NOTE: Users of previous versions of Comet through 2.1.6 need to drag-and-drop the "Comet keyboard-No diacritics" keyboard layout into their System, since this resource has changed. MicroSoft Excel 4.0 may cause crashes when this resource is NOT installed and Comet is run along with Excel.
Menu-key equivalents are superseded by macro keys, but the menus are not corrected.
The Print command, which uses QuickDraw printing, does not space characters correctly when the Comet-fonts are used to print foreign language characters, and will not use the Comet-fonts with Background Printing unless they are installed in the System.
Some Macintosh configurations (such as those using an E-Machines display board) may "hang" soon after Comet opens its first session windows if fast drawing mode is enabled. This occurs due to incompatibility between the display adapter and the fast drawing mode. To fix this problem, you can reconfigure your Comet Default document by launching Comet, cancelling the initial Configure Session dialog, turning off "Enable fast drawing" in the Control Global... dialog, and pressing the Save button and then the OK button.
If you try download a file to a locked disk, after the file transfer fails you will not be able to access that particular file again until you quit and restart Comet; you will not be able to completely dismount the disk because the file will be "busy", although you can eject the disk, unlock it, and access other files.
Nota Bene: The MacTCP driver interface can have asynchronous sends enabled; in this mode, Macs using MacTCP up to 1.0.2 on LocalTalk will be prone to crash (with the cursor frozen and the whole machine hung). You can configure this option in the Global Configuration dialog. MacTCP 1.1.1 works properly when asynchronous sends are enabled.
Those using Ethernet should enable asynchronous sends, because there is a major drawback to using synchronous sends: until the host acknowledges that it has received the data you have sent, the Mac will seem to "hang." Although the mouse cursor will move, the Mac will not respond to mouse button-downs or keystrokes until the acknowledgment is received; in the event of a communications problem with the host, this can leave you hanging for minutes! If this occurs, you should NOT reboot your Mac, but should wait for the send to either complete or abort.
(In general, it is desirable to have asynchronous MacTCP sends enabled, and to have the fast-drawing option enabled if your monitor runs in Black and White rather than Color or Greyscale mode, which is configured using the Monitors Control Panel device; due to the possibility of encountering the rather lethal problems discussed above, these options are disabled in the default configuration. When using the Configure Global dialog, "OK" the new configuration without pressing the "Save" button when you first try these options; you can "Save" the configuration later after verifying that it works correctly.)
Asante board/driver notes:
Many versions of the Asante drivers have been unreliable when used with MacTCP, resulting in seemingly-random crashes. These often occur due to conflicts with MacTCP, which cause MacTCP to call a debugger trap (which crashes your machine if you have no debugger installed!) If you are using an Asante Ethernet device, you should install the Apple Networking software using the Installer on your System disks.
MacTCP notes:
Several versions of MacTCP are available; unfortunately, none of them works properly on all machines (except perhaps 2.0.4, we shall see...). Herewith are the advantages and drawbacks of each:
2.0.4: Finally a version of MacTCP which seems to have most of its problems fixed. The packet retransmit timeout behavior has improved, but Comet still lowers the Resend Time Out by default, since the 1-second floor seems quite high for an interactive Telnet session.
2.0.2: Apple has worked some on the problem with resending lost packets too slowly, however it is not fixed.
1.1.1: Apple strongly advises that 1.1.1 be used with System 7.1; however, 1.1 seems to work OK as long as Virtual Memory is off. This version fixes several bugs in previous versions: e.g., it displays the LocalTalk icon properly in the Control Panel, does not crash on the Mac+, and apparently handles asynchronous sends correctly . Unfortunately, it waits from 3 to 15 seconds to resend a lost packet, which can make it unusable with ASCII hosts on networks with high rates of packet loss.
Comet 2.1.6B1 tries to fix MacTCP's resend behavior. You can disable this behavior by using the macro "!tD". You can display MacTCP's resend timers by using the macro "!CD"; you might want to take a look at this if you've been having trouble with SLIP.
1.1: Required for System 7 up to 7.1. This version crashes on the Mac+. The LocalTalk icon does not always appear in the MacTCP control panel when LocalTalk is the selected Network device.
1.0.2: A special version of MacTCP 1.0.1 released to improve the performance of MacX. This version is known to cause crashes on some machines.
1.0.1: The first functional release version of MacTCP. Asynchronous sends under LocalTalk are definitely hazardous with this release, resulting in machines hanging with the cursor frozen. 1.0.1 works under System 7, but only if Virtual Memory is off and a copy or alias is placed in the System Folder so that Domain Name Resolution will work properly. Using 1.0.1 with System 7 is not recommended.
System 7.0 notes:
The Macintosh Toolbox routine which Comet uses to draw color text perform very slowly with non-white backgrounds under System 7.0. In addition, producing the keys Option-E, -I, -N, and -U will require additional keystrokes unless you install the "Comet Keyboard-No Diacritics" Keyboard Resource provided with Comet by dragging it into the System Folder, since Apple has modified its key-mapping calls to ignore this resource unless it is installed in the System.
System 7.1 notes:
Color performance has been fixed in System 7.1; however, the release version of 7.1 has a bug in the Index2Color() call which causes versions of Comet prior to 2.1.6 to draw colors incorrectly.
Fixes in 3.0.7:
* More tuning has been done on GetNextEvent/
WaitNextEvent to improve performance.
* A bug which caused hangs when quitting
Comet with multiple windows open is now
fixed.
* Mapped the "Record Session" Edit menu item
to Command-`.
* Added code to move the scrollbar to the
bottom of the window automatically when
a session is closed.
Fixes in 3.0.6:
* Cursor tracking performance is improved
over 3.0 when background applications such
as DA's hog CPU cycles--Comet now uses
GetNextEvent when keys are pressed or the
mouse is moved and an emulator window is
the topmost window.
* The F1-F15 keys on the Extended keyboard
now send the VT220 keys F6-F20.
* The Control Global... dialog item "File
transfer--always do dialog to rename files"
is now saved when the Save button is
pressed.
* The original Mac keyboard & keypad work
correctly again.
Enhancements in 3.0:
* SCROLLBARS in the emulator window for more
conventional scrollback buffering! Find
and Print functions are supported. (D1)
* Command-' now controls scrollback buffering
rather than .edit recording.
* Macro recording start/stop functions are
available in the Control menu. This allows
one to make scripts in "watch-me" mode. (D1)
* Pressing the Enter key in the .edit window
causes the current line or selection range
to be interpreted and executed as a macro
command. (D1)
* Files transferred with the extension
".rename" will trigger a dialog so that the
user may rename the file before the transfer
takes place. (D1)
* You can drag the .edit window along with the
emulator window by holding down the Option
key as you drag it. (D1)
* A "Miniaturize" command has been added to
the Window menu so you can shrink windows
with a Command-0 (zero). (D2)
* Dialog items have been added to the ASCII
Control Emulator dialog to set XON/XOFF
and KILL characters. (D2)
* Dialog items have been added to the ASCII
Control Emulator dialog to control Paste
pacing. (D2)
* A dialog item has been added to the Control
Session dialog to set the maximum size of
the scrollback buffer. (D2)
* The .edit window automatically loads the
sessionname.edit file when a Comet document
is opened. (D2)
* Command-delete now closes a document. (D2)
* Whups! Command-\ now closes a document since
Command-delete conflicted with the IBM Delete
key keymapping. (D4)
* Macro commands have been added to allow you
to bring windows to the front by number or
by name (!w\000 & !WS). (D3)
* A "File transfer--always do dialog to rename
files" option has been added to the Control
Global dialog, so that users can now be
presented with a Standard File dialog when
performing an upload or download. (D4)
Fixes in 3.0:
* Comet now sets MacTCP so that timeouts on
sends WILL abort sessions after 255 seconds.
(D4)
* Comet now sets MacTCP so that timeouts on
sends no longer abort sessions. (D1)
* "Select All" now works correctly with emulator
windows with more than 24 rows. (D1)
* The macro dialogs now allow macros of up to
10K in size, rather than only 255 characters.
(D1)
* ASCII pasting is faster. (D1)
* Selections can be made when cursor tracking
is turned off using "!Ct". (D1)
* The "Type address at cursor" command in the
Network menu is now "Input address at cursor",
and is associated with Command-I. A "!ta"
macro command can perform the same function.
(Provided with regards to the Bonze's alma
mater, UT Austin!). (D1)
* Fixed D1 scrollback copy bug where incorrect
data was copied. (D2)
* A cursor glitch occuring when changing windows
when scrolling should be fixed. (D2)
* 3270 download buffers are allocated at session
creation to avoid out-of-memory failures. (D2)
* When a window closes, the user is asked to save
the .edit window if it has been modified. (D2)
* The "Save..." command defaults to the document's
startup folder. (D2)
* The .edit window is no longer resized when a
document is first opened, so you can maintain
a configuration where auto-wrap will work well
automatically. (D3)
* The Notification Manager is used to alert the
user when Comet needs to be brought to the
foreground. (D3)
* A bug which caused incorrect data to be copied
when the scrollback buffer was copied is fixed.
(D3)
* Inserting an unformatted disk now brings up the
"Format disk" dialog rather than causing Comet
to crash. (D3)
* The Send Telnet Interrupt Process macro (!tC)
now sends a Telnet Interrupt Process.
* Comet now uses WaitNextEvent under System 7
to allow background applications to run
faster. (D4)
* Comet tests to see if the default print
record is correct when a download
print.nodialog is performed, and performs
the print dialog if it is not valid. This
occurs because some Apple printer drivers
fail to properly initialize the default
print record. (D4)
* WaitNextEvent calls have been modified for
better cursor tracking performance. (B1)
* The "Scrollback buffer" menu item check-mark
is now set correctly when it's configured on.
* A null-pointer reference which caused Comet
to crash when used with Mandarin Sleep events
or the "!FF" macro has been fixed. (B3)
* When you use "Save Configuration..." to create
a duplicate session with a different name, you
no longer get the error messages "Can't save
CONF 1 resource" and "Can't save document
resource." (B3)
* Comet session names are limited to 26 charac-
ters so that the ".edit" text will always
get loaded properly (since the Finder limits
filenames to 31 characters). (B3)
* Clicking with the mouse now sets the beginning
point for shift-click selections at that point.
Double-clicks are now tested so that single
clicks are clearly differentiated. (B3)
* When quitting Comet, open sessions with the
scrollback buffer scrolled back now automatic-
ally go to the end of the buffer so Comet
doesn't hang waiting for the user to do so.
(B3)
* The VX split keyboard now works correctly so
IBM function keys on the keypad are recognized.
(B3)
* Word selection extension holding the mouse down
works as one would expect in the emulator
window (B3).
* The emulator window no longer scrolls to the
end automatically if you press a key associ-
ated with a key macro. (B3)
Fixes to 2.1.7 in 2.1.7.1:
* When a Comet session autoclosed after a !FF
macro was executed, another session left open
would not be set correctly as the front window
if it was selected by launching its document,
(configured for "Open session only once"), so
that (e.g.) key macros would not be recognized
and doing a "Set Key macro..." command would
result in a dialog stating (incorrectly) that
you need to save the new document before
creating key macros. Now it is set correctly
so that Comet recognizes that the front
window is active.
Fixes to 2.1.6 in 2.1.7:
* 2.1.6 was compiled incorrectly; 2.1.7 is
otherwise identical to 2.1.6B4/2.1.6.
* The !FF and !Ff macros were added to support
the library kiosks. See Info on Key Macros.
* download.print.nodialog now performs a Print
Job Dialog when the Print Manager fails to
initialize the Print Job record correctly.
This problem would have been seen before when
.nodialog printing failed to work properly
without performing the Print Job Dialog first.
Fixes to 2.1.5 in 2.1.6:
* The Comet fonts have been converted to NFNTs
and are now accessed by name to avoid conflict
with other fonts. You need to install the
latest Comet-fonts in your System Folder to
guarantee that fonts will display correctly.
* A bug in the macro !Z match command was fixed
so that matches are made correctly when the
first character in the match string is repeated.
(e.g., "!Z\255sion" would fail to match "ssion").
* Comet Telnet sessions switch into Newline mode
when a Telnet WONT ECHO is received from the
host.
* Changing the size of the ASCII terminal window
no longer results in triggering the login
macro.
* Emulators are no longer limited to 32 rows.
* The Serial Baud rate menu now places check
marks beside the 300 and 1200 when they
are selected.
* Color is bug-compatible with System 7.1.
(i.e., Comet now avoids the broken Index2Color()
call; earlier versions of Comet may produce
displays that have garbled color mapping).
* A bug in the vt100 emulator which caused display
glitches with VMS EDIT /TPU was fixed (line
feeds received outside scrolling regions no
longer cause scrolling).
* Comet's vt100 emulator no longer interprets an
ESC-ESC sequence as a command to initiate an
ft3270 download; this conflicted with the output
generated (sometimes) by VMS DCL.
* Comet's vt100 emulator now defaults to the correct
configuration for the cursor keys.
* Comet sends vt100 identification strings in one
packet to make sure VMS/Multinet does not leap
to process a partial ID string and report that
an "incomplete escape sequence" has been
received.
* Comet Telnet sessions connecting to VMS Multi-
net now report the currently selected terminal
type when a VT100 variant is selected: "VT102"
will be sent rather than simply "VT100".
* Comet is now packaged with the Serial Driver
resource version 3.0.0. OpenDriver() is used
rather than RAMSDOpen to maintain compatibility
with the Powerbook Express Modem and the Teleport
ADB modems.
* The download .print feature has been fixed to work
correctly with printers other than LaserWriters;
PrValidate is called to prevent problems with
changes in the selected printer.
* Comet can't be hung now by double-opens such as
those caused by double-clicking a Bear Access
Launcher button rather than single-clicking it.
* Comet no longer tries to do fast drawing on a Duo.
* Holding Shift when using the Print... command
causes the dialog to be skipped.
* "Use Asynchronous sends with MacTCP" is now the
default setting. Users are encouraged to use
this setting with Comet versions > 2.1.6D6.
. * Comet used to crash when the user first keyed
in the top window after Comet was launched with
several other programs (e.g., as a startup app)
and the activate event for Comet's top window
was not received. Comet now activates the window
itself in this case to avoid the problem.
* (B4) An option has been added to the "Configure
Session" dialog to allow a session to stay open
when the Bear Access LaunchPad sends a Mandarin
Sleep event.
* (B4) The "Comet keyboard--no diacritics" file
has been changed to avoid bugs with Microsoft
Word and some international keyboards.
MacSLIP/MacTCP compatibility fixes:
* MacTCP error alerts are more informative.
* Telnet sessions now open asynchronously.
* MacTCP is opened asynchronously to allow
MacSLIP's "Connect when MacTCP is opened"
option to work properly.
* Comet now sends only one packet at a time when
Asynchronous Sends are enabled to avoid problems
with MacTCP, which sometimes fails to send one
of the packets when multiple asynchronous sends
are pending; this caused problems with MacSLIP
when modem speeds higher than 9600 baud were
used.
* Comet munges the MacTCP Retransmission Time Out
(tmrRTO) to improve resend performance.
Enhancements in 2.1.6:
* Hardware handshake is offered as an option in
the Serial menu.
* A 20-point font has been added. The fonts have
been updated to NFNTs.
* A macro command to query the user to enter a
string has been added (!QQ & !QS).
* The 3278 emulator now offers a Sys-Request key
(which can be mapped in the key macro dialog).
* Comet now supports Apple Events.
* CONN 1 disconnect resources are executed on Quit.
A "Connection Close macro..." dialog has been added
to the Control menu to better support NOTIS access.
Fixes to 2.1.4 in 2.1.5:
* Saving the global configuration and the default
document type saves the updated data correctly.
Fixes to 2.1.3 Beta 2 in 2.1.4 (2.1.3 has been skipped):
* Errors no longer occur when saving configuration
files.
* 3270 Start Field commands now update the screen
display correctly when they replace an existing
field marker.
Fixes to 2.1.3 Beta in 2.1.3 Beta 2:
* You must now close a session before reconfiguring
it using the Reconfigure Session... dialog.
* When "Open document once only" is modified, the
document status is updated immediately.
* TFTP reports errors correctly when writing the
last block of a file causes a disk-full condition.
Fixes to 2.1.3 Alpha in 2.1.3 Beta:
* When printing 3270 screens with Courier on a
LaserWriter, NULL characters on the screen now
appear as spaces rather than carets.
* Comet now handles MacTCP Domain Name Resolution
properly when the host entry has been cached.
* IBM 3270 terminal reconfiguration is now performed
when a session is reopened, and screen garbage no
longer appears when the 3270 is made larger.
* Setting colors in the Color... dialog no longer
crashes under System 7 with TuneUps installed.
* The Comet TFTP file transfer server now recovers
properly from errors, and no longer presents errors
dialog when routine file transfer errors occur.
Fixes to 2.1.1 in 2.1.3 Alpha:
* Aztec's latest C compiler provides compatibility
with 32-bit mode for this new release.
* ASCII terminal sessions now reliably erase all
lines of the last screen from a previous session
when a new session is opened.
* Printing uses Courier except when Comet-fonts are
needed to represent special characters; printing
can be configured to always use Courier (using the
Control Global... dialog).
* The Word Select macro used to handle double click
word selections now breaks the selection at the
beginning and end of a screen line.
* Documents can be configured so they can be opened
only once using the Control Session option "Only
one session per document." Clicking on a document
which is already open will bring that document to
the top and re-open the session if it is not already
open, rather than opening another session. (This fix
provides better support for Cornell's Bear Access).
Enhancements in 2.1.3:
* Comet registers an AppleTalk entity with the type
COMET, so that network administrators can easily
check user's Comet versions and configuration.
* The Session dialog now offers an option so that
Comet will connect with hosts which do not send
a log-on prompt or other data to indicate that
Comet's terminal-type setting is acceptable.
* Automatic cursor positioning can be disabled with
a key macro command ("!Ct").
* Serial baud rates of 57.6K and 38.4K are offered.
* You can create a sound resource using "Record
Beep..." in the Control menu. This sound will be
used as the bell for that session when its window
is not in front. This function is available only
on Macs equipped with microphones; other Macs using
System 6.0.4 or higher can use the sound. "Delete
Beep" is provided to delete your replacement beep.
* Files downloaded using Comet are made TeachText
documents by default. A "Set default file type"
dialog in the File menu allows you to select
an application or document of the type you wish
to use as the default.
* A key macro command to make the next keystroke
a Meta-key has been added ("!CM").
* A file downloaded with the string ".print" in its
name will be printed automatically. If the name
contains ".nodialog", no Print Dialog will be pre-
sented; if the name contains ".delete", the down-
loaded file will be deleted after printing.
* A <Control-L> character entered in the .edit
window will cause a page eject when printing.
NB: Other applications may not handle this ASCII-
standard control character correctly.
* An iconified window which receives data will beep
as well as become highlighted.
Fixes to 2.1 in 2.1.1:
* IBM 3278-3 & -5 emulations did not always correctly
report the status of the first field on the screen.
* Printing the emulator screen (as opposed to the .edit
window) no longer crashes on Macs (e.g., the Mac +)
without Color QuickDraw when using System versions
