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TEXTWIN.MAN
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1994-03-24
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textwin.man March 94
TTTTT EEEEE X X TTTTT W W III N N
T E X X T W W I NN N
T EEEE X T W W W I N N N
T E X X T W W W I N NN
T EEEEE X X T W W III N N
Contents.
1. Introduction.
2. Getting started.
3. TEXTWIN.CFG commands
4. Example TEXTWIN.CFG
5. Where to find source docs etc.
6. Credits, comments etc.
1. Introduction and notes to new textwin users, by Anthony McCarthy
"Textwin" is KA9Q with textual windows. It is intended, initially,
to be a drop-in replacement for the DIS NET.EXE program I assume you
are already successfully using. Textwin is the same KA9Q with a new
front end. Any changes to the DIS version of KA9Q will (eventually)
appear in textwin too.
Textwin is designed to be used in conjunction with a mouse. It does
not _require_ a mouse but a mouse is by far the most convenient way
of manipulating window positions, etc.
This program exists because of the difficulty I experienced in
effectively using KA9Q with only a one-session-per-screen display.
Swapping between telnet, ftp and command sessions was tricky. With
textwin, you can keep an eye on the progress of an ftp session, say,
while telnetting on another session -- simply by glancing at another
window, rather than hitting F10, etc...
Textwin is an ongoing experiment. It has been developed by me
(amc@beryl.demon.co.uk) in my spare time to satisfy my own needs,
but I hope it can be of use to others.
Textwin is not properly documented yet. You should read the KA9Q
documentation (ka9qnos.txt) for anything relating to FTP, TELNET, PPP,
etc, etc. Look in here, or in textwin.cfg, for things relating to the
screen.
Oh, textwin is free and will remain so. However, being free,
I can't undertake to provide support or guarantee that it won't
do terrible things to your hard disk. If this is unacceptable, do
not use textwin! Having said that, while my interest in KA9Q,
DIS and the Internet continues I will be using textwin myself and
encourage bug reports and enhancement requests from all.
Once you've seen textwin running, you'll probably want to configure
some things. Read textwin.cfg for more info about textwin options.
But, happily, you don't HAVE to read this junk to get going _now_!
If you have any questions, problems or bugs, please raise them in
the demon.ip.support.pc newsgroup. I'll endeavour to respond in a
day or so to any problem that appears to be textwin-specific.
(If no response is forthcoming, do feel free to send me mail!)
Availablility: if you're reading this you probably already know that
the latest publically available release of textwin can be obtained
via anonymous-ftp from ftp.demon.co.uk in the /pub/ibmpc/textwin
directory. Source is available but (due to laziness) may not have
been uploaded to demon. If you wish to have the latest sources,
send mail to the most recent "Mr TextWin" (see the final section
of this manual for details).
Anthony McCarthy
amc@beryl.demon.co.uk
amccarthy@cix.compulink.co.uk
100012.3712@compuserve.com
2. Getting started.
As textwin is a simple replacement for ka9q (NET.EXE) as supplied in
the DIS starter package, you don't require to do anything other than
rename the .EXE file to NET.EXE and copy it over the DIS supplied
NET.EXE, and everything should work as normal - it's that easy.
However, if you wish to take advantage of the extra features of textwin
then you'll need to create a file called TEXTWIN.CFG and put it in the
same directory as AUTOEXEC.NET - see section 3. for a list of TEXTWIN.CFG
commands.
Once running textwin looks a bit different from the normal ka9q, all
your sessions, as listed by the 'session' command at the net> prompt
appear in seperate windows. You can use the mouse to move/size the
windows in much the same way as you can in various other windowing
environments.
In addition there are keyboard shortcuts to allow you to manipulate
the windows without the use of a mouse.
CTRL+cursor key Size the current window
ALT+cursor key Move the current window
ALT+F6 Cycle to next window
You can also use the 'session <n>' command at the net> prompt to bring
any given session to the top.
With a large (132x44) screen you can see most of three or four windows
at a time on screen - useful for keeping an eye on that big ftp session
while you're chatting away on IRC.
3. TEXTWIN.CFG commands
This section gives a list and brief description of the commands
available in TEXTWIN.CFG
borders <on | off>
do you want borders around windows? Borders make windows
slower to draw when moveing/resizing and occupy screen space.
Windows without borders can be difficult to distinguish from
other windows and are harder to move/resize.
[Default: on]
colour <fg> <bg>
where <fg> and <bg> are integers in the range 0 to 15
Valid values depend upon the capabilities of your display
adaptor. For colour systems: bit0=blue, bit1=green, bit2=red,
and bit3=intensity.
[Default: 7 1 (white on blue)]
default cascade <x-range> <y-range>
where <x-range> and <y-range> specify the offset limits when
creating new windows. A new window will be placed at a position
somewhere between (defPosX, defPosY) and
(defPosX+cascadeRangeX-1, defPosY+cascadeRangeY-1), assuming
that x-range and y-range are not zero. Specifying zero for these
parameters ensures that a window will appear at the default
position. If these parameters are not zero, windows will appear
successively further down and to the right of the screen, until
the x-range and y-range limits are reached. That isn't very
clear. Play with them and see!
[Default: 10 10]
default character <which> <what>
you can configure the characters used in window borders to be any
character from the PC character set.
Even values of <which> apply to inactive windows; odd values are
for the active window. So, use the following values to select the
value for <which>, and then add 1 if you want to change the character
for the active window.
0:vert border 2:horz border 4:top left 6:bot left
8:top right 10:bot right 12:(unused) 14:(unused)
16:(unused) 18:(unused) 20:(unused) 22:restore
24:maximize 26:minimize 28:left scroll 30:right scroll
32:up scroll 34:down scroll 36:horz thumb 38:vert thumb
40:horz scrollbar 42:vert scrollbar
eg: to make the inactive left vertical border (<which> == 0) into a
smiley face (character 1) you would use this command in textwin.cfg:
default character 0 1
to make the ACTIVE left vertical border (<which> == 0 + 1) into
a column of exclamation marks (character 33) you would use:
default character 1 33
This command can be used interactively too. New characters apply
to subsequent new windows only. eg: "text def char 11 4" will change
the bottom right corner of new active windows into a diamond.
If you specify a value for <which> out of the range 0 - 43 you'll
get an error message.
(For the curious: the "(unused)" entries above are placeholders for
other forms characters such as 'cross', 'T-junction', etc, which are
not used in textwin at the moment.)
default position <x> <y>
specify the position of the next window to be created. Both
<x> and <y> may be negative. If <y> is negative, you'll have
a hard time trying to drag the window to a new location!
[Default: 0 0]
default size <width> <height>
specify the dimensions of the next window to be created.
These dimensions are limited to the terminal dimensions.
[Default: 80 25]
emulation default <sess-type> [<emul-name>]
Sets the default terminal emulation to be used for all subsequent
windows of the specified session type. Telnet defaults to VT102,
all other sessions are TTY by default.
<sess-type> is the session type number, encoded as follows:
1=Telnet
2=FTP
3=AX25
4=Finger
5=Ping
6=NET/ROM
7=Command
8=More
9=Hopcheck
10=Tip
11=PPP PAP
12=Dial
13=Query
14=Cache
15=rlogin
<emul-name> is the name of a terminal emulation.
Case is irrelevant.
Currently available emulation names are:
TTY
VT102
BigVT102
hardmouse <on | off> [[[ NB: THIS WILL BECOME OBSOLETE RSN ]]]
hardmouse on may cause display problems in some text display
modes. hardmouse off results in a sluggish mouse cursor but
with no display problems. Try hardmouse on first. If you get
screen corruption use hardmouse off.
[Default: off]
key <action> [<ch1> [<ch2>]]
Allows the user to view and set the keystroke which is bound to the
specified action. Configurable action values are documented below.
ch1 and ch2 specify the key codes as returned by the int 21 func 6
service routine (direct console i/o). If ch1 is non-zero, ch2 need
not be specified and will be ignored. If ch2 is specified, ch1 should
be zero. To do this rationally, you will probably need access to a
table of extended key codes. (I used Appendix B of the
"MS-DOS Programmer's Reference".) If you want to disable keyboard
access for a specific action, set both ch1 and ch2 to zero.
action description default key binding
0 move window left ALT+<left arrow>
1 move window right ALT+<right arrow>
2 move window up ALT+<up arrow>
3 move window down ALT+<down arrow>
4 reduce window width CTRL+<left arrow>
5 increase window width CTRL+<right arrow>
6 reduce window height CTRL+<up arrow>
7 increase window height CTRL+<down arrow>
8 switch to next window ALT+F6
For example:
"textwin key 0 97" causes 'a' to move the current window left
(this is possible, if somewhat silly!)
"textwin key 0 0 97" causes CTRL+F4 to move the current window left
"textwin key 0" shows the key codes which will cause the
current window to be moved left
mouse <kind_of_mouse>
kind_of_mouse can be 'soft' (software mouse) or 'hard' (hardware mouse)
Please note that this mechanism is more flexible than hardmouse
documented above and should be used in preference to it.
A hardware mouse may cause problems in some display modes if the
mouse driver software doesn't know how to handle a display
configuration correctly. For example, mode 0x54 on my S3 card
is 132 x 43 and the mouse leaves droppings all over the screen.
Try "mouse hard" first. If you get problems, use "mouse soft".
(Also, note that due to extreme laziness on my part the mouse
kind will be reported as '0' or '1' for 'soft' and 'hard' types
respectively. This will be fixed RSN.)
[NB: for the curious, I started using the 'mouse' subcommand rather
than 'hardmouse' due to the (transient) introduction of a new mouse
kind: 'pretty'. This mouse was a software driven graphical mouse.
The mouse was drawn by redefining fonts on-the-fly. Although I got
the code to work, I felt this feature to be simply too expensive
in terms of code/data space and maintainability (though clever,
the techniques used were very much 'hacks', IMHO).]
param <which> [<what>]
This is a rather vaguely named subcommand which allows you to
configure various aspects of textwin without me having to
add too many new commands, etc. If the <what> parameter is
omitted, the current value is displayed.
Both the <which> and <what> parameters are decimal integers.
The meaning of the <what> parameter depends upon the <which>
parameter. Hopefully the following table should make things clear:
which description of <what>
1 The ASCII value of the background character used when
erasing the desktop. Default is 177, a half-tone block.
Only effective within textwin.cfg.
2 The software-mouse wibble factor. When the mouse is
moved onto a cell, the attribute value under the mouse
cursor is transformed according to this formula:
new_attr := old_attr XOR wibble_factor
NB: changing this setting interactively will work, but
you will probably see mouse droppings! This is not
considered a bug and this behaviour will not be
'fixed'.
screen mode <scr_mode>
scr_mode is the desired display mode when in textwin
screen mono <on | off>
If on, textwin is forced to appear on the monochrome monitor
of a dual-monitor system. Obscure.
screen restore <on | off>
Set this off if you don't want to restore the screen to its
original state after textwin exits. Setting this off will
reduce memory usage by a few kilobytes (depending on your
initial display mode).
terminal <width> <height>
determines the dimensions of the underlying virtual terminal
that a window will display
[Default: 80 25]
Other textwin commands, NOT valid/appropriate in TEXTWIN.CFG but
documented here for completeness. As yet, not all textwin commands
are documented. Sorry.
clock start [<x> [<y>]]
Creates a windowed clock display. You can optionally specify
its initial position using the <x> and <y> arguments. The clock
appears at the top-left if no position is specified.
I suggest that you put the command:-
textwin clock start
as the last line of your autoexec.net file, or enter it manually
once on line. Note that the former method will not give an
accurate indication of on-line time as the clock starts long before
the dialer completes. Connection takes about 30 seconds for me.
clock stop
Destroys the clock window.
clock reset [<seconds>]
Resets the elapsed time to the specified number of seconds.
Defaults to zero if no argument is supplied.
emulation list
Lists the names of the available terminal emulations.
emulation session <sess-no> [<emul-name>]
Switches the specified session to use the specified emulation.
No change occurs if the emulation name is not known.
<sess-no> is the session number (0 is valid here, meaning the
command processor)
4. Example TEXTWIN.CFG
colour 1 7
terminal 80 38
mouse soft
borders on
default position -1 0
default size 82 40
default cascade 0 0
# 84 decimal == 0x54 (132 x 43 on my generic S3 card)
screen mode 84
# The following give "chunky" scrollbars on the active window
# rather than my minimalist default!
default character 37 219
default character 39 219
default character 41 178
default character 43 178
# The following commands make scrollbars and resize gadgets
# disappear from inactive windows (NB: the scrollbars and
# resize gadgets ARE still there, its just that the graphics
# for them are the same as the standard border...)
default character 22 196
default character 24 196
default character 26 196
default character 28 196
default character 30 196
default character 32 179
default character 34 179
default character 36 196
default character 38 179
default character 40 196
default character 42 179
# Set Tip sessions to use the VT102 emulation (session
# type 10 == Tip) and set Telnet sessions to use BigVT102
# (session type 1 == Telnet).
emulation default 10 bigvt102
emulation default 1 vt102
# The following lines will cause textwin to look very much like the
# original 'single screen' DIS KA9Q program.
# borders off
# default cascade 0 0
# default position 0 0
# colour 7 0
5. Where to find source, docs etc.
The following was correct when this manual was written, for TextWin
based on ka9q 2.12. It has not been updated to reflect the latest
code.
Source code for the full Demon version of ka9q can be found at
ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/ibmpc/DIS/ka9q212.zip source code for BC
/ka9qhelp.zip mailbox help files
/net212.zip net.exe & rev hist
/nos212.zip net.exe & associated
files
Similar files with names including 215 instead of 212 are probably
available now in the same location.
Textwin modifications can be found at
ftp.demon.co.uk:/pub/ibmpc/textwin/Textwin.17Oct93.zip
/Textwin.source.17Oct93.zip
/Textwin.slip.17Oct93.zip
/Textwin.man.zip
It is likely that this area will be reorganised in the near future
(March 94). No details are available at the time of writing, but
it is probable that the textwin directory will contain a single
executable binary and the docs, all historical material will be
moved to subdirectory textwin/old_versions, and further binaries
will be in another textwin subdirectory.
6. Credits, comments etc.
The source to the textwin modifications to KA9Q was written by
Anthony McCarthy
amc@beryl.demon.co.uk
amccarthy@cix.compulink.co.uk
100012.3712@compuserve.com
At the time of writing, 29Dec93, Anthony is no longer actively
supporting textwin. The last few updates to textwin have been
compiled by me (ipaton@sphere.demon.co.uk), however as I no
longer use textwin I can't guarantee that I'll be around to do
any more updates.
Iain Paton (ipaton@sphere.demon.co.uk) 29Dec93
This manual is almost entirely thanks to the efforts of the
previous two "Mr TextWin"s (above), but I'll be glad to receive
suggested changes and improvements.
Modifications to docs, and compilation of TextWin 2.15
by John Washington
john@wash.demon.co.uk