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the Wombat Terminal Program (version 2) 22-mar-86 Copyright (C) 1986 by Dave warker --- STUFF: Note that the correct file sizes for version 2 are: Wtp 32900 bytes Wtp.info 938 bytes FixWtpLoadV1 16932 --- HELLO AGAIN! This is a quicky information file which explains, though briefly, the features of the Wombat Terminal Program (Wtp). Some of the features of Wtp which may be of interest: - full 80 x 24 screen. A 25th display line is reserved for status info. such as time of day and elapsed session time. - limited ANSI control sequence recognition. Supports enough to allow use with VT-100 terminal option on Delphi and Compuserve. Next version will support many more of the VT-100 functions. - Text file data capture and transmission. Options are provided to auto- magically convert CR/LFs to LF on receive and LFs to CR/LF on transmit. Another options allows stripping of all control characters except CR, LF and TABs from incoming and outgoing text files. - XMODEM file transfer both text and binary files. The options provided for text file capture and transmission also apply for XMODEM text file transfers. CRC transfers are supported. - Phone dialing functions. - Load and save of current parameter settings. Optionally will auto-dial when a new set of parameters are loaded. - Choice of visual, tone or speech bell. - other stuff. --- STARTING UP 'WTP'. Wtp can be started from either the CLI or from the Workbench. Sorry about the grundgy looking ICON, anyone with real artistic ability, as opposed to my autistic ability, who blows an hour or so desiging a nice looking "Wombat on the telephone" will receive a pat on the back and my eternal gratitude. From the Workbench you just double click the Wombat icon and Wtp will load. The current version does not save icons for the created settings files so for now you will have to load the desired settings after loading Wtp. From the CLI there is a single optional argument which should be the name of a Wtp settings file created with the "Save settings" menu selection. If supplied then those settings will be in effect when Wtp starts up. If no arguments are supplied then Wtp looks for a default settings file named "default.wtp", first in the current directory, then in the directory "SYS:wtp/". The first file found is used. If no default settings file is found Wtp will use a reasonable set of default values, reasonable for me that is. If you don't like them you should change the settings to match your preferences then save them as "default.wtp" someplace. When Wtp finishes loading you should see a blank screen with a cursor in the upper left corner and with the current time displayed on the bottom (status) line and the elapsed session time, which will be 00:00 hours, to the right. If instead you see an alert box then Wtp could not start up due to lack of some required resource. The possible alerts are: "Can't open window" Wtp could not open the Intuition window to be used for it's output. Probably due to a lack of memory. "Can't allocate cursor sprite" The cursor used in Wtp is actually a hardware sprite. You may get this error if some other application has grabbed up all the available sprites. "Can't open timer port" "Can't allocate timer request" "Can't allocate serial Port" "Can't allocate serial request" There was insufficient memory to allocate the MsgPorts or IORequests needed for serial or timer device operation. "Can't open timer" Wtp uses the timer device to blink the cursor and to time the XMODEM transfers. This error indicates that the timer device could not be opened. Since the timer is "ROM" resident it is not likely that this error will occur. "Can't open serial device" Probably caused because the "serial.device" file was not present in the "DEVS:" directory of the current system disk or because some other application has requested exclusive access to the serial port. If you do not get an Alert you are up and running and should peruse the menu options to inspect/change the settings as needed. Note that the session time is the elapsed time, in hours and minutes, since you started the current call or since you reset it via the "reset session time" menu option. The current time is displayed in standard Amiga 24 hour format. --- LEAVING 'WTP'. Just select 'quit' from the 'Stuff' menu. All system resources will be returned to the OS and any open transfer files will be closed. --- ANSI CONTROL SEQUENCES SUPPORTED: The following control characters are supported: HEX NAME FUNCTION 0D CR Carriage return, moves cursor to column 1 of current line. 0A LF Line feed. Moves cursor to same column of next line. 08 BS Backspace, move cursor left one character. 07 BEL Bell. What happens depends on current bell selection. 09 HT Horizontal TAB. Moves cursor to next multiple of 8 column. 1B ESC Introduces ANSI CSI and DCS sequences defined below. 0B VT Vertical TAB, treated same as LF. 0C FF Form feed, treated same as LF. All other control characters, including rubouts (7F hex) are ignored for display on screen. The following ANSI sequences are recognized: (note that CSI = 'ESC [', and DCS = 'ESC P') SEQUENCE FUNCTION CSI <row> ; <col> H Position cursor. Row and/or column may be omitted. CSI <row> ; <col> f Same as previous. CSI <ext> J Erase in screen. 'ext' values: 0 = erase cursor to end of screen 1 = erase start of screen to cursor 2 = erase entire screen All other CSI and DCS sequences are ignored. Sorry but no new sequences have been added in version 2. I am planning to incorporate significant VT-100 and VT52 compatibility in the next version but due to the time it will probably involve I decided to release version 2 before starting on that can of worms. --- MENU SELECTIONS: THE 'STUFF' MENU: "About Wtp.." Just displays a little info 'bout me, Nothing fancy. "load settings" Presents a requester where you can enter the name of a Wtp settings file created with the next menu item and Wtp will change the current settings to match those in the file. Note that if 'auto-dial' is enabled Wtp will attempt to dial the phone number after the settings are loaded. Future versions will provide a "Mac"ish scrolling window of available settings files. Note that you must convert settings files created with Wtp version 1 into files loadable with Wtp version 2 with the "FixWtpLoadV1" utility provided. "save settings" Presents a requester to specify the name of a file to which the current settings will be written. Any name may be used but I suggest that a ".wtp" be appended to it as future versions will auto-magically display a list of all such files when 'loading' settings. "quit" Amazingly enough just quits "Wtp" and returns to the CLI or Workbench. Will close any open text capture or transmission files. THE 'FILE' MENU: (file transfer) "capture text to a file" Allows you to open a new file to which all received characters will be written. Note that the "text transfer options" effect which characters will be written to the file. Select this menu item again to close the capture file. "send a text file" Allows you to open an existing file and send it out the serial port. Which characters are sent depends on the text transfer options. Selecting this item again will cancel the text file send. "XMODEM (text) send" Will transmit a text file using the XMODEM protocol. Note that the "text transfer options" are applied to the data. The bell is sounded when the transfer has completed. During the transfer the "File" menu will contain an option which will allow canceling the transfer. If CRC transfers are enabled then the transfer will take place using CRC checksums if the receiver requests it. Any unused space in the last XMODEM record will be filled with 0s. Also note that all XMODEM transfers automatically force XON/XOFF handshake off and 8 data bits. "XMODEM (text) receive" Receives a file using XMODEM protocol. Applies the "text transfer options" to the received data. Note that the "strip control characters" options will cause the extra 0s appended to the last record by the XMODEM send function to be stripped. Can be aborted via the "File" menu. If CRC transfers are enabled then Wtp will request a CRC transfer and, provided that the sender supports CRC, the transfer will use CRC checksums. "XMODEM (binary) send" Send a binary file using XMODEM protocol. File data is transferred as is and is not effected by the "text transfer options". "XMODEM (binary) receive" Receive a binary file using XMODEM protocol. Data is saved as received and is not effected by the "text transfer options". I would like to add an Amiga specific XMODEM transfer option similar to "MacBinary" and would like to hear ideas as to what people would like to see in it. "Text transfer options..." Allows changes several options which apply to text transfers: "LFs <---> LFs" "LFs <---> CRs" "LFs <---> CR/LFs" One of these options must be checked and determines what happens to received or transmitted line feeds during text transfers. The first option (LFs <---> LFs) passes them through unaltered and might be used when transferring a file from a Unix system or another Amiga. The second option (LFs <---> CRs) causes transmitted line feeds to be changed into carriage returns and received carriage returns to be changed into line feeds. Normally used when sending a text file, via "Send text file" option, to a computer as if you were typing it by hand, ie: with a single carriage return at the end of each line. The last option (LFs <---> CR/LFs) converts transmitted line feeds into a carriage return and a line feed. Received carriage return and line feed pairs are changed into a single line feed. This is the file transfer method you should use when receiving text files from, or sending text files to DELPHI or COMPUSERVE. "strip control chars" Causes any control characters other than CR, LF and TAB to be thrown away on both send and receive. This includes NULs (0) and DELs (7F hex). "XMODEM transfer options..." Allows changing of options which only apply to XMODEM transfers. "use CRC checksums" When checked, allows use of CRC checksums during XMODEM transfers. CRC checksums add an insignificant amount of overhead to the transfers while providing a much greater degree of confidence that the transfer will be error free. If the service or system you are connected to does not support CRC transfers then Wtp will fall back to simple checksums automatically. You should only un-check this option if you are certain that the other end of the transfer does NOT support CRC. Both DELPHI and COMPUSERVE support CRC. THE 'PORT' MENU: (serial port settings) "Baud rate" Submenu allows changing the current transmission speed. You probably need XON/XOFF handshaking for the higher speeds (9600 & 19200). "Character format" Allows selection of the character size and parity mode. The default setting is "7 data bits/space parity" which is the most common. The character format you choose must match the format used by the service or terminal program to which you are communicating. "Stop bits" Can select 1 or 2 stop bits. Generally not important but provided for completeness. Due to the method I was forced to use for generating parity bits, you are stuck with 1 stop bit for all character formats except "7 data bits/no parity". This menu option may disappear in the next version if no one yells that they need it. "XON/XOFF handshake" A common handshaking method which sends a CONTROL-S when the receiver is falling behind and a CONTROL-Q when it has caught up. This option applies to both sent and received data but does NOT apply to XMODEM transfers as CONTROL-S and CONTROL-Q are valid data characters. You can leave this option on in any case and an XMODEM transfer will internally turn it off for the duration of the transfer. THE 'SCREEN' MENU: "cursor wrap at EOL" When checked causes the cursor to wrap to the next line when it hits the right edge of the screen. Will also cause the cursor to wrap to the previous line when you backspace past the left screen edge. If this option is off the cursor will be pinned to the left and right screen edges. I found that turning cursor wrap off on Delphi prevents problems with lines of exactly 80 characters (the VT-100 treats column 80 specially so it does not have this problem.) "local echo" When checked causes all data entered at the keyboard (and also send from a text file) to be displayed on the screen. This normally only usefull for talking terminal to terminal as Delphi's or Compuserve's computers normally handle the echoing of keys. The normal setting for this option is OFF. "CR --> CR/LF" Displaying a carriage return normally just positions the cursor to the first character of the CURRENT line. Checkmarking this option will force a carriage return to place the cursor at the first character of the NEXT line. This option should normally be left unchecked unless you are calling another person who will be typing to you through his terminal program (hopefully another Amiga running Wtp!), in which case you should also checkmark the "local echo" option so you can see what you are typing. "Cursor style..." Allows selection of a box or underline cursor either blinking or solid. Note that the blinking cursor is now functional. I will provide a means of changing the cursor blink rate if the current default rate is too obnoxious for you. "Bell type..." Selects which type of bell to use. The 'visual' bell is the good ol' screen flash bell. The 'beep' bell generates a short tone. The 'speech' bell uses the narrator device to provide spoken text for bell functions. Note that the 'narrator.device' file must be present in the "DEVS:" directory to use this option. "clear screen" Clears the screen and homes the cursor. Provided as a convienience feature. "reset session time" Resets the session clock, which appears on the status line, back to 00:00. It will be automatically reset to 00:00 when you use the Wtp dialer option. THE 'DIALING' MENU: "(no title)" This menu item displays the name you have assigned to the current settings. Selecting this item allows you to change the name. If a blank name is entered it is displayed as "(no title)". You can use this to label the intended use for these settings like: "Delphi via Uninet". "(no number)" This item displays the current phone number string. This string will be send to the (HAYES compatible) modem during dialing and should be the actual phone number. If no phone number has been specified this item is displayed as "(no number)" and dialing functions are disabled. "auto-dial when loaded" If this item is checked in a setting file then Wtp will automatically dial the current phone number whenever the file is loaded. This option is disabled if no phone number has been specified. "dial number now" Initiates dialing of the current phone number. Will first hangup the phone in case a call is already in progress and then will dial the number. Assumes the presence of a HAYES compatible external modem on the serial port. The dialing string consists of: "ATDT <phone number string>"<CR> Note that this option will reset the session clock to 00:00. "hang up the phone" Terminates the current phone call. Assumes a HAYES compatible modem on the serial port. The sequence sent is: <pause 3 seconds> "+++" <pause 3 seconds> "ATH"<CR> <pause 1 second> --- NOTE TO VERSION 1 USERS CONVERTING "FixWtpLoadV1" Any settings files you've created with Wtp version 1 must be run through "FixWtpLoadV1" before you can load them with version 2. This is a one time problem and future versions of Wtp will load settings files created by older Wtp versions WITHOUT MODIFICATION. The "FixWtpLoadV1" utility is invoked as follows (from the CLI): 1> FixWtpLoadV1 <file> <file> ... Where <file> is the specification for a settings file created with Wtp version 1. The "..." indicates that you can enter as many file names as needed after the "FixWtpLoadV1" command, for example: 1> cd sys:wtp 1> FixWtpLoadV1 delphi.wtp compuserve.wtp --- THAT'S ALL FILK! Hopefully you have enough info to use and enjoy Wtp. If you have any problems or suggestions for improvement just send me mail on Delphi or Compuserve. So long and lets make the Amiga the best machine around! Dave Warker Delphi: DAVEWARKER Compuserve: 70406,626