Current Shareware 1994 January

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

/ Current Shareware 1994 January / SHAR194.ISO / helpfile / fterm201.zip / FRACTERM.DOC next >

Wrap

Text File | 1992-10-23 | 22KB | 520 lines

FracTerm The Fractal Terminal Program Copyright (c) 1992 Fracterm Inc. What is FracTerm? FracTerm is a communcations program, with a twist. Like many other communications programs, FracTerm uses ANSI terminal emulation, allows file transfers using the Zmodem protocol, has a dialing dorectory, settings menu, and several other features. What sets FracTerm apart from the rest, however, is its ability to view fractally compressed images. So what's the big deal about fractally compressed images? Well, consider being able to send a clear, full-color image over a communications line in as little as 6 seconds. Sounds impossible, or at least unlikely? Well, until recently, it was. Now, thanks to a method known as fractal transform technology, it is not just possible, it is here. Now that we have the technology, what can be done with it? Well, the commercial applications are virtually unlimited. A simple example would be in the real estate field. A potential customer could call in, from his or her own living room, and see actual photographs of the houses available, without ever having a saleperson involved. However, this, in itself, is a limited approach - little more than looking at pictures. We've taken the idea one step further. To continue the real estate example, wouldn't it be nice if the user could select the type of house they were looking for, and the price range, and then only see the pictures that related to their needs? Our FracTerm program offers this capability and more. Using a simple three level structure, the user can easily track down exactly what they want, and only receive the images that apply to them. However, that is not the end of FracTerm's talents. Along with each image can be a text file, which will be sent along with the image, and which the user can view while viewing the image. How does FracTerm work? Well, there are two modes of operation for FracTerm. The default mode, the mode FracTerm starts up in, is called terminal mode. From here, you can change your configuration, call a remote system, or exit FracTerm. The other mode is the online store, or catalogue mode. In this mode you can take advantage of the fractal images, graphical interface, and the other special features. Commands available in terminal mode From the terminal mode screen, you can access the following functions. Dialing directory Under this menu, you can add, delete, insert, or sort the names and numbers of remote systems, or you can call a remote system. This menu is available by pressing ALT+D. Note that if you are already connected to a remote system, this menu will not appear. Settings Menu Under this menu, you can change your communications port, modem baud rate, initialization, dialling and hangup strings, and one or two other minor options. This menu is available by pressing ALT+S Exit FracTerm You can exit FracTerm from the terminal screen by pressing ALT+X. If you are still connected to a remote system, a message window will pop up asking you if you really want to exit. Hangup Modem You can hangup the modem from the terminal window by pressing ALT+H. Note that if you are still connected to a remote system, a message area will pop up asking you if you really want to disconnect. Miscellaneous functions Currently there is only one other useful function available from terminal mode. If you press CTRL+F1, the screen will clear, and a message saying "Coreleft: xxxxx" will appear. If you plan to use the FracTerm online store mode, you should try this and note the numeric value returned. If the value is less than abour 300,000 you will likely not be able to view any images, as the decompression routines require a lot of free memory. Key Mappings in Terminal Mode After several requests from users, we have installed more robust keyboard handling in FracTerm. Now supported are a subset of the ANSI and VT-100 keystroke maps. The keymap we use is as follows: Press VT-100 Equivalent Values Sent Tab Horizontal Tab 9 Delete Character Delete 127 Insert Select Insert mode 22 Home Home Cursor ^[H Cursor Up Cursor Up ^[A Cursor Down Cursor Down ^[B Cursor Left Cursor Left ^[D Cursor Right Cursor Right ^[C Alt-C Clear screen ^[H^[2J End Erase end of line ^[K F1 Keypad Application mode 1 ^OP F2 Keypad Application mode 2 ^OQ F3 Keypad Application mode 3 ^OR F4 Keypad Application mode 4 ^OS F5 Keypad Application mode 5 ^Ot F6 Keypad Application mode 6 ^Ou F7 Keypad Application mode 7 ^Oq F8 Keypad Application mode 8 ^Or F9 Keypad Application mode 9 ^Op F10 Keypad Application mode 0 ^OM Ctrl-F1 Display memory available n/a Ctrl-F10 Send password for current BBS n/a Note: in the above list, the caret "^" symbol is used to denote the ESCape character, ASCII value 27. Entries marked with "n/a" have no equivalence in VT-100 or ANSI emulation. Entries with only a numeric value will send the ASCII character denoted by the decimal value which is displayed. A closer examination of terminal mode menus Dialing menu The dialling menu allows you to manipulate a small phone book, with names and phone numbers. You can add, delete, edit, or sort the entries in the phone book. If you look at the bottom of the screen, you will see a number of highlighted options. In order to access the function you want, simply press the highlighted key. For example, to sort the dialing directory, press S. Not all of the options are currently functional. The ones that are will be discussed here. Edit This allows you to edit an entry. A window will pop up on the screen, with a highlight bar to show you which field is currently being edited. You can move around the entry using thr cursor keys. Once you have finished editing an entry, you must decide whether to accept or discard the changes. To save them, press F10. To throw them away, press the ESC key. Sort Using this option, you can sort the entries in the phone book. In order to use this, there must be at least three entries with data in them. Currently, the sort is automatic, sorting on the name field. Insert This allows you to insert a blank entry just ahead of the currently hilighted entry. It presumes that there is still at least one free slot available in the directory, which is currently set to a maximum of 45 entries. Delete This allows you to delete an entry from the dialing directory. If the entry actually contains data, a message window will pop up asking if you really want to delete the entry. Dial This is the final supported function. To dial the currently hilighted entry, simply press RETURN or ENTER. Near the bottom of the screen, a message saying "Dialing xxx-xxx" will become visible. This message will remain visible until one of three things happens - you press a key, the attempt to connect fails, or the attempt to connect succeeds. If the dial succeeds, and you actually connect to a remote system, the entire dialing directory is removed from the screen, and you are placed back in terminal mode, where you can interact with the remote system. If the dial fails, or if you press a key, the "Dialing xxx-xxxx" message disappears, but you remain in the dialing directory, where you can either dial again, or select a different entry to call, or you can exit. Settings Menu The settings menu allows you to configure FracTerm for your system, selecting such things as the port your modem is connected to, the baud rate at which your modem communicates, and the commands necessary to dial, initialize, or hang up your modem. Init String This is the string needed to initialize your modem. This depends on the make and model of your modem. A typical example might be: AT E0 X3 &C1 M1 L3 Dial String This is the string needed to dial your modem. Generally, this will be either ATDT (for touch-tone dialing) or ATDP (for pulse dialing). However, you may have a PBX system that requires a 9 followed by a pause, or some similar setup, and this is where you set the options necessary for your system. Note that any special requirements will depend upon your make and model of modem. Hangup String This is the string needed to hang up your modem. Generally, the string ~~~+++ATH0 will do the job, but your particular modem may differ. For those of you whose modems need to have DTR lowered to hang up, this is done automatically. Com Port This is the port through which your modem communicates. The valid range is 1 to 4. Baud Rate This is the speed at which your modem communicates. For example, if you have a 1200 baud modem, set this value to 1200. For those of you with the newer high-speed modems, you can set the baud rate to 38400 and it will remain locked at that rate. The online catalogue For commercial purposes, this is the most important mode. As an end user, you cannot directly access this mode. It is started automatically by the remote system, assuming it is configured for use by our FracBBS software package. This mode is entirely graphical, with simple, easy to navigate menus and controls. When it first starts, you will see a graphical menu, with a blue box in the top left, displaying the remote system's name and licensing information. At the top right of the screen, you will see a number of button controls, and near the bottom, you will see a list of categories ("areas") to choose from. A real estate system may have a list of areas similar to the following: Townhouses Duplexes Condominiums Single-level houses Multi-level houses Commercial properties You can move the hilight bar with the cursor keys, selecting one of the categories by pressing ENTER. If you look at the middle right of the screen, you will see a message saying "Requesting file" followed by "Initializing", then a list of percentage values up to 100%. If everything works according to plan, this should finish with a message saying "Transfer complete". Once the requested information is available for use, the sub-categories ("dirs") are displayed, and you can then select from them. In our example, if you had chosen "Townhouses" as an area, the dir list might be something like: Under $50,000 $50,000 - $100,000 $100,000 - $250,000 $250,000 - $500,000 Over $500,000 Now, you can select the appropriate subcategory, or dir, to examine, and press ENTER. The information for that dir is requested, and will then be displayed. Had you picked the "$100,000 - $250,000" dir, you might see a list as follows: Four rooms, two baths, fireplace, jacuzzi Three rooms, near school, needs repairs Brand new five rooms, near downtown Finally, you can select the appropriate item and press ENTER. A last file request, and in a very few seconds, your image will be displayed, as well as any text that comes along with it. With the image and text on the screen, you can use the cursor keys to move around the text display, or you can use the button commands to either navigate the dir and area tree, zoom the image, or exit to terminal mode. Two of the buttons, Previous and Next, work in the current dir. If you are viewing, say, the third image in the current dir, pressing previous will display the second image, requesting it from the remote system if needed. Similarly, the Next button would advance you to the fourth, then the fifth, image in the current dir. The Dir button allows you to "back up" one level, so that you can change your dir selection - from "$100,000 - $250,000" to "over $500,000", say. The Area button allows you to jump back to the first menu, so that you could change from "Townhouses" to "Commercial properties". The Zoom button allows you to expand the image to full-screen, where it will remain until you press a key. Lastly, the Exit button will shut down the catalogue, returning you to text mode and normal remote interaction. So how do you use the buttons? Simple. One letter on each button is highlited, by a captial letter and an underline. To activate the associated function, simply press the highlighted letter. So, to zoom the image, you would just press 'Z'. Note that if you already have the CONFIG.BBS file, the area files, and the images, you can use this feature without connecting to a BBS. Simply run FracTerm and press CTRL-PGDN. Auto-View Mode FracTerm also supports an interactive image viewing mode which does not require that the remote system has a complete online catalogue set up. Let's say all you wanted to do is view the images in a given area. All you would have to do is tell the remote system to send '*.FIF', or perhaps 'NAME*.FIF', and it will send all the appropriate images. As soon as FracTerm sees the '.FIF' extension on a filename, it puts the name in a queue, and pops up the interface. From within the interface, in this mode, the Area and Dir buttons have no effect. Exit, Zoom, Previous and Next are operational, and work just as they do in the online catalogue. There is also an added feature in this mode that is not available in catalogue mode. The image names are stored in a queue, so that you can move forwards and backwards through the images. But, you may well have a dozen or more images, and you may wish to quickly move to the last (or the first) image, without viewing all the intermediate images. No problem. To jump to the first image in the list, press CTRL-P. To jump to the last image, press CTRL-N. One thing to note here. The queue is maintained during multiple downloads, and even during multiple calls. So, if you have downloaded one set of images, then exit the interface and start to download another, don't be surprised if the first image displayed is not the one you expected. It will be the last one you viewed, not the first of the new batch. One last note about this mode. There is currently no method to pop up the interface in this mode once you have exited it. This means that you cannot, for example, download 200 images, view 10, exit to terminal mode, disconnect the modem, then return to your viewing. We do hope to add this in the near future, but its not there yet. Please be advised that this feature has been disabled in FracTerm releases 1.11 and 1.12. Installing FracTerm Installing FracTerm is a simple process. First, copy all the files into an empty directory on your hard disk. We'll use C:\FRACTERM as an example. There is a small utility, called "WHICHVGA.COM", that comes with FracTerm. It is used to determine what video adapter you have, so that we can make the most of your video support. Simply run WHICHVGA, and it will tell you what VGA adapter you have. The currently supported cards are: ATI VGA Wonder series (ISIATI88.SYS) Tseng 3000 (eg Orchid Prodesigner) (ISITSNG3.SYS) Tseng 4000 (eg Pixel Turbo) (ISITSNG4.SYS) Paradise (ISIPRDS.SYS) Trident 8900 (ISITRI89.SYS) If you have a supported video card, note the filename in parentheses beside your card. This file is a device driver, which we need to support extended graphics capabilities on your system. Using a text editor, edit the file C:\CONFIG.SYS. At some point in the file, add a new line to it, reading: DEVICE=C:\FRACTERM\ISIATI88.SYS Remember to change "C:\FRACTERM\" to the directory where you are installing fracterm, and to change "ISIATI88.SYS" to the appropriate filename for your video card. For example, if you installed FracTerm into E:\TEMP, and you have a Paradise video card, your new line in C:\CONFIG.SYS would read: DEVICE=E:\TEMP\ISIPRDS.SYS Save the changes to the file, exit your text editor, and reboot your system. You should see the device driver install, and away you go. You can now run FracTerm in high-resolution, 256 color mode. If you don't have a supported video card, or cannot get the device driver to install, no fear. FracTerm will still work for you. The only difference is that unless zoomed, the images will only be displayed in 11 colours, instead of 251. WARNINGS FracTerm requires a minimum of an 80286-based system with a VGA video card. Any attempt to run it on an 80186 or 8086/8088 system, or a system eqipped with an MDA, Hercules, CGA or EGA video card will lead to unpredictable results - it may work in terminal mode, it will NOT work properly in catalogue mode. FracTerm also does not like most disk-caching software. Specifically, do not try to run FracTerm with a write-back or staged-write disk cache. Remove the disk cache first, or, if you forget, exit FracTerm and then remove or disable the cache. Do not try to disable the cache from within FracTerm. One problem we have tracked down in our latest tests is with faster systems, notably 386 40Mhz systems. Occasionally, a "Drive not ready reading/writing drive C:" message will pop up, effectively locking FracTerm operation. We have found that changing the wait states on the system memory cache will generally fix this. It may also be necessary to change the wait states on RAM access. A zero-wait-state 386-40 will not, apparently, run FracTerm properly. As a recommended minimum, set cache wait states to 1, and memory wait states to 2. FracTerm now (as of V1.13) has fixed the network incompatibility problem with LanTastic. This problem was actually found to be not a problem with the network, but with our method of font support in graphics mode. Further, it turned out to be not related to the network at all, but to our memory manager and re-mapped ROM areas. Note, however, that FracTerm does not run properly if you are logged on to your own system (i.e. if your system is a server, and you log into it). If you find a situation in which FracTerm simply will not run, please jot down your system configuration, with the contents of your CONFIG.SYS and AUTOEXEC.BAT files, plus any other information you may feel is relevant, and we'll see what we can do. If you get a "Drive not ready..." error, please also include the makes and models of your hard drive(s) and controller(s). A few notes to keep in mind The "two-run" glitch - which caused FracTerm to bomb out the first time you ran it, has now been fixed. It was a timing problem, and the order of operations has been changed so that it should not happen. When in catalogue mode, it is possible that a file may not be received correctly, in which case, you should see a message in the blue status bar saying "Transfer failed". Rather than trying to use a corrupt file, FracTerm deletes the file. Simply selecting the same file again should make it work. If you have a fairly slow system, and a high-speed modem, you may get more errors than you might otherwise expect. This could be because of the overhead in the multitasker. There is a fix for this: you need to get a special chip, called a "16550 UART", for your serial port. Any computer store should be able to get this for you and install it for you. Quick Key Summary Terminal mode: ALT-C Clear Screen ALT-D Dialing directory ALT-H Hangup modem ALT-S Settings menu ALT-X Exit FracTerm CTRL-F1 Find free memory (should be at least 300,000) CTRL-PGDN Start the offline catalogue. Note: ANSI cursor keys and function keys are supported in terminal mode. Catalogue mode: A Go to main area listing D Go to dir listing for current area E Exit calatlogue mode N Select next image in current dir P Select previous image in current dir Z Zoom Note: pressing ESC will "back up" one level - from images to the dir list, and from the dir list to the area list.