DGTERM PC Terminal Program Registration Form Mail to: Dale Gass P.O. Box 82 Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia Canada B0N 2H0 Name of Institution: ____________________________________________ Address: ____________________________________________ City: ____________________________________________ Province/State: ___________________________ Country: ___________________ Postal Code/ZIP: __________________ Number of Copies: _____ Price per copy ($30 US): _____ Total: _____ 6