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Text File | 1991-04-29 | 34.8 KB | 779 lines

Comm 1.34 A terminal program for the AMIGA Send suggestions for improvement or bug reports to: DJJAMES Plink 70320,124 CIS ICONS from the Swilling collection -- courtesy Frank Swilling (Minotaur) File Input requester from C.Heath. --------------------------------------------- Features: ASCII send and capture modes. XMODEM send/receive with checksum and CRC modes and AUTOCHOP on receive files. Windowed XMODEM up and downloading. Screen I/O greater than 2400 baud. Baud rates up to 19200 baud supported. 20 keyboard macros using Function keys. 44 entry phone library with support for non-Hayes type modems Hot Key dialing for 10 phone numbers. An alternate long distance service number (MCI, SPRINT etc) can be used. Split screen mode for conferencing. Interlaced screen optional. Serial port parity, bit length and stop bit control also Full/Half duplex, send line break and control of End Of Line characters DOS 1.2 support. Menu driven. --------------------------------------------- Preparation: Comm initializes using the baud rate set in Preferences. If you have not set a default baud rate, DO IT NOW. Create a phone library file (if desired) named Comm.Phone. Create a keyboard macro file (if desired) named Comm.Keys. From CLI type: comm [ filename ] [-i] where filename is the name of a phone number library. If not given, the default filename COMM.PHONE will be used. If -i is given, Comm will use an interlaced screen. From WorkBench, just click on the COMM icon. NOTE: WorkBench users can specify the default Phone library, Key Macro files and interlaced mode by using the TOOL TYPE entry in the ICON structure. To enter these defaults, click once on the Comm icon and select the INFO entry from the WORKBENCH menu. When the INFO window opens, you will see a STACK gadget and a TOOL TYPES gadget. Click in the stack gadget and enter a value of 8000. Because of a bug in DOS 1.1 Workbench, you will have to follow these instructions to enter the strings. This bug has been fixed in DOS 1.2. To enter the phone library: Select the ADD gadget next to the TOOL TYPES gadget. Then click in the TOOLTYPES gadget and type PHONE=filename ( where filename is the name of the default phone directory to be associated with this icon ) and hit return. Select ADD again, click in the box and hit return. (DOS 1.1 only) To enter the key macro file: Select the ADD gadget next to the TOOL TYPES gadget. Then click in the TOOLTYPES gadget and type KEYS=filename ( where filename is the name of the default key macro file to be associated with this icon ) and hit return. Select ADD again, click in the box and hit return. (DOS 1.1 only) To enter the interlace option: Select the ADD gadget next to the TOOL TYPES gadget. Then click in the TOOLTYPES gadget and type INTERLACE=ON Select ADD again, click in the box and hit return. (DOS 1.1 only) Then select the SAVE option in the INFO window. The defaults will be active whenever you select Comm via this icon. ICONS from the Swilling collection -- courtesy Frank Swilling (Minotaur) --------------------------------------------- MENUS: When in Comm, the following menu topics are available: 1) FILE -- This is the file transfer menu. From here you can select the name of a file to be transfered, the direction of the transfer ( to your disk or from you disk ) and whether an error detecting protocol ( XMODEM ) will be used. When one of these entries is selected, a file input requester will appear in the center of the screen and a directory listing of the current selected directory will appear in the window. You may select a filename for transfer or capture by positioning the cursor over the filename in the window then selecting the OK gadget. You may also type the name of the desired file in the input box marked `File'. NOTE: when the file requester is on screen (active) you can still send and receive data. Since sorting and displaying the files on a nearly full floppy disk takes a bit of time, you may want to bring up the requester early, and continue talking to the remote system while the directory is being sorted. The sub-entries of the FILE menu are: Start ASCII Capture All data received from the serial port is also saved into the named file. The text is buffered and written to the disk in 8K blocks. When this mode is selected, the text in the MENU entry is changed to "Stop ASCII Capture". Selecting this entry will flush the data buffer to the disk and close the file. Once the capture mode has been selected and a filename has been entered, you can use the LEFT AMIGA C key sequence to suspend or enable (toggle) the capturing of data. Capturing is enabled when the file is first selected. Suspending the data capture does not close the file, it simple does not buffer the text. When capturing is enabled, the word "ON" will be visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen. When capturing is suspended, this will change to "SUS". When entering a filename for data capture, Comm will check to see if this file already exists. If it does, a requester will appear advising you of that fact. You have the option to CONTINUE using the filename entered or CANCEL and enter another filename. If you choose to CONTINUE, you will be presented with another requester giving you the choice to APPEND data to the existing file or DELETE the existing data and start a fresh file. Under DOS 1.2, the CONTINUE and APPEND options can be answered with the LEFT AMIGA V key. The CANCEL and DELETE options can be answered with the LEFT AMIGA B key. Of course, you can click the left mouse button over these selections as well. If you hit Left Amiga C (toggle capture) without first opening a capture file, a default file "RAM:Capture.txt" will be opened for you. You are not given the above options to CANCEL, APPEND or DELETE when this short cut is used. The old file (if it exists) is always deleted and a new file is created. The HELP key can also be used to view the current state of the capture mode. See also: HOT KEYS, HELP KEY Start ASCII Send The named file will be read and sent to the serial port. If the file does not exist, a warning message will be printed. When this mode is selected, the text in the MENU entry is changed to "Stop ASCII Send". Selecting this entry will stop the transfer and close the disk file. Pressing the HELP key will bring up a status display containing (among other items) a slider gadget marked `Send Delay'. You can select a time to delay after transmitting each character by using this slider gadget. The gadget can be adjusted from approx 10ms (Fast) to 3/4 second (Slow) delay between transmitted characters. The slider can be adjusted while a file is being sent to allow for fine tuning the send speed. With the slider in the (default) far left position, there is no delay. The far right position will produce about 3/4 second delay after transmitting a character. Clicking within the slider body, will cause the knob to move in about .1 second intervals. See also: INPUT WINDOW XMODEM Receive The named file will be created on the disk and the XMODEM protocol will be started using the error checking method (CRC or Checksum) selected in the MODE menu. If the specified file already exists, a requester will appear giving you the option to CONTINUE or CANCEL the use of that filename. Selecting CONTINUE will overwrite the old existing file with the new one. Selecting CANCEL will bring up the INPUT WINDOW allowing you to enter another file name. Under DOS 1.2, LEFT AMIGA V is the same as CONTINUE while LEFT AMIGA B is the same as CANCEL. The transfer can be aborted by hitting the ESC key. The serial port parameters will be saved and changed to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit for the XMODEM transfer. Upon completion, the old settings will be restored. The status line (bottom of screen) will display the name of the file being transferred, a running total of the bytes received, the number of NAKS and the last block to be NAKed (in square brackets). See also: MODE menu, Chop Files WXMODEM Receive The named file will be created on the disk and the Windowed XMODEM protocol will be started. If the specified file already exists, a requester will appear giving you the option to CONTINUE or CANCEL the use of that filename. Selecting CONTINUE will overwrite the old existing file with the new one. Selecting CANCEL will bring up the INPUT WINDOW allowing you to enter another file name. Under DOS 1.2, LEFT AMIGA V is the same as CONTINUE while LEFT AMIGA B is the same as CANCEL. The transfer can be aborted by hitting the ESC key. The serial port parameters will be saved and changed to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit for the WXMODEM transfer. Upon completion, the old settings will be restored. The status line (bottom of screen) will display the name of the file being transferred, a running total of the bytes received, the number of NAKS and the last block to be NAKed (in square brackets). Windowed XMODEM is a recent improvement on the original XMODEM protocol. Not all services offer WXMODEM. WXMODEM can offer up to a 50% reduction in file transfer time when used over public data networks such as Telenet and Tymnet. As of this writing, the only service offering WXMODEM transfers is the American People Link (PLINK). They have an active Amiga section. 800-524-0100 until 10 PM CST for info. XMODEM Transmit (WXMODEM Transmit) Use this selection for either XMODEM or WXMODEM transfers. The named file will be opened on the disk and the XMODEM (or WXMODEM) protocol will be started using the error checking method (CRC or Checksum) selected by the receiving end. If the specified file does not exist, a requester will appear advising you of that fact. You only have the option to CONTINUE, which will bring up the INPUT WINDOW allowing you to re-enter the filename or CANCEL the upload. The transfer can be aborted by hitting the ESC key. The serial port parameters will be saved and changed to 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit for the XMODEM transfer. Upon completion, the old settings will be restored. The status line (bottom of screen) will display the name of the file being transferred, a running total of the bytes received, the number of NAKS and the last block to be NAKed (in square brackets). Windowed XMODEM is a recent improvement on the original XMODEM protocol. Not all services offer WXMODEM. WXMODEM can offer up to a 50% reduction in file transfer time when used over public data networks such as Telenet and Tymnet. As of this writing, the only service offering WXMODEM transfers is the American People Link (PLINK). They have an active Amiga section. 800-524-0100 until 10 PM CST for info. See also: XMODEM Text Send XMODEM Text Send Read the text for XMODEM transmit above. Use this option for text tranfers using the WXMODEM protocol as well. In addition to the above text, when this entry is selected, any LF characters in the transmitted file will be converted to CR characters. This option should be selected when sending an AMIGA created file to another type of machine. Failure to use this option when sending a text file may produce an unusable file on the remote machine. See also: XMODEM Transmit Quit Comm Selecting this entry will close all open files and windows and exit back to the operating system. The same effect can be achieved by hitting the close gadget in the TRANSMIT window. See also: Window gadgets --------------------------------------------- 2) System Split Screen Select 'Split Screen' from the system menu. The screen will divide into two windows, a small one ( 4 lines ) for your typed characters and a larger one ( 19 lines ) for characters received from the modem. You should select the half-duplex mode on the host system to prevent your typed characters from being echoed back into the receive window. To exit the split screen mode, either use the RX window close gadget or select 'Split Screen' from the system menu again. Using the close gadget in the TX window will exit Comm. Split screen mode may not operate in interlaced mode on a 512K or less machine due to lack of memory. CAUTION: If you login to a system while in the split screen mode your password will be echoed in the TX window. It's best to login in the single screen mode. View Transfers Select the 'View transfer' mode from the system menu. This option will output the file data to a view window while transfering data. It is wise only to view files you know to be ASCII because binary files will look like Greek. No harm will be done, but it is distracting. Chop Files XMODEM file transfers will increase the size of a file to the next largest multiple of 128 bytes. The CHOP FILES option -- when checked -- will remove the padding on the end of the file. This is usually desired and always required when transfering executable binary files. CHOPing files is the default mode. NOTE: It is not desireable to CHOP an ARC file. Since I always forget to turn off the CHOP mode for ARC files, Comm will check the file extent of XMODEM receive files looking for .ARC or .arc If found it will temporarily disable CHOPing for this file, and restore the state of the CHOP flag after the file has been received. End of Line You can select how End of Line characters are handled on the screen and when sent out the serial port. By default, EOL is just a RETURN character, but you can change this to RETURN and LINEFEED pairs. Use this option if all text seems to be printed on one line. Key Macro This item allows Loading or Saving the Key Macro file. You can add/change keyboard macros using the "Edit Key Macro" selection in the SYSTEM menu. When the ASCII window opens on this option, click the mouse in the requester text input box and enter the new keyboard macro in the same format as the key macro file: f9This is a new macro\r Enter the text and hit return (or select the OK gadget ) to install the new macro. Phone Dir This entry allows loading or editing a phone library. The EDIT option will bring up the Amiga screen editor ED with the contents of the phone library file ready to be changed. Exit ED as usual with ESC X to return to Comm. NOTE: The EDIT option can only be used if Comm has been invoked from the CLI. If invoked from WorkBench, this option will be disabled. ED must be in the C: directory. The SAVE option is not implimented. --------------------------------------------- 3) Mode -- this menu selects the type of error ckecking to be used with XMODEM file downloads. Checksum The original Christensen protocol used an 8 bit checksum for error checking. It is about 97% effective in catching errors. All implimentations of XMODEM can use the checksum method. When in doubt, select this method. CRC A later addition to the protocol was the 16 bit (two byte) Cyclic Redundancy Check ( CRC ) which is about 99.997% effective in detecting errors. Not all implimentations of XMODEM use the CRC method. If you select this mode and the sending computer can not transmit CRC mode, Comm will detect this fact after 5 timeouts ( about 50 seconds ) and switch to the Checksum method. --------------------------------------------- 4) Serial -- serial device parameters are changed here. Baud Baud rates from 300 to 19200 baud can be selected. Comm will start out with the baud rate selected by the user in Preferences. Note that this selects the serial speed of the port, the actual data throughput rate depends on whether the capture buffer is active, the printer capture is selected and the speed of screen I/O. With no printer or file capture, the throughput rate depends on the screen I/O speed. This will be greater than 2400 baud but less than 4800 baud in this release of Comm. This means, that if you select a baud rate of greater than 2400 baud, you will drop characters unless the Automatic XON feature has been selected from the SERIAL menu. This entry can be overridden by the default baud rate field in the phone library. See also: XON / XOFF Parity Selects ODD, EVEN or NO parity. Default is NO parity. Note that during XMODEM transfers, serial port parity is set to NO parity and restored to the previous value on completion. Most computer systems today will operate with NO parity. Data Length Selects the length of a data word as 7 or 8 bits. Default is 8 bits. Note that during XMODEM transfers, serial port data length is set to 8 bits and restored to the previous value on completion. Most computer systems today will operate with 8 bits. Stop Bits Selects the number of stop bits transmitted as 1 or 2 bits. Default is 2 bits. Note that during XMODEM transfers, serial port stop bit length is set to 1 bit and restored to the previous value on completion. The Amiga hardware does not allow 2 stop bits to be used with an 8 bit data word length. Most computer systems today will operate with 1 stop bit. Duplex Selects whether Comm or the remote system echo your key strokes to the screen. Defaults to FULL duplex. Select FULL duplex when the remote machine will echo your key strokes. Select HALF duplex when the remote system does not echo your key strokes. That is when the remote system seems to be responding to your commands, but you can't see what you type. XON / XOFF Enables or disables the serial driver check for XON / XOFF flow control characters. Defaults to OFF. Select TURNED OFF when you do not wish to use this type of flow control. Select AUTOMATIC when you wish the driver to use this type of flow control. Normally used at baud rates greater than 2400 baud to prevent dropped characters. NOTE: In some cases, when the AUTOMATIC mode is selected, Comm may receive an XOFF character ( noise or otherwise ) and appear to be hung -- that is, no characters appear on the screen yet the menus still function. Whenever Comm appears to be hung, typing a CONTROL Q will re-start the serial line. If the problem was due to an XOFF character received, this will restore everything to normal. ALSO NOTE: A number of people have reported that Comm gets hung when they use Telenet, have AUTOMATIC selected and type keys rapidly. This seems to be due to Telenet sending XOFF characters. It may be wise to select TURNED OFF when using Telenet. Send Break Sends a 250 ms break signal. Right Amiga B will also send the break character. --------------------------------------------- 5) Phone Dial a phone number or hang up the phone. If a phone library of the proper format was loaded when Comm started, you will see the NAME fields of the phone entries in this menu. Simply move the select box over the desired name to be called and release. Comm will then compose a dialing entry consisting of: DIAL STRING+ALTERNATE LONG DISTANCE NUMBER+PHONE NUMBER+DIAL TERMINATOR and send this to the modem. You may also dial any of the first 10 numbers in the phone directory by using the RIGHT AMIGA # key sequence, where # is one of the keys 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0. The dial string fields default to HAYES types, but can be changed by an entry in the phone library. Hang up Selecting this entry will send the HANGUP command string to the modem. This string defaults to a HAYES compatable string, but can be changed by an entry in the phone library. You may also use RIGHT AMIGA H to select this option. Alt Service This entry will prepend an alternate long distance dial code to the phone number you select. Useful for selecting MCI or SPRINT or any of the dozen other phone services. The dial string is taken from a phone library entry. You may also use RIGHT AMIGA A to select this option. --------------------------------------------- Hot Keys Left Amiga C -- will open/close the capture buffer. The capture mode must first be selected through the FILE menu. Then use the hot key to enable or disable text capturing into the buffer. Capturing is enabled when first selected. Use the HELP key to see the state of the capture mode. If you hit Left Amiga C without first opening a capture file, a default file "RAM:Capture.txt" will be opened for you. Left Amiga P -- toggles the printer ON/OFF. When ON, text received from the serial port will also go to the printer via the PRT: device. Right Amiga # -- where # is one of the keys 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0 This sequence will dial one of the first 10 entries in the phone library. Right Amiga H -- Hang up the phone. Right Amiga A -- select the Alternte Long Distance dialing service. This is identical to using the mouse to select the Alt. Service option in the PHONE menu. --------------------------------------------- Help Key Pressing the HELP key will bring up a status display showing the amount of memory available, the state of the printer and capture buffer toggles and the version of Comm. The SHIFT HELP key can be used to view the KEYBOARD MACROS that have been defined. --------------------------------------------- Input Window When a menu item is selected that requires a filename input, the INPUT WINDOW will appear in the upper left hand corner of the screen. This window will contain an informative message relating to the operation selected, a string gadget for text input and two select gadgets. The large string gadget in the center is used for entering filenames. Position the pointer inside the blue select box and click the left mouse button to activate this gadget. When the cursor appears inside the gagdet, enter the filename desired. Hitting return will enter the filename and remove the INPUT WINDOW. You can also click the left mouse button over the text in the lower left hand corner to complete the operation. Selecting CANCEL will abort the operation. Under DOS 1.2, the INPUT WINDOW string gadget will be active when the INPUT WINDOW opens. You will not have to click in it to activate it. --------------------------------------------- Window Gadgets The screens contain hidden gadgets for closing and depth arranging the Comm screen. The CLOSE gadget is in the upper left hand corner. The depth gadgets are in the upper right hand corner. The operation of the depth gadgets differs slightly from what you may expect. The left hand depth gadget will send the Comm screen to the back to allow access to the WorkBench or other screen. The right hand depth gadget will bring the View Window to the front -- if it was pushed to the rear. The close gadget also operates differently depending upon which mode Comm is in. In the single screen mode, the close gadget can be used to EXIT Comm. In the split screen mode, there is a close gadget in the corner of both screens. The gadget in the large window will cancel the split screen mode. The gadget in the small screen will exit Comm. --------------------------------------------- Phone library: (sample phone library is at end of this file) When loaded, Comm looks first on the default drive for a file called comm.phone. If not found, it then looks on the SYS: device for this file. If not found, Comm will operate with out the phone library but you will not have the auto dial options. If called from the CLI, you can specify another file for the phone library on the command line such as: Comm business.numbers Comm will try the above mentioned search pattern looking for the file 'business.numbers'. The phone libraries are ASCII text files (created with ED) with fixed format records as follows: 17 characters for a BBS name ex. Plink 17 characters for the phone number ex. 1-800-555-1212 9 characters for default baud rate for number 32 characters for any user comment ex. Tymnet, enter A This looks like the following: | 17 | 17 | 9 | 32 | |----- name -----|---- number ----|- baud -|--------- comment ------------| amiga talk 1,602-846-3901 1200 ??? amiga/128 1,213-662-2424 1200 CA amiga and 128 stuff > 555-1212,,01234 MCI gateway and account number Note that lines starting with | are ignored when the file is read in and are used for comments. The bars (|) also mark the field widths for alignment purposes. One entry ( > in the name field ) can be an alternate long distance service access number and account number. When this feature is desired the contents of the number field will be sent before the phone number selected. The modem dial commands can also be specified in the phone library using one of the following command sequences: <D sets the dial PREFIX string. <T sets the TERMINATOR string. <H sets the HANGUP string. <I sets the initialization string <E sets the exit string These sequences must start in col. 1 and are limited to 32 characters. Any of the KEY MACRO special symbols (such as delay, line break or control codes) may be included in any of thses strings. The following are the default HAYES modem setup strings used by Comm if not changed by the user. <DATDT DIAL Prefix command (ATDT) <T^M DIAL terminator ( CR ) <H\w\w+++\w\w\w\wATH^M HANGUP command (1 sec +++ 2 sec ATH CR) <I Initialization -- none <E Exit -- none The initialization string will be sent to the modem soon after Comm opens the serial device and before keyboard input is accepted. The exit string is send just before the serial device is closed when exiting Comm. --------------------------------------------- Keyboard Macros: On entry, Comm will look on the default drive for the file comm.keys. If not found it will look for SYS:comm.keys. This file is an ASCII file (created with ED) containing the macros to be expanded whenever a function key is pressed. In this release the function keys definable are F1 through F10 and SHIFT F1 thru F10. A sample comm.keys file follows: f1/clubs;/sel commodore\r f2/not;for;/read new^m f3/lib;rev;qsc all\r F4/dlo;fil;xmo;\r\r S10/off Notice that each definition starts in column 1 with an 'f' or 's' followed by the number of the key to be defined. Entries beginning with F belong to F1 thru F10, those beginning with S belong to SHIFT F1 thru SHIFT F10. The body of the macro follows the number. Do not separate the key number from the body with spaces unless you desire spaces to be output. A macro definition must be contained on 1 line (127 bytes maximum). The macros can be defined in any order and not all keys have to be defined. Duplicate definitions overwrite the previous definition, that is, only the last definition sticks. The first one is overwritten. The macros can contain control characters which can be represented in two ways -- using C slash conventions ( \n \r etc) or by using the caret followed by a letter ( ^C ^L etc.). The only C types supported in this release are \n, \r, \t, \f and \\. Also, \n is equivalent to \r, both meaning CR. If you need the line feed character, use ^J instead. A 500 millisecond delay can be generated by using \w. Multiple \w's can be used to get a longer delay. A 250 ms LINE BREAK can be generated with the sequence \l. You can cause one macro to be included inside of another macro by using the \m## option, where ## is a number from 1 to 20 - with 1 representing macro F1 and 11 and 20 representing S1 and S20. For example: F1 is defined as cc testfile\r F2 is defined as link testfile^M F3 is defined as \m1\m2run testfile\r Pressing F3 will emit the string: cc testfile\rlink testfile^Mrun testfile\r Once the comm.keys are loaded, press the SHIFT HELP key to list the macro definitions to the screen. Errors are detected while loading the .keys file and displayed on the screen. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- BUGS: When the Status requester is active, the other window gadgets will not function. Same is true of the file input requester. If another program 'steals' all of the audio channels, Comm will lose it's bell. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sample phone library: | The following entries are the Dial, Terminating and Hangup strings | for a Hayes modem. These can be changed for other modem types. <DATDT <T^M <H\w\w+++\w\w\w\wATH^M | 17 | 17 | 9 | 32 | |----- name -----|---- number ----|- baud -|--------- comment ------------| amiga talk 1,602-846-3901 1200 amiga/128 1,213-662-2424 1200 CA amuse 1,212-269-4879 1200 NY fido node 107/34 amy bbs 1,303-693-4735 1200 CO amy palace 1,201-446-1424 1200 NJ casa mi amy 1,904-733-4515 1200 FL connection 1,615-868-7860 1200 TN dragon 1,402-291-8053 1200 NE rpg board guest 1,618-378-2133 1200 IL "Username:GUEST" micro systems 1,305-737-1590 1200 micro systems developer exch 1,408-372-1722 1200 maxi corp amigaboard 1,513-898-0702 1200 OH technisoft 1,801-264-8290 1200 UT fido, mostly MS-DOS vivid xpres 1,714-493-6094 300 CA