0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0¢¢ BOBTERM 1.21 REVIEW¢ -------------------¢¢ by Joel Kennedy (Reprinted from¢ the Puget Sound Atari News, ¢ September 1990)-WITH THANKS¢ from THE OL' HACKERS ATARI¢ USER GROUP, Inc., New York¢¢ Well guess what the friendly UPS ¢man had for me on August 9th? Yep, ¢SpartaDOS X and the R-Time 8 cart ¢from ICD! SDX is great! I love it!!! ¢The R-Time 8 is just as good (never ¢again will I set the clock! right? ¢Well, almost. The cart was sitting on ¢top of my XE and fell a whole 2 1/2 ¢inches. I now have a piece of foam ¢stuffed inside the R-Time 8 to keep ¢the battery in contact. Don't set the ¢cart on top of your computer!).¢¢ Ok, stop laughing and read about ¢BobTerm 1.21 from Bob Puff. When you ¢first boot up BobTerm (to be refered ¢to throughout this article as BT) you ¢see a well done title screen. What I ¢find most impressive about it is its ¢rather accurate depiction of the ¢states. Good job, Bob! Next, you see ¢the Main Menu. The options are pretty ¢self explanatory, but I thought I ¢would mention a few of them in more ¢depth.¢¢ A -- You can change between ¢ASCII, ATARI (aka ATASCII), VT-52E, ¢and VT-52O. VT-52 is a terminal ¢emulator, the 'E' and 'O' denoting ¢even and odd parity respectively.¢¢ B -- Baud rates go clear up to ¢19.2k!!¢¢ D -- Well, it seems self ¢explanatory but Bob added an ¢embellishment. If you press START ¢while you press 'D' you will be ¢switched into "echoplex." This is ¢primarily used when modeming between ¢two individuals. One sets 'echoplex' ¢on and the other stays in full ¢duplex. Normally both would have to ¢switch to half duplex, but echoplex ¢will echo back the characters - just ¢like a BBS.¢¢ F&G -- For when you are talking ¢to someone (voice) and want to go to ¢the computer mode (data) without ¢redialing. Very handy!¢¢ R&S -- You can set both the ¢transfer protocol, as well as the ¢drive and path, for uploads and ¢downloads. For Downloads BT ¢automatically adjusts to the senders ¢protocol. Also, for both uploads and ¢downloads BT eliminates the need to ¢pad a transfer block by switching to ¢smaller blocks, and therefore lower ¢protocols, if the rest of a file ¢won't fit in the size block in use. ¢For example: You are transferring a ¢file that is 2, 176 bytes long. You ¢select 1k x-modem and two complete ¢blocks of 1k are transfered. BT will ¢then switch to standard x-modem for ¢the remaining 128 bytes of data.¢¢ K -- basically a standard menu ¢of DOS 2.x/MYDOS commands. If you'd ¢loaded the CP.BTM (as a module), it ¢will give you an interface directly ¢into Sparta's command processor. The ¢lower menu commands are mainly used ¢when you are in the Term mode. You ¢can activate word wrap, reset the ¢online time clock, switch between ¢realtime/online time, do a screen ¢dump, save a snapshot of the screen ¢to the buffer and even activate fine ¢scrolling. The chat window is an ¢interesting feature, it allows you to ¢pre-edit what you type before you ¢send it. It only has a three line ¢capacity but it is still handy. I ¢don't use it much anymore because of ¢the delay it causes. Everything ¢that's in the buffer is sent when you ¢press RETURN. Most people don't like ¢you using it because they can't tell ¢if you are typing something or just ¢sitting there 'twiddlin your thumbs.'¢¢ When "J" is selected from the ¢Main Menu three options will replace ¢the lower menu. This submenu is ¢pretty straight forward. By selecting ¢the first option you will be able to ¢see what the system macros have been ¢set to. You can change your screen ¢colors here as well as alter the ¢macros. By choosing the third option ¢the BOBTERM.CNF file will be written. ¢This saves things other than just the ¢macros and screen colors - so make ¢sure you have everything set the way ¢you want it.¢¢ Selecting "E" from the Main Menu ¢will put you in the Autodialer Menu. ¢The options are clear. Something of ¢note though to you people with 'call ¢waiting'. You can use the long ¢distance code feature to disable your ¢call waiting. See the docs for the ¢'how to.' As I mentioned under the ¢'DOS functions' selection you can ¢activate modules wich will add ¢different features to BT. This are ¢external modules which are loaded at ¢bootup. Two are included, these are ¢CP.BTM and XEP80.BTM. As I already ¢said, CP.BTM gives you an interface ¢to Sparta. XEP80.BTM is the driver ¢for the XEP80 80 column card from ¢Atari. I don't have this as yet, so I ¢can't say how well it works, though I ¢have been told that the one included ¢in the version 1.20 arc file is buggy ¢so make sure you get 1.21. Well ¢that's all fine and well on how to ¢use it, but what does it feel like to ¢use it? Well, I like BobTerm 1.21! I ¢have only one complaint - you abort ¢an operation by pressing START and ¢begin one by pressing SELECT. This ¢seems reverse to me. Otherwise, to ¢quote Dan Knauf from his 'Black Box ¢vs. MIO' article, "pretty is as ¢pretty does." BT is very nice and ¢user friendly (except for the use of ¢the START key). I've used it for the ¢past couple of months and the only ¢time I had any problems was when the ¢handler wouldn't load from my 850 (I ¢have to shut EVERYTHING off and try ¢again if this happens, not just the ¢850 and the computer. If I even leave ¢the disk drive on it won't work. Is ¢there something wrong with my 850? If ¢you know please tell me.) or when I ¢attempted certain operations from the ¢command line interface to Sparta. ¢Outside from the above mentioned ¢things I have had no problems ¢whatsoever with BT and enjoy it very ¢much.¢¢This article was taken from the ¢newsnet system, and transferred by ¢Mike Blenkiron, and tidied by Dean ¢Garraghty. REPRINTED BY THE OL' ¢HACKERS ATARI USERS GROUP, Inc., New ¢York¢¢ +*+*+*+*+*+ End *+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
