Night Owl 6

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Text File | 1991-07-04 | 40KB | 1,056 lines

This program is Shareware, and may be distributed freely, so- long as the original archive is not tampered with. - Author Lcom v1.0 ∙ Written by John Bushnell I. Overview of supplied files II. Setting up Lcom for use III. Using the program IV. Author's Notes A. Getting Help B. The Terminal C. Controlling The Modem D. General Defaults (Controlling Variables Within the Program) E. Telephone (Dialing) Directory F. Telephone Directory Special Terminal Service Keys G. The ScrollBack Buffer H. Macros (In General) I. Macros (Incoming) J. Translate Tables K. Ascii Tables L. Transfer Protocol Areas M. Shelling To Dos N. Changing Video Modes (screen length, width, color/b&w, etc) O. Controlling the Lcom Menus (sizes, colors, positions, etc) P. Zooming Q. Viewing the DOS screen R. Saving the screen (record screen) S. Printing The Screen T. Log to File (protocol:ascii download) U. Log to Printer V. Sending the modem init string manually W. Hanging up the modem X. Exiting the program ┌──────────────────────────┐ │OVERVIEW OF SUPPLIED FILES│ └─────────────I────────────┘ Lcom comes with three executable files: LCC.BAT - The Lcom Configuration program. You use this to install Lcom initially (this will be the first program you run) and whenever you wish to change an option within the Lcom. LC .EXE - Lcom. The main program. LCV.EXE - The Lcom Video Configuration program. Change your video mode to each video mode you would ever want to run Lcom in, and run LCV in each so that Lcom can know a little information about the modes it will be used in. Lcom will run in any screen size, from 40x25 to 200x127. ┌───────────────────────┐ │SETTING UP LCOM FOR USE│ └───────────II──────────┘ To setup Lcom for use, refer to the INSTALL.DOC file for detailed instructions on the most basic configuration to the most comprehensive. ┌─────────────────┐ │USING THE PROGRAM│ └───────III───────┘ A. GETTING HELP Help is available from any part of the program through the help key; defaulted to be F1. After pressing F1, help information specific to the area of the program which you are in will be shown. Pressing F1 again will give you help on the help window. In short, the arrow keys allow you to move up and down through the help material (if more than one page exists) and the escape key leaves. B. THE TERMINAL When you first run Lcom you enter the terminal window. From here, all the other windows which you can access while using Lcom, such as the telephone directory and macros, are available by pressing the appropriate keys. The terminal has several options which you can select. These include the emulation which is being used to translate commands over the modem and whether or not characters you type are echoed on the screen or not. These options can be set in two places. The first is in the config program; Changes made here are permanent. The second is through the General Defaults window. Most changes made from this window are lost when you rerun the Lcom. You would normally change the settings in the config program if you want them to be still set every time you run Lcom. C. CONTROLLING THE MODEM The Line Settings window (ALT-L) is the window which shows you what your modem is currently configured to, and, allows you to change that configuration. Items that can be changed include the baud rate, parity, character length, stop bits, com port, and com port base address. You move to each of the different items that can be changed by using the right and left arrow keys. To change the value of the currently highlighted option, press the up or down arrow keys. All of the items in this window can also be changed in the config program; however, be forewarned that if you change the com port in the config program, you must (also) change the com port base address to correspond to your (new) com port. D. GENERAL DEFAULTS The general defaults window is a window inside of the Lcom program which allows you to temporarily change options which Lcom uses while it is running. Examples include the terminal emulation, duplex, init string (this will be changed permanently), and how long the dial waits for a connection before giving up. E. TELEPHONE DIRECTORY (DIALING DIRECTORY) The Lcom telephone directory (defaulted to be the ALT-D key) is the method by which you store the phone numbers of people you wish to call, and, to call and connect to those numbers. Lcom supports up to 65,000 numbers (infinite for all intents). You can move throughout the different numbers using the up and down arrow keys, as well as the page keys and the home and/or end keys. The telephone directory operates off of a command line system; that is, where you type in any command you wish to use in verbose; i.e. "sort". There are some 'givens', however. These include: - Pressing return on a blank line issues the dial command. If any numbers are marked (in the que) they are dialed, otherwise, the number you are currently on is dialed. - Pressing the space-bar issues the "mark" command; which adds the current entry into the que. - ALT-E issues the EDIT command; which edits the current number. - Typing in a word which is not a command, such as "whatever", is then assumed by Lcom to be a search string. A search for that word is started, and if it is found, the highlighted bar is moved to that number. This is useful for quickly finding certain number. If you had a number which, for instance, you labeled as "John's BBS", you could just type in "john" and Lcom would go directly to that number. Lcom has many commands available for your use in the telephone directory. You can type them out manually or simply type the RIGHT ARROW (or '/' key) and thumb through the list of commands and choose the one you want; either with the enter key which executes the command immediately, or the space bar which types out the command for you up to the point where you would press enter, but does not. Here is a complete listing of the dialing directory commands: ------------------------------------------------------------- dial ∙ This dials a number or numbers which are specified after the command, in the que; or if neither of these exist, the currently highlighted number. once ∙ This command is the same as the dial command, except that the dial command repeats after an unsuccessful attempt. The once command dials the specified number(s) once, and then stops. edit ∙ (Also ALT-E) this command pulls you into the telephone edit window. From there, you can enter in things such as the phone number's name, number, and baud rate. goto ∙ This allows you to immediately go to the number of your choice. You can either tell the telephone directory to go to a specific number (i.e. "goto 10") or a specific name. (i.e. "goto compuserve") If you are going to use the second method, then you can (in almost all cases) drop the "goto". mark ∙ Marking a number "adds it to the que". This means, that it labels that number such that when you dial, all other labeled numbers are dialed one after another until a connection. unmark ∙ After marking a number, you may wish to un-mark it. find ∙ This command is the same as the goto command; except that it searches for the number you want assuming the string you pass it is part of the name at all times. With goto, if you were to say "goto 10", it would assume you meant the 10th number; whereas find assumes you wanted to find the number which had a 10 in the name. i.e. "...10... bbs". format: "find <whatever>". copy ∙ This command allows you to duplicate a number. "copy 10" would copy the number you are currently highlighting to entry #10. clear ∙ Erases all information inside of the number indicated. delete ∙ This deletes the "slot" held by the number you deleted. see: insert. insert ∙ Lcom does not come with any "slots" for you to put your phone numbers in. You have to create them as you need them. This is done by the "insert" command. Hypothetically, this should be the first command you ever type in the dialing directory. After inserting a number, you would then want to edit it with the edit command. swap ∙ If you ever want to swap one number with the place held by another, use the swap command. "swap 10" will swap #10 with the currently highlighted number. sort ∙ You can sort your phone list by any of several methods. These include name, number, and activity. If you don't specify a field, (i.e. sort 10-20) then Lcom sorts the entire list. If you wish to sort in reverse order, then specify the field in reverse. (i.e. sort 20-10). open ∙ You may have more than one telephone directory. If so, you can load a new one or edit an old one by typing "open fname". "LC" is the standard dialing directory file. Therefore, if you wish to open your original dialing directory, you would type "open lc" help ∙ Pulls up local help on the telephone directory. This is also the help key (F1). zoom ∙ Expands or unexpands the telephone directory window. This is also the zoom key (F5). Sometimes even in Zoomed mode there is more information to be displayed. This information can be displayed by moving over right using the ctrl-right-arrow key. This key also works while not zoomed. out ∙ This command is purely for your own convenience. If you ever wish to send a number or numbers over the modem, i.e. to tell a friend the number to a certain bbs, you can simply use the out command and Lcom types it for you. reset ∙ There is information stored in every number in the telephone directory. Some of this information is visible to you, such as the number of times you've called a certain BBS; other information is not, such as the activity index. All of these can be reset with the "reset" command. This does *not* erase important information such as the number or name of that entry. exit ∙ verbose equivalent to the escape key. The format by which you use these commands follows these rules: "dial" ∙ A command with no other information specified assumes that you wish that command to apply to the currently highlighted number. If you were on entry #1, this command would dial that entry. "dial 1" "dial 1,2,3" ∙ Any numbers after a command represent the numbers that the command is to apply to. "dial john" ∙ If a non-number is specified, Lcom will attempt to figure out which number you were referring to, and use the appropriate number if found. "dial 1-20" ∙ Specifying a field is done using a dash. If you ever want to perform the function in reverse, specify in the field in reverse, i.e. "dial 20-1" "dial 100-" ∙ (100 - end) Dashes ( - ) signify a field. (as stated "dial -100" ∙ (1 - 100) above). If you leave out the first part "dial - " ∙ (1 - end) of a dash statement, that piece is assumed to have been a '1'. If you leave out the second part, that part is considered to be the end of the telephone directory, thus, the statement "dial 10-" will dial all numbers from #10 to the end of the telephone, dial "-10" from #1 to #10, and, "dial - " will dial all numbers. combinations are accepted for most commands: "dial 1,2,3,john,1-20" *Note: There are several commands which allow only specific types of entry specifications. One such example is the sort command. The only two possibilities for the sort command is just "sort", or "sort <field>", i.e. "sort 1-10", or "sort 10-1", but "sort 1,2,3" would be invalid. Many times, it is not necessary to list the entire command. If you list only part of a command, such as "di" instead of "dial", or even "d", lcom will assume you meant dial. In the case of similar commands, such as "out" and "once", if you say "o", lcom will assume the command you wanted was the first one in the list. If you are having trouble getting started with the telephone directory, try these steps: type "ins<ENTER>", then ALT-E. THE EDIT WINDOW After invoking the edit command, a window will pop up which will display all the information which you can change for the number you are editing. To edit a certain item, type the letter which corresponds to it. For example in the case of the baud rate, the letter that corresponds to it is a 'B'. This is found directly below the baud. 38400 ^ │ B For most applications, you will need only to edit the name and phone number of a new BBS, as the other information would most likely be the same as it is defaulted. WHEN DIALING, AND THE DIAL WINDOW Lcom has a unique style of dialing. You need not be *in* the dial window to be dialing. As Lcom is configured, when you start a dial the dial window will not appear. You will be in what is called "roam mode". In roam mode, you can move throughout Lcom while it is dialing. If you type ALT-D to go into the dialing directory, you will instead go into the "dial window". Here you will find a list of various commands that you can type to do different things while dialing. Options include: going to the next number in the que (n) redialing the previous number (p), and redialing the same number (r). If you press ESCAPE from the dialing window, you abort the dial. You can, however, return back to the terminal (still dialing) and still be in roam mode. This is done by pressing ENTER in the dialing window. All of the commands which are available in the dialing window are also available in the terminal. Because of this, you can simply press ESCAPE in the terminal to stop the dial, and in the same way you can press 'N' to go to the next number. You can, if you wish, configure Lcom to automatically pull up the dialing window when you first start to dial. This is the format most communication programs use, and in Lcom it is present simply as an aid you can use to view your options. Think of it as a help menu. F. TELEPHONE DIRECTORY SPECIAL TERMINAL SERVICE KEYS There are two keys available from the terminal which perform several dialing functions. The first, which is defaulted to be the ALT-R key, is redial. When you press this key, you start a redial of the last number you connected to, or attempted to call. If you had several numbers in the QUE, they will be ignored in the "redial" option. The second key is the "dial que" key. (defaulted to be ALT-Q). Lets say you had four numbers in your dial que when you connect to one of them. After you disconnect, you may want to start dialing the others again. One way to do this is to go into the dialing directory and press enter. This starts the dial, and since there are still the other three numbers in the que, those numbers are dialed. Another option, however, is to use the "dial que" key. This key, for all purposes, is exactly the same as going into the dialing directory and restarting the dial process over again; except simplified into one key. Also, the ALT-Q key starts the dial in the que where you left off before, whereas going into the dialing directory and pressing enter restarts the dial off of the first marked number. G. THE SCROLLBACK BUFFER There will invariably be times when you wish to review over information you had passed over before. You can look over the information that had come in earlier by going into the Scrollback Buffer. (defaulted to be the ctrl-left- arrow key). Lcom has what I have dubbed to be a non-volatile scrollback. That is, when you quit Lcom you do not loose that information and so it is still there when you rerun the program. Lcom also, unlike many other programs (all of the ones that I know of) does not store the entire scrollback buffer in RAM. Instead, Lcom has a service area (around 8k) where the information goes to be put into the scrollback buffer, and once 8k is filled that information is then passed on to a file on your hard disk and permanently stored. By doing this, Lcom has a virtually limitless pool of storage for the scrollback buffer. The default size of the scrollback buffer is 1megabyte, (or 1,000,000 bytes / 1,000 K ). This could be considered large and you might want to reduce the size of the backscroll in the config program. You may even, however, want to increase this size to be able to "go back" further. The two key components of the scrollback storage is the UNIT SIZE, and the NUMBER OF UNITS. If you have a UNIT SIZE of 8000bytes, and 128 units, then your scrollback buffer will be 1,024,000 bytes on disk (as it is defaulted). If you wanted to increase or decrease the size of the backscroll, the fastest and best way would be to change the number of units. If you cut the number of units in half to 64, then you would cut the scrollback buffer size in half. If you ever change the unit size, be aware of these facts: Increasing the unit size increases Lcom's size in RAM, and decreasing the unit size decreases the program's efficiency on disk, since about Lcom must waste approximately 240bytes of each unit. H. MACROS Macros are the way by which you can set up a particular key to type out a group of keys for you automatically. You might, for instance, make a key to type out your name, i.e. "John Bushnell", and your password "whatever", separated by carriage returns. You might also want to make a macro which automatically starts a transfer using a specific protocol, or even make a macro to dial a certain number. Macros, put simply, simplify repetitive tasks. Macros are present in several parts of the program. There are, obviously, a list of macros which you can define in the macro window. There are also two macros for each number in the dialing directory; one executed when you first connect to a BBS, and the other just after you disconnect. There's a macro which is executed when you first run lcom (called the bootup macro) and also one which is run just before Lcom quits. The general rule for macros is that when the scrolllock light is off, you are typing in regular words, like "hello". When the scrolllock light is ON, you are in what is called "direct type mode". In this mode, anything and everything which you type (other than shift, alt, ctrl, and keys like that) are recorded into the macro. Even ESCAPES and ENTERS are stored. The only key which is not recorded is the help key. By going into direct type mode, you can type in commands such as ALT-D to go into the dialing directory, and the ENTER key to dial the current number. By making such a macro, you would have in effect duplicated the (DIAL QUE) key for the dialing directory. IN THE MACROS WINDOW In the macros window, you have a list of "slots" where you can place macros. The process of making a macro is as follows: First, you would most likely want to give that macro its keystroke. You can make a macro any key you want, however you shouldn't make it the same key as something which is already used. Almost all of the ALT-Keys have been used by Lcom's different windows, and the F1 and F5 key are also used. When you try to define a macro as a key already used by Lcom, a warning is displayed which says that "you will be masking out another key". I only allow you to mask out another key since there may come a time when you would want to. This might be so that you could do a few other things before actually going into the window originally occupied by the key you were masking over. You define the key for a macro by first pressing the CTRL-LEFT-ARROW key. After pressing that key, you will see a box appear on the left hand side of the window prompting you to type the key you would like that macro to be. You would then type in your key, for instance, ALT-F10. Then you can type in your macro. All letters, numbers, and symbols are accepted; and, once again, if you want to type in keys like the ALT or F-Keys, turn on the scroll lock light, type them in, and shut the scrolllock like off again. There are various commands which can be built into the macros to be interpreted as the macro is executed. These commands start with a tilde (~) and are followed by a letter representing a specific corresponding command, and may be followed by other letters to be used by that command. An example of this is the ~C command, which is substituted at run-time by the key which executed the macro. There is another command for producing sound (~S). This command requires that you follow the command by the frequency. i.e. ~S▒ . The ▒ that you see you may recognize as the ASCII character #177. You produce this character by pressing the ALT key, and while holding the ALT key typing in 1 7 7 (ON THE KEYPAD) , and then releasing the ALT key. By putting that character in after the ~S command, you are telling lcom to create the sound with the frequency 177, or more specifically, frequency 177*100. But you also need one more component with the sound command, you also need a "duration" ; that is, the length of the tone. The duration comes directly after the frequency and is represented the same way: by a symbolic character that you can produce by pressing the ALT key, typing in the number into the keypad (1-255) and releasing the ALT key. A complete example of the sound command would be ~S▒░ . The first symbol is character #177, and the second is #176. In this example, you would be telling Lcom to produce the frequency 177 for 176 clock ticks. (there are roughly 18 (20) clock ticks in one second). A more complete list of commands is available in the HELP menu for the macros. In that help menu you will find commands listed in a "format". The format for the sound command would be found as ~Sfd . The F stands for the frequency, and the D the duration. I. MACROS (INCOMING) Probably the most powerful option in Lcom is the incoming macros. These are macros which are triggered by, instead of keys, words that come in over the modem. When you press the ctrl-left-arrow key, instead of prompting you to type in the key that would trigger the macro (to the right), you are typing in the string which will run that macro. In this way you can automatically log yourself onto bulletin boards or create an "auto-zmodem". Auto-Zmodem is a feature which exists on a few communications programs. This is where a Zmodem transfer is initiated by the computer which that program is connected to, and the communications program automatically starts the same transfer. Zmodem sends out the characteristic characters **B00 just before it starts to send a file. (the is character #24). You could, for instance, make an incoming macro which is triggered by **B00 and goes into the Download window (PgDn) and goes to the External Zmodem protocol (which you had added previously) and presses Enter. You can go specifically to any protocol by typing in the sequential letter that corresponds to that protocol. i.e. the first protocol would be "A", the second "B", and so on. For a list of the commands and limitations of macros, read the previous section on MACROS. J. TRANSLATE TABLES Lcom has three different types of translate tables. The first is an "incoming character" translate table, the second an "outgoing character" table, and the third is a "color" translation table. Translation tables take one 'thing' and translate it to another. For instance, in the case of the color table; you could change one color to be another. You may want to do this because it is hard to read that particular color combination on your monitor; who knows. The outgoing translate table takes the letters you type and will translate them into a different letter, and the incoming table takes the letters as they come in and changes them before it displays them on the screen. A couple notes about the character translate tables: when you start changing characters around, you may experience some 'weird' results. The first of which is that characters are translated AFTER they are checked by the incoming macros. This means that your incoming macros only apply to that which exactly comes in over the modem. Secondly, if you ever translate character #27 then the ANSI color and control process will stop working (assuming you are using the ANSI emulation; which you probably are.) K. ASCII TABLES An Ascii Table is a list of all the characters on your IBM computer. In this table you will find a list of letters and symbols with their corresponding numbers. If you want to produce any of these symbols (or letters) the procedure you use to do this is as follows: First press and hold the ALT key, then while holding the ALT key, type in the number of the symbol (ON YOUR KEYPAD, NOT ON THE NUMBERS ABOVE THE LETTERS) and then, release the alt key. <- That, is the process by which you can create these symbols just about anywhere. While you are in the ascii table, if you wish to send one of these characters out over the modem, one easy way is to simply move the highlighted bar over the symbol and then press and release the enter key. Most likely you will use this as a "reference" guide. L. TRANSFER PROTOCOL AREAS Lcom uses what are called "external protocols". I've found through my OWN experiences with communications programs that internal protocols are often 'behind the times'. This means slow, buggie, and devoid of newer features which have since been added. External protocols, or protocols which are separate programs, can be found on any protocol which you could ever want; and they are almost always more current and easier to update (so you don't have to keep getting newer versions of Lcom). If you are unfamiliar with the procedures associated with using External protocols, here is a brief summary: The most common external protocol program is called "DSZ". This program contains inside of it the Xmodem, Ymodem-Batch, and Zmodem protocols. Which protocol is being used depends on what you tell it to use when you are setting it up. You would, for instance in the case of DSZ, use that program three different ways: one for each protocol. After you have created an external protocol definition (see below), You will type in the filename and parameters for both uploading and downloading. For the Zmodem protocol, your filename and parameters for Uploading would be, for example: "c:\path\dsz port 1 sz %f". c:\path\dsz would probably not be where you put your external protocol, but it happens to be where mine is. You would put in the path to your own external protocol program. Also, I put in "port 1" because I'm on Com 1... if you are on com 2 then you should put "port 2" for DSZ. Or, you could even put "port %c" since Lcom automatically translates "%c" into the current com port number. After you have entered in this "string" into the external protocol edit menu (alt-e) for both upload and download, then you are ready to go. Creating an External Protocol Definition ---------------------------------------- To create a new external protocol, press the insert key. Then, to edit it, (so as to enter in the upload and download strings, as well as the name) type ALT-E (while on that protocol). M. SHELLING TO DOS After going into the SHELL window, you then have two options: either doing a L:ocal shell or a R:emote (and local) shell. The Local Shell is a normal dos shell. The Remote Dos Shell is a unique shell in which you, and your remote partner, can both shell to (your) dos at the same time. The Remote Shell ---------------- A few notes about the remote shell, You shouldn't use this unless you are ONLINE. If you do it while you are offline, you will most likely experience a "loop back" and the computer will (seem) to lock up. If this occurs, turn the scrolllock light ON. Turning the scrolllock light ON makes it so that characters are not allowed from over the modem. This means that your partner cannot type, and if he/she hangs up while you are in a remote shell (and a loopback occurs) you can simply turn the scrolllock light on and things will "flush" themselves out eventually. N. CHANGING VIDEO MODES (SCREEN LENGTH, WIDTH, COLOR/B&W, ETC.) There are problems with changing the screen size on the IBM computer. Going to 80x43 or 80x50 is fairly generalized by all video cards, and so I *could* make it so you could switch into these screen sizes, however, if I used that system then you could never go into, lets say, 132 columns, or my favorite, 100x60. Most video cards come with some sort of utility program to change the screen size into 80x43, 80x50, 132x43 (whatever is supported). For my video card the program is called "ESU". I type ESU /3 for 80x25 and ESU /40 for 80x43. The idea behind Lcom is that for every video mode that you would ever wish to go into, you would run LCV (the lcom video utility) and configure Lcom for that screen size individually. After you've done 80x25, you'd then run your change-screen-size program that came with your video card and switch to the next mode that you might want to use. After you've changed, then you'd rerun LCV and configure for that screen mode. Configuring for a screen mode involves simply going into LCV, into the Change-mode-parameter-area, and typing in the command which would set your screen size to that mode at dos. i.e. "ESU /3" (goto 80x25 for Video7 video cards). After you've configured all of the modes you would ever want to use, you can then go into them from the ALT-V (defaulted to) window. You can also change the video mode from a DOS SHELL and lcom will work fine in the new mode when you return; whether you configured that mode or not. O. CONTROLLING THE LCOM MENUS (SIZES, COLORS, POSITIONS, ETC.) The Lcom Video program (LCV) is the means by which you can change the sizes, colors, and positions of each window. Inside of the LCV program there are several initial options, the first of which is "configure windows". After going into that area, you will now be in a mockup of Lcom. When you type the dialing directory key you will pull up a fake dialing directory. You can use the arrow keys to move the window around on the screen, or the shift-arrow keys to resize the window. Pressing ALT-C takes you into a window whereby you can change the colors of that window. There are several "default" color sets which you can load. They are a window which you can reach by typing CTRL-ENTER. In that window you could also save your favorite color set to one of the default slots in the lower section and then load it back into a different screen size. P. ZOOMING There are currently, two places where you can "zoom" in. The first of which is the terminal window. By pressing the (defaulted to) F5 key, you will switch between three different terminal windows. The telephone directory also has the ability to zoom. By pressing this same zoom key, you will expand the telephone directory to be able to view more information at one time. (see 'zoom' in telephone directory) Q. VIEWING THE DOS SCREEN You can view the dos screen, that is, the screen as it was before you ran Lcom (or after you left a shell) by pressing the View Dos Screen key. This key is defaulted to be ALT-F5. This key can be activated from almost all areas of Lcom. R. SAVING THE SCREEN (RECORD SCREEN) In Lcom you can "snapshot" the screen by using the "record screen" key. This is defaulted to be ALT-S. After you have told Lcom the name of the file you wish to save the screen to, you will then be prompted for what emulation you would like to use; TTY,ANSI, or LVI. Basically, this means: TTY - No color ANSI - Ansi color LVI - LVI color ANSI color is most likely the color coding system that you have when you type files out from DOS with the "type" command, and so you would most likely want to save to ANSI if you want to save in 'normal color'. You may, however, wish to save it in LVI color (lcom's compressed color format). If you ever want to save a block of the screen, you can do that by poping into the backscroll and using the backscroll block and save commands. S. PRINTING THE SCREEN ALT-P is defaulted to be the print screen key. If ever you wish to send that which is currently displayed on the screen to the printer, this is the key you would want to use. One again, if you ever want to only print a block, you can do that by poping into the backscroll and using the backscroll block and print commands. T. LOG TO FILE (protocol:ascii download) Log to file is the way by which you can save everything that comes in over the modem to a file. Log-To-File in Lcom *IS* ASCII DOWNLOAD. After pressing the Download key, you select the protocol as ASCII. You will then be put into the Ascii Download window. From there, you type in the filename which you want to log to <press enter>, and then you might <but don't have to> type in a format file to use. (see format files) There are several options in the ascii download (area) of options. One of them is, how you want to save the text. In "Binary" format; everything you get goes directly to a file.. no questions asked (other than conforming to the carriage return and line feed translations). Whereas, in text mode, if a character (for instance) 26 comes in over the modem, I will not write it to the file.. I'll change it to another symbol. This is because character #26 symbolizes the end of a text file, and would cause you to not be able to view the entire file (without a smarter text editor). U. LOG TO PRINTER This is similar to the Log-To-File in that it records what comes in over the modem; except to the printer. When you're done with the Log to printer feature, you press the same key that you started it with to stop it. When you press that key, Lcom is not necessarily done printing. It may have yet to finish off the current page, so do not shut the printer off until Lcom says it has finished and all the printing has stopped. V. SENDING THE MODEM INIT STRING MANUALLY The Modem Initialization string is sent automatically when the program first boots up (unless it is configured otherwise) : as long as you are not online. The time may come when you would want to re-send it. This can be done with the (send-modem-init-string-key). defaulted to ALT-O:utput init string. W. HANGING UP THE MODEM Lcom's key to hang up the modem is defaulted to ALT-H. Lcom's method of hanging up the modem is called "dropping the DTR". This is the quickest method that could be used. You may want to switch to the old method of hanging up the modem; which is for all intents and purposes, saying "hangup" to the modem with three +'s and an ATH0 instruction. You would most likely only want to switch to this method (in the config program) if dropping the DTR did not work with your modem. X. EXITING THE PROGRAM To exit the program, you first type the exit-lcom-key (defaulted to ALT-X) and then (normally) just press ENTER (or Y). You could, however, type the 'W' key and exit without executing the terminate-lcom-macro (defined in the config program). ┌─────────────┐ │AUTHORS NOTES│ └─────IV──────┘ If you have any questions or comments, you can call my Bulletin Board in San Clemente, CA. (714) 492-3804 (from July 4th to November 1st, 1991), (that time frame given so that if I should take the BBS down that I don't continue to get phone calls on that line). If I should keep the BBS up longer, then the range will change in future versions of Lcom; and there WILL be future versions. If you wish to contribute to the further versions of Lcom, you can send a $20 donation to: John Bushnell attn: Lcom 401 Calle Robles San Clemente, Ca. 92672 - John Bushnell This program compiled using Borland C, v2.0 and Turbo Assembler, v2.5.