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- This may be reprinted as long as the author and Current Notes
- are given proper credit.
-
- 6 ST Terminal Programs: A comparison of Their Features
- by Ed Seward
-
- First, a little background. I bought my first modem (an 835 for the 800)
- 2 1/2 years ago. As is very common I worked through DISKLINK, TSCOPE,
- HOMETERM and AMODEM 7.2. A lot of ST owners, like myself, are use to the
- excellent terminal programs available for the 8-bit line. It was this and my
- getting my first Hayes compatible modem that led me to look for a reliable
- terminal program with a LOT of features. Some people may just want an
- inexpensive, easy to use program. Others may want to have an abundance of
- features. Regardless of which type of terminal software you are looking for
- - read on. Although this comparison isn't complete it does include most if
- not all of the popular programs. You're bound to find the information below
- helpful in making your choice.
-
- Some General overviews
-
- In looking at RS232 configuration for reach program, I like the ability
- to set the whole configuration from within a program. Two programs, ST-Term
- and PC/InterComm, do this from one sub-menu. Two programs, MI-Term and
- Flash, use the easier and nicer method of a GEM dialog box. With the last
- two programs, one just clicks on the appropriate buttons to make the
- settings more quickly. Most BBS's and services support 8-bit words and 1
- stop bit with no parity so the two programs without internal RS232 setup,
- Chat and ST-Talk, can get by in most cases.
-
- Disk Functions
-
- Another category I look for is the built-in disk functions; particularly
- directory listings and change pathname. Three lacked any disk functions -
- Chat, MI-Term and PC/InterComm. MI-Term and PC/InterComm do allow one to
- exit the program without affecting/hanging-up the modem. In my opinion this
- defeats the purpose of having a powerful computer like the ST - its like
- driving a car without a gas gauge.
- The change pathname or default drive commands are good for switching the
- default to the B: drive or ramdisk without having to constantly include the
- drive identifier in the filename. These are the necessary commands. One
- program, ST-Term, has an abundance of built-in disk functions. The
- comparison chart lists the disk functions supported by each program.
-
- Supported Emulations and Translations
-
- Having a common emulation makes for easier hookup to different systems.
- It isn't necessary to have an emulation just for BBSing, but it does
- simplify setting up your terminal defaults when signing on to a system for
- the first time. The VT52 emulation is very easily accessed in the ST and is
- thus available in four of the programs. Three of the programs (Flash,
- ST-Term and PC/InterComm) also emulate a VT100 or ANSI terminal which is
- required to fully access some mainframes (ST-Talk emulates a VT52 but not
- the VT100). Flash is the only one to directly support Vidtex graphics and
- allows one to save a screen image in DEGAS format. A light ATASCII
-
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- translation is supported directly by ST-Talk and ST-Term. Flash can handle
- the ATASCII by converting the translation table as necessary. It is nice to
- be able to deal with the ATASCII translation so that one can take fuller
- advantage of the 8-bit Atari BBS's.
- The translation table I mentioned Flash having is very handy to have.
- What it does is allow one to selectively translate an incoming or outgoing
- character to another character. The best example of this is the conversion
- of the ATASCII EOL to an ASCII LF. Flash and PC/InterComm are the only two
- programs in this comparison with translation tables.
-
- Macros and Functions
-
- Five of the programs have macro capabilities. Among the nice things
- about macros is if one finds themselves repeatedly using a particular string
- or key sequence then just set it up as a macro.
- Both Flash and MI-Term give one the option of using keys or the mouse
- and the GEM menu bar for frequently used functions. Flash goes one step
- further and allows one to access everything from a command line thus
- streamlining its use once one is familiar with the program.
- Flash and MI-Term have the ability to dial automatically and log one
- onto a system. (Flash does this from a 60 number directory and I found it
- easier to setup partly because of having a lot more commands to work with.)
- ST-Term has the biggest autodial directory with room for 400 numbers.
- ST-Term doesn't have the auto-logon capability but it does keep the RS232
- configuration, password and account number for each phone number. The
- password and account number are then accessible as macros after connecting
- as ^P for password and ^N for account number. ST-Talk and Chat do have
- autodial directories of 26 and 24 numbers respectively. Chat, Flash and
- ST-Term are the only ones of the six that have auto-redial. None of these
- programs have the ability to scan a list of phone numbers until connecting
- with one of the selected numbers. The ST BBS's are getting busy and this
- would be a nice feature to have. (Alan Page has just made a patch available
- for Flash to do this.)
-
- File Transfers
-
- Two people recommended tests in this area - Joe Waters suggested timing
- XMODEM U/L and D/L of the same file and Moksha Raver pointed out that all ST
- terminal software has trouble transferring files to Atari 8-bit BBS's.
- Upon hearing Joe's suggestion I found a DEGAS low resolution (not
- squeezed) picture file. I then proceeded to upload and download that file
- with each program to the WAACE ST BBS which is running FOREM ST on a 512k
- ST. All transfers were done straight to and from disk without a ramdisk. The
- results are in figure 1 (ST BBS XMODEM Timings).
- Moksha's remarks interested me so I tried to download a file from
- ARMUDIC (running FOREM on a modified 400 with an ATR8000). All of the
- programs failed to properly transfer a file. The results are in figure 2
- (8-bit Atari BBS XMODEM).
- The failures of all of the terminal programs to download properly from
- an 8-bit Atari BBS lies in the AMODEM variation of XMODEM. On other systems
- (Compuserve, Delphi, and non-8-bit Atari BBS's) I've used PC/InterComm,
- ST-Talk, ST-Term, Flash and MI-Term to download files over 512 blocks long
- without any trouble at all. In the preparation to receive or send XMODEM,
- only one program allows one to set up the file on disk to save to or read
- from before telling the other system to start - that one being ST-Term. The
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- two programs that use GEM, Flash and MI-Term, are of course the only two
- that provide the "Item Selector" box to choose a file name to upload or
- download.
-
- A Look at the Individual programs
-
- To give this section some organization, I'm going to start with the
- program with the lowest list price, Chat, and work up to the highest,
- PC/InterComm.
-
- Chat v2.0 ($15.99)
-
- There are two nice features in this program. Chat allows ten macros for
- each number in the dialing directory. Chat also has autoredial. When using
- XMODEM the buffer sends and receives 128 blocks between accesses to the
- disk.
- The things that bothered me about this program were numerous. First is
- the lack of any disk functions - no directory listing and no change pathname
- command. A program without these is starting off with little chance of my
- liking the program. With a half or 1 meg machine and the documentation
- available for the ST there is NO excuse not to provide thse commands in a
- commercial terminal program. Some of the other things I didn't like were
- separate configuration and dialing directory edit programs. Neither of those
- programs displayed an error message when trying to write to a write
- protected disk. (It didn't cause me any problems, its just that poor error
- trapping goes against my programming background.) Both the autodial and
- function help menus appear on the 'same screen' as the terminal mode, thus
- scrolling everything off. A simple change of the screens pointer in memory
- would allow quick changes between screens. The last problem is the lack of
- even a VT-52 emulator which Atari makes readily accessible.
- The summary of all this - I found Chat too antiquated' in
- user-interfacing and tired of it quickly. Even for the low price I can't
- recommend this program.
-
- ST-Talk v1.1 ($19.95)
-
- The features that Chat has and ST-Talk doesn't are macros and
- auto-redial. However, with ST-Talk one gets a VT-52 and some ATASCII
- emulation, internal modification of the autodial directory. ST-Talk also has
- the list directory and change pathname commands. Also, unlike Chat, ST-Talk
- (and the other six programs) uses 'separate' screens (different screen
- addresses or pointers) for terminal mode, function, help and autodial
- menus.
- The function keys are used to access a majority of the functions within
- Chat and ST-Talk. I do have to say that I found the 'feel' of ST-Talk to be
- nicer. That is, the time was taken to pretty up ST-Talk and ease its use
- rather than just output some text on the next line asking for a filename or
- whatnot as is done in Chat.
- Although this program doesn't have as many functions as the higher
- priced programs it does work well and is very easy to learn. This is a good
- program for someone that is just getting into telecomputing and doesn't want
- to spend much.
-
- ST-Term v2.0 ($34.95)
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- As a look at figure 3 shows, this program has quite a few features. This
- was the first program I was really happy with.
- Disk functions are in abundance within ST-Term. Along with the
- 'necessary' commands like list a directory and change path; ST-Term has
- format a disk and copy a file just to mention a few. Another nice feature is
- the ability to edit the modem commands used by the program. For example, the
- Avatex 1200 doesn't support the Hayes hangup command ('ATH0'). To have the
- auto-redial work within ST-Term work with the Avatex one must change the
- 'ATH0' to just 'AT'. (A blank or just a c/r just continued to cause
- errors.)
- Whereas Chat and ST-Talk relied on the function keys for functions;
- ST-Term is the least expensive to provide access to the functions through a
- menu and the 'Alternate' or 'Alt' key used with another key. This makes
- XMODEM as easy as "Alt-S" for XMODEM-Send. One can toggle the 64k capture
- buffer on and off with an "Alt-C". As you can see this makes things fast and
- easy once one becomes familiar with ST-Term. The use of the 'Alt' key for
- functions also allows for more functions. This also leaves more of the
- function keys free for macros. As I mentioned earlier, the RS232
- configuration is saved with each number in the autodial directory. Another
- nice feature is the ability to load ST-Term's settings in from a 'SET'
- file.
- Among the other things that stand out is that ST-Term supports Kermit
- batch file transfers, emulates a VT100, a VT52, supports some ATASCII
- translation and the Amodem version of XMODEM (as well as the standard
- XMODEM), a status screen.
- Depsite how much I like the program I have to point out the couple
- things I don't like. First, the clock/timer is only visible when one calls
- up the status screen. Also, I couldn't get a configuration of 8-bit word, no
- parity, 1 stop bit (8,N,1) to work at 1200 baud on Compuserve or Tymnet. I
- had no trouble with any other BBS or system with this configuration. (I had
- the same problem with MI-Term.)
-
- Flash v1.0 ($39.95)
-
- Let me start with the five things I found missing from Flash. It doesn't
- have a format disk or copy file commands. Flash doen't have a transform
- colors nor a conditional branch or loop statement in the choice of commands.
- Flash also doesn't support Kermit file transfers. (Personally, I don't need
- Kermit protocol. In testing it in the two programs that supported Kermit, I
- was amazed at how much slower it is than xmodem.) Everything else I looked
- for is in Flash - plus a whole lot more. (I should also mention that ST-Term
- is the only program in this comparison that has the first two commands and
- none has the third or fourth commands.) On to the structure of Flash.
- There are two screens used within Flash. the manual refers to them as
- "terminal" and "capture". the terminal mode appears ordinary with the status
- line. However, because Flash uses GEM the Help screen is actually four
- dialog boxes called up in sequence and displays the available commands. File
- transfers bring up that familiar 'Item Selector' box to allow easy viewing
- of the files already on a particular disk. (Two things I like about both
- ST-Term and Flash is that listing a drive's directory is as simple as
- "Alt-1" or "Alt-2"; and the file sizes are included in the display.)
- The second screen or "capture" is a window with the standard slide and
- menu bars. Flash is the only terminal program in this comparison with a
- built-in text editor. The editor has a few block commands and allows the use
- of the arrow keys or the mouse to position the cursor. Having an editor of
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- this type included within the program makes it much easier to edit messages
- and EMAIL on the various services and BBS's. The editor can also be used to
- edit the capture buffer before saving it to disk or for editing the 'DO'
- files.
- What is a 'DO file'? That is a text file containing commands recognized
- by Flash. Not counting variations of any one command there are 69 commands
- available for use within a DO file or the command line. (There are 19
- commands using the 'Alt' key to provide faster access to frequently used
- commands.) Now back to those 69 commands. In the dialing directory it is
- possible to assign a DO file to each phone number and set teh number of
- redials from 0 to 99. When one connects the DO file is executed. It is also
- possible to have a DO file that waits until a particular time and then
- starts executing the other commands. the best example of this is to have
- Flash wait until 2 in the morning to call Compuserve, execute a logon
- sequence and then scan for messages and/or download a particular file. The
- reason for having Flash wait until 2 AM is the system response time will be
- faster due to fewer people being online. Also, with the DO file one can load
- a different: function key definition file, translation table or flash
- configuration file. One DO file can also call another. My use of DO files is
- spreading rapidly as my library of them grows.
- Another area controlled by the user is the way files are up or
- downloaded. In the XMODEM area there is: 8-bit/CRC, and 8-bit or 7-bit
- checksum transfers. Also, one can have Flash pad the last block with
- control-z's as per 'standard' XMODEM or use a size block as teh last block
- as is done in the AMODEM (Atari 8-bit) version of XMODEM. In the ASCII file
- transfer section there is again quite a bit of user control: toggle DC2/DC4
- control and toggle linefeed strip to name a few.
- I should also mention that Ian Chadwick (of Mapping The Atari fame)
- helped with the documentation. With illustrations the manual covers 50 pages
- (each approximately 6 inches square). I found the reading very smooth and
- the structure of the manual excellent. The section that has proved essential
- is "the Flash Referance Guide" which covers twenty of the fifty pages by
- itself and provides a brief rundown on each command.
- For the numerous people who have bought Flash I should tell you that
- Alan Page is slightly modifying Flash. First, the RS232 incoming buffer is
- being enlarged to take care of some minor display problems at 9600 baud. (A
- public domain program for those that won't want to send their disks in is
- available - 9600.PRG.) Other improvements/corrections include speeding up
- the ASCII upload and adding "Alt-W" key combination to clear the buffer. He
- is also adding "Document installation" support. If one double clicks on a DO
- file then Flash will run and execute that DO file.
- Supposedly having finished the comparison I just made a visit to
- Compuserve and a patch for Flash has been made available - FLSPAT.TOS and
- FLSPAT.DOC. The DOC file explains how to set up Flash to dial through a list
- of phone numbers. The examples show how to go through a list of BBS's and be
- prepared to logon to each of those that isn't busy. The examples also show
- how to setup for continuous dialing of a list of numbers until connecting to
- one.
-
- MI-Term v3.0 ($49.95)
-
- This program was the first commercial terminal program for the ST to use
- GEM. Overall MI-Term is a pretty good program, but it does have a coupler
- problems. First, MI-Term is another of those programs without any installed
- disk functions. I find that a nuisance. However, it was pointed out to me
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- that the DOS exit doesn't have to be a generic (public domain) "COMMAND.TOS"
- - that is the filename that MI-Term looks for when using the DOS exit. Two
- good files to use in this situation are "DOS Shell" and "Micro C Shell". At
- least with this type of exit one has easy access to a complete set of disk
- functions including changing the default drive. As is the case with the
- majority of the programs Kermit transfer protocol isn't supported. Another
- thing is that there is some 'color shattering' at higher baud rates. I also
- found the functions for use within the presets (these are similar to the
- function keys in Flash in that one can assign a string of commands using
- special function commands) awkward and limited.
- MI-Term does have quite a few features that I liked. Among these is
- having access to the GEM menu bar at all times. This allows one to use the
- mouse or an "Alt" key combination to execute one of the functions. Another
- useful feature is the function to print out the presets. This is important
- since one can load in different presets and having a listing of the presets
- simplifies things quite a bit. As in Flash the desk accessories are
- accessible from within MI-Term. Throughout MI-Term GEM has been used to good
- advantage. For file transfers a GEM 'Item Selector' box is displayed to
- select a filename. During an XModem transfer a different box is displayed to
- keep one informed as to how the transfer is going. The use of another box
- for the transfer status is a nice touch.
- By the time you read this a new version of MI-Term will be available -
- version 4.0. As I won't get a review copy of this until after CURRENT NOTES
- has gone to press I'll pass on what I was told by J. Weaver Jr. the
- programmer of MI-Term. The size of the program itself (ver 4.0) is just over
- 84k. One can set time limits/delays of 0 to 255 seconds for phone redials
- along with a wait until a specified time to execute a preset. The command
- set has been enlarged to 45 commands with 15 commands per preset. The preset
- editting has been changed to use three windows. In the top left of the
- screen there is a window list of the presets; in the top right of the screen
- is a window containing the preset being editted, and in the bottom right is
- a window containing all the commands. To edit on selects a preset in the
- first window then clicks on a command and drags it to the desired location
- in the window in the top right of the screen. If a parameter is required for
- a selected command then another window will appear requesting the necessary
- information. A branch command has been added in case of errors or timeouts.
- (The commands have been changed to "script" and a conversion program is on
- the disk to convert the old style presets - the conversion program means one
- won't have to rewrite all their presets right away.) Another thing is that
- the "color shattering" at high speeds has been taken care of and the buffer
- works better now. (I didn't have any problem with the buffer at 1200 baud.)
- Lastly, Mr. Weaver has added spilt screens to MI-Term.
- If you already have MI-Term, remember that Michtron's upgrade policy is
- detailed in the back of the manual.
-
- PC/InterComm v3.03 ($99.95)
-
- Before I got PC/InterComm I had heard two things about it. First, it
- could be configured to connect to access practically any system with the ST.
- Second, there are no built in disk functions. Both are true. However, two of
- the lower priced programs (Flash and ST-Term) support the VT100 emulation
- and ST-Term supports the Kermit transfer protocol.
- The main thing I like about PC/InterComm is the explicitness of the
- error messages. (The error message in the XModem test on an 8-bit Atari BBS,
- fig. 2, being an excellent example.)
-
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-
- Another good point for those that don't mind a lot of menus is that
- essentially everything can be done from one menu or another. (My point about
- the menus is that a couple dialog boxes properly done could ele`iminate
- quite a few menus.) The menus are even used to select the default transfer
- protocol from: raw ascii, DC2/DC4, MODEM7, Kermit and Kermit Image.
- One could create an autodial directory of sorts using the function keys.
- To do this set up a command string to dial a number and log one on to the
- specified system. One could do this for each function key and save the
- resulting setup as a directory. After connecting to a system one could then
- load in a different setup file with function keys appropriate to that
- system.
- PC/InterComm does have a lot of useful features. There is the ability to
- save and load setup or configuration files as do ST-Term, Flash and MI-Term.
- The setup/configuration files are easy to set up using the multitude of
- menus. The manual is such that one could practically use it to teach a
- course in telecommunications - 129 pages (5x8 inches). The manual guides the
- user through the variuous functions step by step.
- This brings me to the negative points. First, the price. With the
- quality and price of most of the other terminal programs available for the
- ST, Mark of the Unicorn needs to greatly reduce the cost of PC/InterComm to
- be competitive. Second, I don't like to repeatedly go through several levels
- of menus. Adding more "Alt" key combination commands would help quite a bit.
- Another missing feature is an autodial menu. True, the setup file store one
- phone number. However, when one system is busy I just move on to another or
- just use auto-redial whic is also missing.
- Overall, PC/InterComm is a good program but not for the average user.
- This program is more for a business that needs to connect with a DEC or VAX
- system; and is going to have people with varied amounts of
- telecommunications experience using PC/InterComm. Even then one should
- seriously consider ST-Term or Flash.
-
-
-
- ST BBS XMODEM Timing
- figure 1
-
- Program Uploading Downloading
- time blocks/disk access time blocks/access
-
- Chat 6:19 128 6:12 128
- ST-Talk 6:56 4 6:53 2
- ST-Term 7:50 8 7:44 8
- Flash 6:30 32 6:38 32
- MI-Term 6:33 50 6:20 50
- PC/InterComm 7:47 4 8:00 4
-
-
- average 6:59 6:58
-
-
-
-
- 8-bit Atari BBS XMODEM
- figure 2
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- Program Block # of failure Programs message
- Chat 130 goes into a loop, hung system
- ST-Talk 256 gave up after 9 tries
- ST-Term 512 after 511 blocks, nothing saved
- Flash 256 synch error
- MI-Term 256 wrong block sent
- PC/InterComm 256 block 1 received, aborted
-
-
-
- ST Terminal Program Feature Comparison List
- figure 3
- ===========================================================================
- program 1 2 3 4 5 6
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
- GEM supported N N N Y Y N
- Desk Accesories accesible N N N Y Y N
- If GEM not supported
- are multiple screens used N Y Y Y
- DOCUMENTATION 1-10 (10 best) 8 6 8 9 9 10
- ERROR trapping P G E E E E
- (Poor, So-So, Good, Excellent)
- RS232 Configuration
- Internal (I) or External (E) E E I I I I
- If internal mouse (B) or menu (T) T B B T
- Terminal Emulations
- VT52 N Y Y Y N Y
- VT100 N N Y Y N Y
- ATASCII supported N Y Y *1 N N
- Internal DOS funtions
- Directory listing N Y Y Y N N
- Path Change N Y Y Y N N
- Disk Format N N Y N N N
- Copy a file N N Y *2 N N
- Type file to screen N N Y Y N N
- Print a file N N Y *2 N N
- Erase File N Y Y Y N N
- Rename File N Y Y N N N
- Transfer protocals
- XMODEM Y Y Y Y Y Y
- Kermit N N Y N N Y
-
- Built in autodial directory Y Y Y Y N N
- # of numbers 24 26 400 60 0 0
- automatic redial Y N Y Y N N
- FUNCTION keys (presets) Y N Y Y Y Y
- number of keys 10 0 20 20 26 20
- strings only Y Y N N N
- reloadable N Y Y Y Y
- Timer Y Y Y Y Y
- visible at all times Y N Y Y Y *3
- timer start on logon Y Y Y Y Y
-
- *1 - ATASCII can be used through a translation table
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- *2 - these functions can be achieved by loading a file into the
- editor/capture buffer
-
- *3 - PC/InterComm doesn't update the timer display during file transfers
-
-
- ------------------------------------------------------------
- Programs reviewed
- 1 = Chat version 2.0 from SST Systems, $15.95
- 2 = ST-Talk, version 1.1 from QMI, $19.95
- 3 = ST-Term, version 2.0 from Commnet Systems, $34.95
- 4 = Flash, version 1.0 from ANTIC, $39.95
- 5 = MI-Term, version 3.0 from Michtron, $49.95
- 6 = PC/InterComm, version 3.03 from Mark of the Unicorn, $99.95
-
-
- A SUMMARY
-
- Now I suppose a lot of you would like me to recommend one of these
- programs. First, there are two programs that I can't recommend; one is
- overpriced and the other needs some more work - they are PC/InterComm and
- Chat respectively. Now the best recommendation I can give one of these
- programs is to say that I use it almost exclusively since finishing up the
- comparison - that program is Flash.
-
- Coming to Going Online
-
- Supra sent me a copy of their Omega terminal program but has not yet
- arrived (I guess the mailman's horse is getting too old). So in the near
- future I will run it through it's paces as I will MI-Term 4.0 (I will also
- be glad to add in other terminal programs for the ST I receive before the
- end of August). In that column I will include updated versions of all three
- tables within this column along with other applicable information I may
- receive in the meantime.
- I will also return to the 8-bit world to take another look at Games
- Computers Play. I will also do another comparison of 8-bit terminal programs
- (in a manner similar to that used above) if I find enough new Atari 1030
- compatible material and get enough requests. Among the more general long
- range topics I am considering is a look at some of the online services more
- particularly the Atari SIGs on those services.
- I am supplying my various physical and online addresses for those
- wishing to get in touch with me.
-
- Ed Seward
- P O Box 6826
- Alexandria, VA 22306
-
- 73476,1664 Compuserve
- EDSEWARD Delphi
- 1.28 ProtoCall
-