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-
- MODEM64: DOCUMENTATION
- BY CHRIS LAMPTON, 75275,1373
- 01/29/84
-
-
- MODEM64 IS A SIMPLE TERMINAL
- EMULATOR WITH XMODEM DOWNLOAD FACILI-
- TIES, DESIGNED TO RUN UNDER COMMODORE
- 64 CP/M. IT WILL NOT RUN UNDER OTHER
- VERSIONS OF CP/M; IN FACT, IT WILL ONLY
- RUN UNDER THE CP/M PACKAGE OFFERED BY
- COMMODORE BUSINESS MACHINES.
- WHEN FIRST RUN, MODEM64 IS IN
- NORMAL TERMINAL MODE. ASCII DATA RE-
- CEIVED THROUGH THE RS-232 PORT IS DIS-
- PLAYED ON THE SCREEN. DATA TYPED ON THE
- KEYBOARD IS TRANSMITTED. PARITY IS
- IGNORED. MOST STANDARD ASCII CONTROL
- CODES ARE IMPLEMENTED. TO EXIT MODEM64
- PRESS FUNCTION KEY F2 (SHIFT-F1).
- XMODEM DOWNLOADS ARE INITIATED BY
- PRESSING FUNCTION KEY F8 (SHIFT-F7).
-
-
- USING MODEM64 WITH AN RCP/M
- (REMOTE CP/M DATABASE)
-
-
- THE STANDARD RCP/M COMMAND FOR
- XMODEM TRANSMISSION IS:
-
- XMODEM S FILENAME.EXT
-
- IF THE SPECIFIED FILE IS AVAILABLE,
- THE RCP/M WILL RESPOND WITH THE NUMBER
- OF 128 BYTE BLOCKS IN THE FILE AND THE
- APPROXIMATE DOWNLOAD TIME. IF YOU
- SHOULD DECIDE AT THIS POINT THAT YOU
- WISH TO ABORT THE DOWNLOAD, PRESS
- CTRL-'X' TO SEND AN ASCII CANCEL
- SIGNAL TO THE SENDING COMPUTER.
- TO BEGIN THE DOWNLOAD, PRESS F8,
- AND MODEM64 WILL AUTOMATICALLY
- REQUEST THE RCP/M TO START TRANS-
- MITTING. THE MESSAGE 'XMODEM TRANSMIS-
- SION INITIATED' WILL APPEAR ON THE
- SCREEN. IF FOR ANY REASON THE TRANS-
- MISSION IS NOT RECEIVED, MODEM64 WILL
- CONTINUE BROADCASTING THE REQUEST FOR
- APPROXIMATELY 100 SECONDS BEFORE
- ABORTING THE DOWNLOAD AND RETURNING TO
- TERMINAL MODE. SHOULD THIS OCCUR, THE
- MESSAGE 'BLOCK NOT RECEIVED, XMODEM
- TRANSMISSION ABORTED' WILL BE DIS-
- PLAYED. THE DOWNLOAD MAY BE MANUALLY
- ABORTED BY PRESSING THE RUN-STOP KEY.
- ONCE TRANSMISSION HAS BEGUN, THE
- DOWNLOADED BLOCKS WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY
- SAVED TO THE DISK IN CP/M FORMAT. AS
- EACH BLOCK IS RECEIVED, THE MESSAGE
- 'BLOCK #NN RECEIVED' WILL BE DISPLAYED,
- WHERE NN IS THE BLOCK NUMBER IN HEXA-
- DECIMAL. IF MORE THAN 255 (FF HEX)
- BLOCKS ARE TRANSMITTED, THE BLOCK
- NUMBER WILL ROLL OVER TO 00. CHECKSUMS
- ARE USED TO VERIFY THE ACCURACY OF THE
- TRANSMITTED DATA. AT THE END OF TRANS-
- MISSION, MODEM64 WILL INFORM THE
- SENDING COMPUTER OF THE SUCCESSFUL
- RECEIPT OF THE FILE AND WILL DISPLAY
- THE MESSAGE 'XMODEM TRANSMISSION COM-
- PLETED' BEFORE RETURNING TO TERMINAL
- MODE.
- FILES WILL BE SAVED TO THE DISK
- UNDER THE FILENAME 'NEWFILE,' WITH THE
- EXTENSION '.XMD'. FILES DOWNLOADED
- DURING A SINGLE SESSION WILL BE SEQUEN-
- TIALLY NUMBERED, WITH THE FIRST FILE
- GIVEN THE NAME 'NEWFILE1.XMD,' THE
- SECOND FILE THE NAME 'NEWFILE2.XMD,'
- AND SO FORTH. LETTERS OF THE ALPHABET
- WILL BE USED ONCE THE TEN NUMERALS ARE
- EXHAUSTED. GIVEN THE OBVIOUS LIMITATION
- ON FILE NAMES, IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT
- YOU NOT DOWNLOAD MORE THAN 35 FILES IN
- ONE SESSION, OR YOU MAY FIND UNTYPABLE
- ASCII CHARACTERS IN THE NAMES.
- IT IS ALSO RECOMMENDED THAT YOU
- RENAME ALL DOWNLOADED FILES IMMEDIATELY
- AFTER THE SESSION, USING THE CP/M REN
- COMMAND, BECAUSE EXISTING NEWFILES ON
- THE DISK WILL BE DELETED BY MODEM64
- DURING LATER SESSIONS TO MAKE ROOM FOR
- FRESHLY DOWNLOADED FILES WITH THE SAME
- SEQUENCE NUMBERS.
- IN THE EVENT THAT YOU ATTEMPT TO
- DOWNLOAD TO A FULL DISK (OR A FULL DISK
- DIRECTORY), AN ERROR MESSAGE WILL BE
- PRINTED AND THE DOWNLOAD ABORTED. ANY
- DATA DOWNLOADED TO THE CURRENT FILE
- BEFORE THE DISK LIMIT WAS REACHED WILL
- BE PRESERVED.
- THIS IMPLEMENTATION OF XMODEM IS
- NOT BULLET PROOF. IT IS POSSIBLE FOR
- THE SENDING COMPUTER AND THE RECEIVING
- COMPUTER TO FALL OUT OF SYNC AND NOT
- RECOVER, THOUGH THIS IS NOT A VERY
- LIKELY EVENT. SHOULD IT OCCUR, THE
- DOWNLOAD WILL MORE THAN LIKELY ABORT
- BY ITSELF. HOWEVER, SHOULD YOU NOTICE
- AN UNUSUALLY LONG PAUSE BETWEEN BLOCKS
- -- SAY 20 SECONDS OR MORE -- YOU SHOULD
- ABORT MANUALLY WITH THE RUN-STOP KEY.
- THE SENDING COMPUTER MAY CONTINUE
- BROADCASTING DATA, BUT WILL NOTICE
- WITHIN A FEW SECONDS THAT NO ACKNOW-
- LEDGING SIGNAL IS BEING RECEIVED AND
- WILL CANCEL THE DOWNLOAD. YOU MAY THEN
- INITIATE THE DOWNLOAD AGAIN. THIS HAS
- HAPPENED TO ME ONCE IN ROUGHLY 40
- DOWNLOADS. SECURITY WILL BE TIGHTENED
- IN SUBSEQUENT VERSIONS.
- SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS
- AND REPORTS OF CURRENT BUGS SHOULD
- BE CONVEYED TO THE AUTHOR VIA COMPU-
- SERVE INFORMATION SERVICE EMAIL OR THE
- CIS COMMODORE-64 SIG.
-