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README.PAX
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1993-03-26
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---- PAX V 2.85 ----
A resident terminal program
---------------------------------------------
Property of
G.G.Rajendra Kumar - VU2ZAP
New features marked with an "*"
NOTE:
PAX.COM IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE
ENTIRE RISK OF USING THIS UTILITY IS ASSUMED BY YOU. IN NO
EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER
ARISING OUT OF YOUR USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE PROGRAM. BY
USING THIS UTILITY, YOU AGREE TO THE ABOVE LIMITATIONS.
Having to exit my word processor or editor just to load
up a terminal program to see what was happening on the local
BBS frequency is quite inconvenient. If you do that quite a few
times you know what an inconvenience it really is. I spent a few
months of spare time working out the bits of code that would fit
in this program. Finally when I had it working, I decided to do
away with all the other terminal programs from my hard disk. Now
its a pleasure to POP-UP PAX over my current program and work on
the BBS or monitor the local frequency.
Pax is a resident terminal program written in assembly
with a view towards keeping the code size small and occupy as
little RAM as possible. With these restrictions in mind I have
not included some features that I would ideally like to have. I
would like to add more features but I am not sure how much of
RAM most you would like to spare for a terminal program. PAX can
be loaded into high memory with a suitable memory manager.
To install PAX, copy pax to a directory on your hard
disk which is in the path. Run PAX on the command line. If all
goes well you will get a message that PAX has been installed.
The Install message also announces the Hot-Key to start up the
program.
You can invoke the terminal program by pressing the
default Hot-Key which is ALT-F10 or by running PAX for the
second time on the DOS command line. After you get the PAX
window on the screen, try and see which color combination looks
the best on your screen. To do this press F8 repeatedly, it will
take you through the three available combination of colors.
Next set up the communications port parameters for PAX.
Press F6 for set up. Change the parameters if you want any other
than the default or just press ENTER to keep the default values.
If you have two modems connected to your PC, press F7 to
enable modem 2 and so a new setup. Now modem 1 and 2 can have
different port parameters if required. Pressing F7 will quickly
switch between the two modems.
If you want to change the hot key from the default ones,
press F9 and choose your favorite combination.
After you are through with the above steps, save all the
parameters to the file PAX.COM by pressing F10. The next time
you start your computer and load PAX, all parameters that are
now selected will come on as default.
These parameters are saved to PAX.COM as default:
1> PORT parameters, BAUD|PARITY|STOP|WORD|PORT|PRINTER|IRQ
2> Screen COLORS
3> HOT-KEY
4> BRAG buffers contents
5> Buffer size
6> ESC key checking <See Note 2> *
7> Capture path *
Pax window header displays
1> Version
2> Serial port number
3> Baud
4> Capture file name (if ON)
5> Printer (if ON)
6> Review buffer size remaining (R:#####) normally
or Captured bytes (C:#####) while in capture mode
or Byte sent (F:#####) while in file send mode
See Note 1.
7> ESC (if ESC key checking is enabled) *
8> Hot key
FUNCTION KEYS:
F1 Help, No help is available on line. Type on DOS command
line PAX /? to get a help screen. This has been done to
keep the RAM usage to a minimum.
F2 Capture. PAX will automatically open a file in the
present directory or in the capture directory specified
with ALT-F4 called PAXCAP.1 for the first file
and PAXCAP.2 for the second and so on till PAXCAP.999.
It will not overwrite any file captured earlier but make
a file with an unused extension number. Capture writes
to this file all data received. Capture file can be
closed by pressing F2 again Note: Capture will not
continue when the PAX window is closed.
F3 * Send. Send the contents of an text file. Create a file that you want to transmit in a text editor. All text
characters will be transmitted with the exception of
line feeds. Press any key while sending to abort the
file send. Pressing return or specifying a directory
shows you the directory. Use up/down to select a file
and press enter to send. Maximum files in a directory
is 176. (added v2.85)
F4 Start the printer. This enables printing, all characters
received will be sent to the printer. If the printer is
not ready then an error message will be displayed. PAX
will also alert you quickly when the paper is over in
the printer.
F5 Clear screen. Clears the send and receive windows.
Press enter again to see the command prompt.
F6 Setup port parameters. These parameters affect the
computer to modem communication. After reading your
modem manual change any of the defaults that suit your
modem. Press ESC or enter no value to keep the default.
F7 Toggle modem stream. PAX can be separately configured
for two different ports or modems. This key will toggle
between the two settings.
F8 Change color. Pressing F8 will change the default screen
colors. Only three color combinations are available.
F9 Change Hot-Key. Hot key combination can be changed to
suit your taste. Almost any key or a combination of the
ALT, CTRL, Left-Shift or Right Shift keys can be used.
F10 Save defaults. All Port parameters colors, hot-key and
Brag buffers will be saved back to the PAX.COM as
defaults.
SHIFT-F1-F10
Enter or edit 10 brag buffers. Each buffer holds 64
characters.
CTRL-F1-F10
Send brag buffers.
ALT-F1 Set date and time from system clock.
Format DA YYMMDDMMHHSS.
ALT-F2 Send ASCII text file named PAX.INI. Use this to
initialize your modem.
ALT-F3 Save review buffer to a file named PAX.SAV in current
directory or the capture directory if specified. *
If the file already exists then PAX will append the
contents of the current screen buffer to the file
PAX.SAV. After saving the buffer is cleared.
ALT-F4 Set PATH for capture files, if no path is set then
current directory is used. Path name must be legal
and exist, no backslash at th end of the path please.
Capture path is saved to default with F10. *
Review mode:
Pressing Up/Dn keys will invoke the review mode. This
mode displays the received data which scrolled off the screen.
The amount of data stored is changeable by command line options.
Review mode keys:
Up Dn Left Right PgUp PgDn Home and End keys serves to move the
data on the screen. Insert will save data in buffer to PAX.SAV
in the corrent directory OR in directory specified by capture *
path and clear the buffer. Delete will clear data.
When the data in the buffer overflows, PAX overwrites
the oldest data on the buffer.
Syntax & command line parameters:
Pax /option
/I = Install - Install pax in memory, don't pop-up on install
(useful for autoexec.bat)
/U = Uninstall - Remove pax from memory
/? = Syntax
/H = Help
/M#= Modem stream number 1 or 2
/C#= Serial port number 1 to 4
/R#= Set buffer size to # - change size of review buffer
Min:2048 Max:20480 Default:4096
/K*= Set hot key. Any key or with ALT,LSHift,RSHift and
CTL may be used. e.g /K ALT+F11 OR /K F11
/E = Enable/Disable ESC key Checking (AMT3 or similar users?) *
Setting the review buffer size larger will enable you
to store more data for review. It will result in PAX occupying
more ram. You can change the default value only on the command
line and save it with F10.
Example:PAX /m1 /c2 /r20480 /KF11 /i /E
or
PAX /c 2 /r 20480 /k F11 /i /E
(Install on COM2 with review buffer size at 20K bytes and set hot
key to F11, do not pop-up on install. Do not check ESC key.)
Technical notes:
PAX is an interrupt driven terminal program. Due to this
terminal speeds of 9600 baud may be used even on the slowest
8086 compatible machines.
PAX invokes itself when opportunity exists during DOS
FREE or TIMER interrupt. PAX will not POP-UP during disk, bios
or print screen operations. PAX also does not POP-UP if it finds
it unsafe to POP-UP when a program is running in the foreground.
Avoid invoking PAX while disk operations are taking place. PAX
releases the COM port interrupt when the window is closed.
All of PAX's code is written in assembly language. PAX
distributed program is encrypted, compression will not help. PAX
uses direct write to the screen memory. PAX supports any video
page that is available in your machine. PAX does not support the
special screen modes of 132 columns. In the modes that have more
than 25 ROWS, pax will appear only on 25 ROWS and so is usable
in these modes BUT does not make full use of the screen. PAX
will not POP-UP in graphic modes. If you experience any SNOW
while pax is running, it is due to the older CGA adaptors. There
is no remedy in PAX for this, you may contemplate changing your
display card to a current one.
COM Ports:
From Version 2.3x the IRQ can be selected from the
setup menu. These selctions are saved as default to PAX.COM
when F10 (Save) is done.
Note 1:
File mode number indicates the actual bytes sent, the file
may be larger. At every line end in a text file a line feed
may be present which is not sent.
Numbers shown to a maximum of 64535 after which the counter
rolls over to zero.
Note 2:
For those of you using AMT units OR any firmware that
requires ESC key to be sent to TNC, use /E option on the
command line to disable ESC key checking. Use F10 to save
this setting to PAX.COM. Using /E option again will reset
this option.
Note 3:
Pax versions numbers are as follows -
#.xx - major changes in code
x.#x - add or removed features
x.x# - bugs removed (ugh!)
Note 4:
Some versions of PAX run only on DOS 4 and above, from all
the feedback I received, I believe there are a lot of you out
there still using DOS 3.3.. so this version should run OK....
BUT PAX might show up some problems on this DOS.
Note 5: *
Pax 2.7x runs at 19200 baud also.
Pax 2.8x has larger review/send windows!
Thanks for suggestions to:
W3BNR S79DW SV8QG PA3FUA G3NYK DL9HAZ SM7SYX ZL2AMD
---------------------------------------------------------------
Comments & Contributions welcome !
Please state the version number & file size with your comments.
G.G.Rajendra Kumar VU2ZAP
44/10 Race course road,
Fair field layout,
Bangalore 560001.
I N D I A
TEL:(0812) 265668
VU2ZAP @ VU2RSB.BLR.IND.AS