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ORDERING INFORMATION: BGFT (BackGround File Transfer)
The programs run on IBM compatible PCs, XTs, and ATs with
DOS version 2.2 or higher. They are distributed on a 5.25 inch
DOS floppy disk which is sent by first class mail in a protective
mailer. All shipping and handling costs are included in the
purchase price.
Purchasing the software entitles the registrant to fair use
of BGFT (TM) and associated files. Copying the registered pro-
grams for the purpose of giving or selling the program to others
violates Dirac Systems' copyright.
Please allow sufficient time for checks to clear and the
mail to get through.
We hope that you will find BGFT very useful and will enjoy
using it. Thank you!
Send $29.50 Canadian (Ontario residents add the Provincial
sales tax) by check or by money order payable to 'Dirac Systems':
Dirac Systems
P. O. Box 476
West Hill, ON
CANADA M1E4Y9
You can also use Visa [ ] or MasterCard [ ] (check one); please
print the following account information:
Card Number: ____________________________________________________
Expiry Date: ___/___ Signature:_________________________________
Authorized User's Name: _________________________________________
Area Code: (______) Phone Number: ______________________________
Please provide the following mailing information:
Name: ________________________________________________________
Address: ________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
City: ________________________________________________________
Province/State: _________________________________________________
Country: _______________________ Postal/Zip Code: ______________
Quantity ordered ___________ @ CAN $29.50 = Cost $ ______________
Province of Ontario residents add sales tax $ ______________
Total Enclosed $ ______________
BGFT (TM)
Version 2.11
A BackGround File Transfer System
Rick MacDonald, MSc
Rafael Moya, PhD
Tim Chapman, PhD
Dirac Systems
P. O. Box 476
West Hill, ON
CANADA M1E4Y9
Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ /
------------------------------------- - o -
/ \
TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Concept. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Registered User Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 Why Register?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
2. Red Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.1 Disclaimer of Warranty . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2 Copyright Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3. Getting Started. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.1 Files in the Distribution. . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3.2 Trying it Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4. Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
4.1 The Resident Programs 17
4.2 The User Interface: BGFT.EXE . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2.1 Organizing the Files. . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4.2.2 Setting Up the Environment. . . . . . . . . 19
4.2.3 Setting Up Your Modem . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5. Operation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.1 Starting BGFT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
5.2 The Menu System and Mouse Support. . . . . . . . 22
5.3 Data Entry Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
5.4 The Help System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.5 Configuring BGFT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.5.1 Colors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5.5.2 Modem Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
5.5.3 Communication Port Settings . . . . . . . . 28
5.5.4 Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
5.5.5 More Options. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.6 Terminal Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
5.7 Background Dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5.8 Background File Transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.8.1 The File Buffer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
5.8.2 Downloading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
5.8.3 Manually Moving Downloaded Files. . . . . . 39
5.8.4 Preparing Files For Uploading . . . . . . . 40
5.8.5 Uploading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.9 Utility Functions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
5.10 Exiting BGFT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
5.11 External Protocols. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
6. Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.1 Error Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
6.2 Alt_Key Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
6.3 Multitasking and Communications. . . . . . . . . 52
6.4 BGFT and DESQview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.5 BGFT and Microsoft Windows . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.6 Systems Without a Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.7 Problem Solving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.8 Operating Limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.9 Nomenclature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
6.10 Command Mode Options Using BGFTOPT.EXE. . . . . 57
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
1. Introduction
---------------
BGFT is an extraordinary file transfer system for the IBM
PC/XT/AT. It allows files to be transferred over a serial commu-
nications link, in the 'background', while the PC is being used
for other purposes. Files can be transferred by downloading, or
uploading, using either the Xmodem-CRC, Xmodem-1K, or Ymodem-
Batch file transfer protocol. This means, that when you transfer
files by modem, to or from your favorite Bulletin Board Service
(BBS), you can be writing a letter with your word processor,
updating your financial statement with a spreadsheet or doing
most of the other things that are possible with your computer.
What makes BGFT special? BGFT works in the background. It over-
comes traditional background conflicts with the Disk Operating
System (DOS). Drive A:, or B:, is used as a special download or
upload 'file buffer' for BGFT; meanwhile, DOS is freed up to be
used by other application programs.
A convenient background dialer also makes the package ideal for
accessing busy BBSs.
The background features of BGFT can be used with other suitable
telecommunication packages like Qmodem, PROCOMM PLUS, and Telix.
Script files are provided for them. BGFT is versatile.
BGFT is also Windows 3 compatible. It is usually not possible to
run a background DOS program while running a Windows program in
the foreground on a 286 computer. BGFT can do it, even with 8086
computers; this cannot be said for most telecommunication pack-
ages. A Windows program is provided to show BGFT's file transfer
progress while running Windows applications.
BGFT also works well with multitasking systems like DESQview,
particularly on computers with limited memory. BGFT is compact.
BGFT comes as a standalone telecommunications system and in a
form for specialized uses; it requires only MS DOS Version 2.2 or
greater to operate.
BGFT is being marketed as Shareware with a registration fee of
$29.50 Canadian (Ontario residents add sales tax, the Canadian
Federal Government's Goods and Services Tax is not required).
Check, Visa or MasterCard are accepted.
BGFT is available from Dirac Systems directly. It is sent in a
protective mailer by first class mail and all delivery costs are
included. Dirac Systems' address is:
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 1
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
Dirac Systems
P. O. Box 476
West Hill, ON
CANADA M1E4Y9
The registered and unregistered package for BGFT share all the
same features described above. The only difference is that there
is no initial screen on the registered executable files, BGFT.EXE
and BGFTOPT.EXE. Otherwise, all files are identical.
1.1 Concept
-----------
BGFT started as a program written by one of the authors who could
not stand waiting to use his computer while it was downloading
files. That prototype was in use for over two years and did
thousands of background file transfers with a slow 4.77 MHz IBM
PC clone and a 1200 baud modem. That program was developed into
the BGFT presented here which was first released commercially in
January 1990.
BGFT is intended to provide efficient background file transfers
on ordinary personal computers. It works well on IBM PCs, XTs,
ATs and compatibles. A 1200 or 2400 baud modem is ideal although
baud rates up to 9600 are supported.
The emphasis of BGFT is on performing background file transfers
and not on being a full featured telecommunications program. In
most cases, however, BGFT will serve as complete communications
program. It has many of the important features like config-
urability, dialing directory maintenance, menuing system, color,
context sensitive help, mouse control, connectivity to communica-
tion ports 1 to 4, terminal emulations and so on. BGFT's
background dialer will be a superior choice for accessing busy
BBSs since the user can do something else with the computer while
waiting for a connection.
BGFT is a communications environment that actually consists of
two programs; one operates in the background and one in the
foreground. The first, a small terminate and stay resident (TSR)
program, BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM, acts as a file transfer
'driver' which is capable of carrying out background file
transfers independently once it has been commanded to do so by a
foreground program. The main foreground program, BGFT.EXE, acts
as a stand alone user interface to control the resident program's
operation. Another foreground program, BGFTOPT.EXE, interacts
with the resident in terms of command line options; it is used
for specialized applications such as providing external
background protocols for other telecommunication programs.
BGFT is a robust background program. BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 2
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P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
has a special way of avoiding DOS conflicts that have plagued
other background utilities. In the technical sense, the
background driver for BGFT is unusual because it does not use DOS
calls; therefore, it does not have to wait until a foreground
program finishes using DOS. This enables BGFT to run concurrently
with other programs that use DOS.
The advantages of this approach are easily demonstrated. Simply
print out a text file using the DOS PRINT command, which is a
background driver that uses DOS. Then use the DOS TYPE command,
which is a foreground program that uses DOS, to view a long text
file. After a few seconds, the printing will stop due to a DOS
conflict, and will remain stopped until the type command has
finished. This type of operation obviously is not suitable for a
file transfer program since the file transfer would time out
under these conditions.
The present design of BGFT uses the concept of a file buffer. The
file buffer is on a DOS formatted diskette, specially initialized
by BGFT, in the floppy drive A: or B:. It is written to, and read
from, by BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM. Downloaded files are
stored temporarily in the file buffer and moved to DOS files on
the hard disk or second floppy drive under user control, with
BGFT.EXE or BGFTOPT.EXE. Files to be uploaded are first moved to
the file buffer with the foreground program, then accessed by
BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM while uploading. The design of the
user interface is such that the use of the file buffer is nearly
transparent to the user.
1.2 Registered User Support
---------------------------
Registered user support is available via Dirac Systems' BBS; the
telephone number is modem (416) 283-7157.
You may also write to us at:
Dirac Systems
P. O. Box 476
West Hill, ON
CANADA M1E4Y9
Dirac Systems will answer your questions, to help you get the
most out of BGFT; registered users will get preferential atten-
tion. Also, Dirac Systems will consider making changes to suit
your needs. Try giving us a call.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 3
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
We support BGFT on CompuServe; there are two membership numbers
that you can contact:
72570,2633 (Tim Chapman)
73670,2424 (Rick MacDonald)
Dirac Systems is also pleased to join, with the good graces of
Canada Remote Systems (CRS), to offer unparalleled BBS support
throughout North America. Users of our products can send Email to
the "Shareware Authors" or "Vendors" conferences on NorthAmeriNet
(NANET). Address inquiries to Rick MacDonald or Tim Chapman on
CRS in the Toronto, Ontario area. You can also contact Rafael
Moya on the Rose Media BBS in Toronto.
We can also be reached through the UUCP mail network via CRS. Our
Email addresses are:
canrem!rick.macdonald
canrem!tim.chapman
or as:
rick.macdonald@canrem.uucp
tim.chapman@canrem.uucp
Use the second format when sending UUCP mail from non-UUCP sites
(eg. from BITNET or from Internet); it is more likely to succeed.
Rick MacDonald also has the Email address:
macdon@ists.ists.ca
1.3 Why Register?
-----------------
There are a number of reasons you should register.
As you can see from the last Section, there will be extensive
user support.
The registered version of BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM are
uniquely serialized and replace the unregistered ones. This will
get rid of the opening screens advertising the registration
request on the foreground programs.
We are marketing BGFT through the Shareware method. You get to
evaluate its full capabilities on a fair trial basis. This is
beneficial to the customer because he or she can determine wheth-
er the software product fulfills a need on their own hardware.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 4
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
We expect you to register the software if you are going to con-
tinue to use it after the trial. This shows that the product has
value. It is the moral and financial responsibility of the user
to then pay for registration.
We are able to offer a superior product at a low cost due to
Shareware. Many hours of labor are spent in its production and
continuing support. A fair return is our measure of product
value.
The authors want to support you and BGFT in the future but must
have user patronage to do it.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 5
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
6. Appendices
--------------
6.1 Error Messages
------------------
The resident part displays error messages in its status window
when it is turned on. The status window is a small four character
'window' normally located at the upper right corner of the
screen. The error messages are displayed in the form: '**n' or
'!!n' (where n is a number). The '**' messages are 'soft' errors
which do not cause file transfer to stop; the '!!' errors are
'hard' which will cause the file transfer to terminate.
All hard errors must be acknowledged. You should use the Utility
menu to acknowledge hard errors or enter terminal mode where the
acknowledgement is done automatically.
The following is a list of the error messages:
**0 In download or upload this is a timeout while synchronizing
to the host. It is normal to receive one of these at the
beginning of a transfer.
**1 In download (only), this is a timeout while receiving a
block. The usual cause of this is that something has hap-
pened to lose a character; for example, running a program
during background transfers that disables interrupts for an
excessive period of time, which is common of some CGA
programs.
**2 This is a block check error during transfer. The block will
be present according to the Xmodem-CRC, Xmodem-1K, or
Ymodem-Batch protocols.
**3 This is a CRC error, meaning the block had bad data in it.
This may be experienced if the telephone line is noisy.
**4 This is a duplicate block error, meaning the host sent the
same block twice for some reason. This is highly unusual.
!!0 This is a fatal timeout that would occur if the host was
not responding.
!!1 This error means that the host canceled the transfer.
!!2 This is a fatal block error that occurs if the host sends
the wrong block.
!!3 This occurs when the user requests to halt the transfer.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 50
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
!!4 This occurs when a floppy I/O error occurs, thereby abort-
ing the transfer.
!!5 This occurs during download (Ymodem-Batch only) if the file
being received is too large to fit into the space remaining
in the file buffer.
!!6 This occurs when the Ymodem-Batch upload header is not
acknowledged.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 51
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
6.3 Multitasking and Communications
-----------------------------------
Multitasking with DOS is one of those ideas that is much simpler
in theory than in practice. DOS just was not designed to do more
than one job at a time. Even the common exceptions to this, such
as the DOS print spooler or 'pop up' type programs, are specific
to the application at hand and the techniques used to achieve the
multitasking are not generally applicable.
The 'lifeline' of a multitasking system is interrupts. Even more
importantly, a communications program relies on interrupts to
process characters when they are received. If the characters are
not 'taken away', then they will be lost. If an application pro-
gram can easily disable interrupts then multitasking, and there-
fore communications, is going to be unreliable at best. Unfortu-
nately with DOS on a PC, this is the case.
Another major problem with DOS, as far as multitasking is con-
cerned, is that DOS is non-reentrant. This means that DOS cannot
be easily shared by applications running at the same time. This
is because its data areas are not protected from simultaneous ac-
cess.
Most TSRs, eg. pop ups, work around the reentrant problems by
trying to determine when DOS is busy; however, many DOS internal
routines, such as the 'TYPE' command for example, keep DOS busy
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 52
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P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
for as long as they execute. This again is a problem for multi-
taskers.
OK, that is the bad news. The good news is that it is possible to
circumvent DOS, or in some cases to ignore it.
BGFT uses the latter approach. It does not use DOS in any part of
the file transfer operation; therefore, it cannot be affected by
DOS being busy.
Disabling interrupts is another story. With a PC running DOS
there is just no way to prevent disabling interrupts from happen-
ing if a running piece of software does it. This is true even
with sophisticated multitaskers like Microsoft Windows 386 and
DESQview 386.
BGFT performs as well as running a 'standard' communications
program under one of those multitaskers but does not require an
Intel 80386 CPU and does not use anywhere near as much memory.
The consequence of the interrupt disabling problem for file
transfer is that retries will occur during downloading. If this
is considered to be a serious problem in your application, then
there are some possible hardware solutions such as the NS16550AS
chip for your COM port; if you are a registered user, contact
Dirac Systems for assistance in this area.
BGFT will automatically detect the presence of the NS16550AS chip
and take advantage of its capabilities.
6.4 BGFT and DESQview
---------------------
BGFT works exceptionally well with DESQview, particularly on
computers that have expanded memory or with DESQview 386 which
emulates EEMS by using extended memory. This is because of the
following two reasons:
1) On the Intel 80386 CPU, the 'LOADHI' program can run
BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM outside the 640K DOS address range.
This means that the resident part of BGFT does not use up any
conventional memory.
When installing QEMM.SYS it is necessary to specify the 'ram'
option. This is configuration dependent; see your DESQview user's
manual or give us a call as we may be able to help.
2) BGFT does not need to be made non-swappable. Thus DESQview can
swap BGFT.EXE to disk or to expanded memory without affecting the
communications.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 53
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P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
If you use DESQview then give BGFT a try. That is the advantage
of Shareware.
6.5 BGFT and Microsoft Windows
------------------------------
BGFT is Microsoft Windows 3 compatible. Many DOS based telecommu-
nications programs cannot even run under Windows. Others will
have problems when trying to run Windows applications and DOS
programs; this is especially true for 286 or 8086 based machines.
BGFT allows the user to engage in DOS as well as Windows 3 activ-
ities while doing background transfers. Even Windows based tele-
communication programs will generally not let you do that if not
running in 386 protected mode.
You must install the BGFT resident, BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM,
before running Windows. You must also initialize the resident
with the communications port and baud rate by using a variant of
the supplied batch file, BGFTINIT.BAT. Alternatively, you can run
BGFT.EXE briefly to automatically do the initialization. You may
then run Windows and use BGFT as you would normally.
Your Windows documentation will show you how to install BGFT.EXE
as a non-Windows application. The basic procedure is as follows.
In the Program Manager of Windows choose the DOS applications
group that you may have. Choose 'File' from the Program Manager
and then choose 'New' to install BGFT as an item of the group.
Where is asks for a 'Description' put in 'BGFT'. Click with your
mouse onto the 'Command line' prompt and enter the path name
where BGFT can be found; for example,
C:\BGFT\BGFT.EXE
You can activate BGFT by clicking twice on the icon you choose
from the Program Manager.
A Windows 3 program, BGFTSPY.EXE, is included with BGFT to allow
you to monitor background file transfers while you use other
Windows programs. Install BGFTSPY.EXE as above and call it
BGFTSPY; the supplied icon, BGFTSPY.ICO, will also be loaded.
This program is most useful in minimized mode as it will show, in
a compact form, the file packet number during file transfers and
other status messages from the BGFT resident program. In maxi-
mized mode it will show more information. It is loaded in iconic
form which is minimized mode; click twice on the icon for maxi-
mized mode.
You should only run BGFTSPY.EXE if the BGFT resident program has
been installed.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 54
-------------------------------------------- - o -
P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
To use BGFT.EXE with older versions of Microsoft Windows it is
again necessary to load BGFT360K.COM or BGFT720K.COM prior to
running Windows; this is true for both Windows/286 and
Windows/386. BGFT may then be executed as a 'standard'
application under Windows. Windows will complain about a conflict
with the COM port; select BGFT.EXE in the dialogue box and OK.
For Windows/386 it is important that the parameter 'windowmem-
size' in the WIN.INI file is left at the default of 640.
The primary advantage to using BGFT.EXE under Windows, instead of
a standard DOS communications package, is that BGFT.EXE can be
'swapped' out of memory whereas the standard DOS communications
package would have to remain 'locked' in memory, using up valu-
able address space. This may be of importance in some applica-
tions such as Windows 2.X with expanded memory.
If you use both DOS and Windows on an AT compatible computer then
BGFT may be your best bet. Try it out.
BGFT, Copyright (c) 1990-1991 Dirac Systems \ / Page 55
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P.O. Box 476, West Hill, ON, M1E 4Y9, CANADA / \
