Amiga Elysian Archive

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Amiga Elysian Archive / AmigaElysianArchive.iso / comm / meshugen.lzh / meshugena.doc < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1988-05-28 | 33KB | 859 lines

**************************************************************************** * * * Meshugena V1.0 -- A **VT220 terminal emulator * * Copyright 1988 * * By Michael S. Leibow * * * * This software is released as shareware and may be freely distributed * * provided that this copyright message remains at the beginning of this * * file and that this file is included in the distribution. This software * * may not be used for direct commercial advantage. This software or its * * copies may not be changed in any way except to either store or restore * * it to or from an archived format. * * * * The information in this software is subject to change without notice * * and should not be construed as a commitment by the author. * * * * The Author assumes no responsibility for the use or reliability of * * this software. * * * * Author: Michael S. Leibow 23-APR-1988 * * * * ** VT220 is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation. At the time * * of the creation and release of this software, the author, * * Michael Leibow did not work for Digital Equipment Corporation. * * * **************************************************************************** FOREWORD by the author: If you get bored reading this file, skip to the conclusion at the end and read that. When you have time, this document describes all of the intricate details that might not be obvious. If you really want to learn how the program works and what the different menu options are, just play with it. Don't be scared to select something or go wild clicking on the mouse. [end-of-forward] ******* OVERVIEW *********************************************************** This is not a general communications package. If you need some of the features of other general packages such as o one zillion emulations o one zillion file transfer methods o weird character sets (i.e. EBCDIC) then this program is not for you. This program is dedicated to those of you have already bought an Amiga, a modem, and need to communicate with some sort of computer that supports the 8 bit ANSI protocol. This program offers: o VT220 emulation (80 and 132 columns) Not a fake emulation... This emulation covers everything I could find in the VT220 owners manual except the printer stuff. f. + 7 and 8 bit character sets + Multinational Character Sets (c0, c1, GL, and GR) + Special Graphics set + emulates full LK201 keyboard (VT52, VT100, VT220) + VT52, VT100, and VT220 compatibility + terminal modes : (KAM, IRM, SRM, LNM, DECCKM, DECANM, DECCOLM, DECSCLM, DECSCNM, DECAWM, DECARM) + All character renditions : (off, bold, underscore, blinking, reverse, erasable, not_erasable) + All Line Renditions : (normal, double width, double height). + ANSI tab stuff. + Probably more which I forgot... o Multiple sessions + each session has its own set-up configuration + independent menus + separate windows each with scroll bars and other gadgetry o Transcript buffer + 0 to some_big_number lines of output history o Works well in workbench environment + can start from icon. + all errors shown in requesters o window iconification to save chip ram o easy to use user interface For more information on the VT220 operation, buy a VT220 from your nearest VT220 dealer, and read the owners manual. ****** INSTALLING THE PROGRAM ********************************************* I recommend you install this program on a blank disk to make sure everything works properly. Once you have formatted a disk, and copied workbench 1.2 onto it, you are ready to start the installation. If you have a hardrive, I'd recommend making a new directory and doing the install from that directory. First, you need to get the correct archive program to remove all of the files from the archive and put them on a disk. If the extension of the archive is .zoo, then you must use the ZOO utility. If it is .arc, then you must use the ARC utility. put the archive in the directory where you want the program and type: [arc|zoo] x Meshugena After the archive program has finished working, type execute install and your amiga will happily install the 4 fonts in your FONTS: directory. Be sure you have enough room in your fonts directory before starting the install_fonts procedure. You also want to make sure that you don't already have fonts in your FONTS: directory with the same names as these: f80 - 80 columns normal font fld80 - graphics font with line segment glyphs. f132 - 132 columns normal font fld132 - graphics font with line segment glyphs. All of the previous listed fonts are 8 pixels high. The install program will also rename the files to their proper names so that you don't have to worry about it. See the fonts section if you are interested in using your own fonts instead of those that are supplied. The installation is now complete. simple, eh? If you've made it this far, but have not done anything yet out of fear, don't worry, here's the short explanation: 1) make new workbench disk (copy df0: to df1:) 2) copy .arc or .zoo file to new disk (copy Meshugena.arc new_disk:) 3) cd new_disk (replace new_disk with the appropriate name) 4) arc x meshugena, or zoo x meshugena 5) execute install 6) your done. ***** HOW TO USE ************************************************************ type Meshugena from the CLI prompt, OR double click on the icon from workbench. The program will load all of the fonts and then read the terminal_setup file. The initial configuration of the terminal is stored in terminal_setup. The setup file is a plain text file, and you can edit it with any text editor. (ED, or EDIT is on your workbench diskette, or EMACS is in your Extras 1.2 diskette in the tools directory). Emacs is, by far, much easier to use than ED or EDIT. If you don't know how to use EMACS, don't worry about it; it has menus. You can read more about the startup file in the startup-file section. Once the program is loaded, a requester will pop up with the copyright message and some other goo. Read it, understand it, and then press the OK button in the requester. Your terminal is running and ready to go. ********** KEYBOARD LAYOUT ************************************************** Cut a tiny rectangular piece of paper that will fit nicely in the funny slot in your A1000's keyboard, and write the key equivalents for the function keys. Each function key has three different operations (shifted, unshifted, and ctrl). Here's a cross reference: Amiga Keyboard ---- LK201-AA Keyboard F1 PF1 F2 PF2 F3 PF3 F4 PF4 up arrow up arrow down arrow down arrow left arrow left arrow right arrow right arrow Backspace Backarrow DEL backspace or delete (opp of backarrow) CTRL F1 FIND CTRL F2 INSERT HERE CTRL F3 REMOVE CTRL F4 SELECT CTRL F5 PREV SCREEN CTRL F6 NEXT SCREEN keypad 0-9 keypad 0-9 keypad - keypad , keypad . keypad . help keypad - F6,F7,F8,F9,F10 F6,F7,F8,F9,F10 shift F1 - F4 F10 - F14 shift F5 HELP shift F6 DO shift F7 - F10 F17 - F20 The keyboard layout cannot be changed at the moment, but at the release of the next version, you will be able to set up your keyboard however you want it. So, those of you with a 500 or 2000, please bare the bad layout for a few months. If one of the serial port settings is wrong in the terminal_setup, and you don't feel like dragging out the editor, you can double-click on the menu button. A requester will appear with all of the serial port options. You can select baud rate, word length, parity, and stop bits by just clicking the left mouse button over the correct "button." Also, in the requester is the current state of the session manager. When the terminal starts, the session manager is off. If you want to use multiple sessions, see the section on the session manager. When you have set the terminal the way you want to use it, press the OK button in the requester. You can also change terminal parameters by using the menu interface. Here is a description of the menu layout and operations: *************** MENU LAYOUT ************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ File Terminal Display Keyboard Parser ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The file menu doesn't work at the moment. The terminal menu: +------------------+ | RESET | - soft terminal reset. | HARD RESET | - hard terminal reset. | SEND BREAK | - sends a 250 ms break signal. +------------------+ The soft terminal reset resets the parser and characters sets to their default states. The hard terminal reset performs a soft terminal reset, re-initializes the serial port, and clears the screen. The Display Menu: ./ represents a checkmark. +----------------------+ |Clear Screen | +----------------------+ | Auto Wrap | | Echo | | Horizontal Tracking| |./ Vertical Tracking | |./ Cursor Enable | |./ Cursor Blink | | Reverse Video | +----------------------+ |./ 80 column mode | | 132 column mode | +----------------------+ |./ Big Font | | Small Font | +----------------------+ |./ Block Cursor | | Underline Cursor | +----------------------+ Clear Screen clears the screen. If auto wrap is on, and the terminal has already put a character on the last column of the screen, AND, a printable character is about to be displayed, the terminal will first put the cursor on the first column of the next line. A scroll will be performed if necessary. ECHO will echo all keystrokes to the parser to be displayed. Horizontal and Vertical tracking: This terminal, internally, always has 24 lines by 80 columns or 24 lines by 132 columns. Since the amiga can only display 80 columns across a non bordered window with the 80 column font, and 132 with the 132 column font, it is not normally possible to see the full width of the display in a bordered window. If you have a bordered window, it is sometimes annoying when the cursor is outside of the view. If you have Vertical Tracking on, then the terminal will attempt to keep the line that the cursor is on in view. If you have Horizontal tracking on, then the terminal will attempt to keep the current column in view. If you want to see how this operates, start the terminal and make sure borders are on the window. If your terminal starts up without borders, press the border gadget in the title bar next to the icon gadget. Turn tracking on by selecting Vertical and Horizontal tracking in the DISPLAY menu. Now, use the terminal and watch what happens as the cursor moves around. If you use a visual program which clears the screen and does lots of cursor movement, the operation of tracking will become much clearer. Also, watch the scroll bar gadgets so you can see where the cursor is in the full display. After you've had fun watching the terminal work with tracking on, turn tracking off and watch what happens when the cursor leaves the window. Tracking is not done if there are no borders on the window. Borders can be alternately removed or attached to the window by depressing the borders gadget in the title bar. Cursor enable and blink determine if the cursor is allowed to be displayed, and whether it should blink or not. Reverse video, if enabled, swaps the foreground and background colors inside the window. 80/132 column mode selects how many columns the terminal has. If you select 80 column mode, the big font is automatically selected. If you select 132 column mode, the small font is automatically selected. You can override these selections by using the BIG/SMALL font menu items. Big/Small font: The big font is by default the 80 column font. The small font is by default the 132 column font. If you want to change the fonts, then read the fonts section of this manual. Block Cursor/Underline Cursor: This decides what the cursor will look like if it is enabled. Keyboard Menu: +--------------------------------+ |./ Bs and Del Swapped | |./ Numeric Keypad | | Cursor Key Applications Mode | +--------------------------------+ BS and DEL Swapped control what the backspace and DEL keys will send. If the checkmark is displayed, the backspace key will send a DEL character and the DEL will send the backspace. Numeric keypad will cause the numeric keypad to send the same codes as what you see on the keycaps. If it is not checkmarked, it will send the applications mode control sequences. Cursor Key Applications Mode: If you were to understand the description, then you already know what this means. Parser Menu: +----------------+ |reset parser | +----------------+ | VT52 | | VT100 | | VT200 7 bits | |./ VT200 8 bits | +----------------+ If you select reset parser, the parser will be put in its default state. The type of parser remains the same. If you reset the parser in VT52 mode, it will remain in VT52 mode. If you reset the parser in VT220 mode, it will remain in VT220 mode. Only the state of the parser is affected, not the parser itself. This operation is useful if you get phone line noise and the parser gets put in a funky state. You can usually tell when this happens because the terminal output appears to freeze although the rest of the terminal still functions normally. The parser can be in four modes. VT52 is a useless mode used to be backwards compatible with the ancient pre-ANSI terminals. VT100 will make the terminal ignore all VT200 series sequences and will also enforce a 7 bit environment. VT200 7 bits will enforce a 7 bit environment but will still accept VT200 series sequences; it is good for UN*X environments. VT200 8 bits is the normal operating mode for a VT220. ****** OTHER MENU STUFF ****************************************************** A nice thing about Amiga menus is the keyboard alternatives. If you hate grabbing the mouse, and want to access the menus, you can use the left Amiga key and another key on the keyboard to make a menu selection. Unfortunately, most programmers force you to use the "hot-keys" that they like. My program will let you set your own "hot-keys" by putting the letters you want in the startup file. The syntax is like this: MENU MENU-ITEM : letter-or-number for example DiSpLAy ECHO : e Caps and spaces are ignored. You could have typed: DISplaYEchO:e or Display Echo : e They all get parsed the same. The initial startup file has all of the menu item names typed already. All you have to do is put your "letters" in. A line will be ignored in the startup file if it is preceded by a #. If you add a letter, remember to remove the # from the beginning of the line. Also, the Amiga owners manuals don't mention that you can make multiple menu selections at one time. The way you do this is to press and hold the menu button on the mouse. This makes the menu bar appear. You begin to make the selection by moving the pointer over the item that you wish to select. You can make the first set of selections by simultaneously pressing both mouse buttons without letting go of the menu button. When you are finished making all of your selections, let go of the menu button. I don't know how many commercial programs support this multiple selection technique, but this program does. NOTE: Selecting the same menu item twice has the same affect as selecting it once. Another form of menu operation is called the double menu requester. An application that has many menu selections should have a quick way of letting the user make the selections. The Amiga lets you do this by double clicking on the mouse button. This will pop-up a requester with a "fast-menu." This program uses the fast-menu to let you change serial port settings and to talk to the session manager. You can read more about it in the section on the session manager. ********** GADGET OPERATION ************************************************ There are several extra gadgets in the window frame. The first is a button that has the word ICON written in it. If you press that button, the window will be turned into a very very small window with the title ICON n where n is the session number. To turn the icon back into a window, double-click in the square box drawn in the icon. While the window is iconified, if any characters are received on the serial line, the icon will "fill in" with little boxes. This is to notify you that there is activity in the unseen window. When you double-click on the icon, the window will be restored to the state that it would have been if you never iconified it. (read- no information lost) The reason for the icon gadgets is two-fold. If you are using workbench, and need to access the icons in the workbench window, you can hit the ICON button and then quickly access the icons. This is a good way to start another process without exiting the terminal emulator. The other reason is that sometimes people move the workbench screen down and can't get it back up because some applications window has covered the screen drag bar. If you use the icon button, the window will be made very tiny giving access to the screen. The second gadget is next to the ICON gadget. It is the BORDER gadget, and controls whether or not there are borders on the window. If there are no borders, the window will automatically be made as big as possible so that it will cover the whole display, even if you use the pd program morerows. The BORDER gadget will alternatively remove or add borders (with scroll bars) to the window. The other gadgets only exist when the window has borders. Scroll bars are put on the window to enable you to see all of the text in your display. The button inside the scroll bar container shows the position and size of your view into the full display. If you use the ARROW buttons on the scroll bars, the display will scroll one line at a time in the direction of the arrow. The ARROW gadgets act like key repeat. If you press a button quickly, the text on the display will only scroll one character position. If you press the button and hold it, it will keep scrolling until you let go of it. (Press, you know, click with the left mouse button) ******** STARTUP-FILE ******************************************************** Part of the startup-file syntax is described in the OTHER MENU STUFF section above. A more detailed description is in the startup-file itself. For more information on selecting fonts in the startup file, see the fonts section in this manual. This is a description of the junk the terminal_setup file : NAME DESCRIPTION ---------------------------------------------------------------------- autowrap on or off localecho on or off number columns 80 or 132 font size big or small cursor style block or underscore cursor blink on or off reverse video on or off jump scroll on or off blink rate number of milliseconds per 1/3 cycle If value is 500, then cursor will be on for 1 second, and off for 1/2 of a second. Text will blink evenly at 1/2 second intervals. parser ansi or vt52 conformance level vt100, vt220 7 bits, or vt220 8 bits ignored if parser = vt52 transcript lines range is 0 to some reasonable amount See description of transcript buffer backspace delete swapped on or off baud can be 110, 300, 600, 1200, 1800, 2400, 3600, 4800, 9600, 19200 stop bits 1 or 2. word length 7 or 8 parity none, even, odd, mark, space buffer size 512 minimum FILE save defaults hotkey FILE load defaults hotkey TERMINAL reset hotkey TERMINAL hard reset hotkey TERMINAL send break hotkey DISPLAY clear screen hotkey DISPLAY auto wrap hotkey DISPLAY echo hotkey DISPLAY horizontal tracking hotkey DISPLAY vertical tracking hotkey DISPLAY cursor enabled hotkey DISPLAY 80 column mode hotkey DISPLAY 132 column mode hotkey DISPLAY big font hotkey DISPLAY small font hotkey DISPLAY block cursor hotkey DISPLAY underscore cursor hotkey DISPLAY reverse video hotkey DISPLAY jump scroll hotkey KEYBOARD bs and delete swapped hotkey KEYBOARD numeric keypad hotkey KEYBOARD cursor keys applications mode hotkey PARSER reset hotkey PARSER vt52 hotkey PARSER vt100 hotkey PARSER VT200 7 bits hotkey PARSER VT200 8 bits hotkey window x position 0 - 639 window y position 0 - 199 window width 0 - 639 or max window height 0 - 199 or max max will get the maximum. Works with morerows and PAL machines. scrollbars on or off Horizontal Tracking on or off vertical Tracking on or off screen type workbench or custom big font name/size e.g. "topaz/8" big font ld name/size e.g. "topazld/8" small font name/size e.g. "f132/8" small font ld name/size e.g. "fld132/8" ******* session manager ****************************************************** The session manager uses the protocol used in the "uw" program written for the Macintosh. There are many versions of uw running around for the different versions of UN*X. I have tested uw on BSD 4.2, 4.3, and Ultrix 2.0. I know the program is public domain, but I don't have the original distribution so it isn't included with my program. You can probably get uw off of your local BBS, users group, public domain clearing house, assholes who sell the stuff instead of give it away, USENET, BITNET, other networks, anonymous FTP, etc. It is probably on one of the Fred Fish disks too. (Fred, a legend as far as I am concerned -- THANKS) Anyhow, if you have access to a UN*X system with the uw program on it, you are all set. Double click on the menu button (right mouse) and the requester will appear. Press the Session Manager On button to start the session manager. Press the ok button to get rid of the requester. Now, start the uw program on the unix end by typing uw When the session manager on the UN*X end is running, your display will clear, and a prompt will appear on the top line. To end the session, type exit or press the close button in the window. It is probably much better to type exit. After you have exited all of the sessions, the session manager will turn itself off and give you back your original window. When you have the session manager on, and you want a new session, get the requester back on the screen and press the NEW SESSION button. A new window will appear, and (be patient) a prompt will appear in the window. To switch between sessions, just treat the windows as you usually do on the amiga. Resize them, put one behind another, or however you like it. Select the window you want to type into, and start typing. You may open up to 7 sessions. One bad feature about the UW server program is that it sets your TERMCAP environment variable to an adm-3a type terminal. You will have to set your termcap to be a VT220 after you start each new session. You could also put a few commands in your .cshrc file to change your termcap if it finds you are on a adm-3a terminal. ********* ERROR RECOVERY *************************************************** I have tried to put a robust error recovery system in the program. If the terminal runs out of memory or can't get a resource when you first run it, it will display requesters telling you what's wrong. In most cases you will get 2 requesters. The first one will tell you exactly what resource it could not get, and the second one will say "Can't Initialize Terminal" or something very general like that. If your feeling bold and would like to see the thing work, start the program twice without stopping the first one. ********* Font Information ************************************************* There are four public domain fonts that I (and a friend) have designed to work with this terminal program. Two of them are 80 column fonts and the other two are 132 column fonts. Each pair consists of one normal font, and one with the special graphics characters. The terminal needs to know what fonts to use and can be specified in the terminal_setup file. The four fonts can be specified to the terminal by using a font specifier, a font name, and a size. The specifier names are big font, big font ld, small font, and small font ld. The name of the font is any font that exists in the FONTS: directory. The size must be one that is in the FONTS:font_name directory. Here is the format: font specifier : font name/size for example, big font : topaz/8 or small font ld : f132/8 are valid instructions to put in the terminal_setup file. There are two restrictions on the fonts that you use. For each pair of fonts, i.e. big font and big font ld, they must have the same characteristics. In other words, they must have the same width and height. The other restriction is that all fonts must be fixed witdh. Proportional fonts are not allowed. You can choose any size font for the big and small fonts. The small font can be much bigger then the big font if that is what you choose. I just used the names big and small to describe the 80 and 132 column default fonts. ********* Other miscellaneous garbage ************************************** If you set the transcript buffer size to anything other than 0 in the startup file, you will get that many lines. Any thing that scrolls off of the top of the scrolling region goes into the transcript buffer. If you'd like to look at something that went off your display, move the vertical scroll bar upwards or use the UP gadget. Anything in the transcript buffer will show in reverse video. NOTE: The transcript is a memory hog. Each line in the transcript buffer consumes approximately 500 bytes. Maybe, if I ever get time, I will strip off the character and line renditions off of the transcript, and save about 360 bytes per line. ********* conclusion ******************************************************* This program is shareware. If you use it a lot and would like to send me a donation to help me get through my last year of school, send me whatever you think it is worth. Even if you don't send money, send me a comment, gripe, or note of satisfaction. note, this will not work backwards; I can't afford to send money to those of you who don't use it or don't like it. I can be reached 3 to 4 times a year at Mike Leibow (Meshugena) 2361 Beachwood Blvd. Beachwood, OH 44122 If you put the word Meshugena somewhere on the envelope, i'd appreciate it.