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1978-11-16
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Comm 1.32 Beta 5
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)
---------------------------------------------
Features:
ASCII send and capture modes.
XMODEM send/receive with checksum and CRC modes and AUTOCHOP on
receive files.
Windowed XMODEM receive.
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
An alternate long distance service number (MCI, SPRINT etc)
can be used.
Split screen mode for conferencing. Received characters appear in
a separate window from your typed characters.
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
Menu driven.
---------------------------------------------
Preparation:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, the INPUT window will appear
in the upper left corner of the screen. Move the pointer to the
long string gadget in the center of the window and enter the name
of the file to be transfered. Hitting RETURN or clicking on the
OK gadget will start the transfer. See the section on INPUT window
for more information on the gadgets in this window.
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.
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.
Use the HELP key 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.
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.
You can select a time to delay after transmitting each
character by using the slider gadget in the INPUT windows
drag bar.
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.
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.
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
The named file will be opened on the disk and the
XMODEM protocol will be started using the error checking
method (CRC or Checksum) selected by the receiving end.
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: XMODEM Text Send
XMODEM Text Send
Read the text for XMODEM transmit above.
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.
Default is 1200 baud.
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 tansmitted 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.
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.
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.
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.
---------------------------------------------
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.
Be careful not to overflow the printers buffer and if Comm
seems hung, check on the WorkBench screen for a PRINTER
PROBLEM requestor. Under DOS 1.2, the workbench screen
will automatically appear with the requestor.
---------------------------------------------
Help Key
The HELP key can be used to view the KEYBOARD MACROS that have
been defined, the state of the printer and capture buffer toggles
and the version of Comm. You will also see the amount of
available memory.
---------------------------------------------
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, two string gadgets 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.
The smaller string gadget can be used to enter a default
directory string. Whatever is put in here will be prepended to
the filename entered in the string gadget. If you were to put
DF1:NewFiles/ in the gadget, all up/down loads will be from the
NewFiles directory on DF1: If you enter a filename with an
imbedded colon, the default is over ridden. That means, with the
above default, you could get a file from RAM: by entering
RAM:SomeFile for a filename.
---------------------------------------------
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 HELP key to list the
macro definitions to the screen.
Errors are detected while loading the .keys file and displayed on
the screen.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BUGS:
Screen sometimes displays garbage as though you were typing a
binary file. I have seen this once or twice but not enough to
discover what may be causing the problem.
If another program 'steals' all of the audio channels, Comm will
lose it's bell.
BUGS Fixed:
ASCII transfers on Telenet should not hang.
Half duplex mode now prints and captures function key expansions
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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
FAUG 1,415-595-5452 1200 CA
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
