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GT POWER 15.00 Copyright (c) 1985, 1989: by P & M Software Co. All rights reserved. June 20, 1989 GT POWER, or just GT for short, is a communications program for IBM Personal Computers and compatible units. P & M Software Co. reserves the COPYRIGHT to this program and all related materials. The user is granted a license to use the program and is encouraged to make a donation if the program is found to be useful. $70 U.S. is recommended. Send the donations to: P & M Software Company 3104 E. Camelback Rd. Suite #503 Phoenix, AZ 85016 U. S. A. Telephones ---------- Voice: (602) 285-9914 Modem: (602) 285-1146 Modem: (713) 772-2090 For further information about the GT POWER registration plan, please read the file called REGISTER.DOC, which comes with this program. It outlines the benefits of full registration. In addition, the user is granted the right to make unlimited copies of the program and to distribute these copies as he/she desires, EXCEPT that P & M Software Co. reserves the SOLE right to distribute the program for PROFIT. If the user distributes the product, the user may collect for a duplication charge, not to exceed $10 per copy. - 1 - Table of Contents ----------------- Credit Where Credit is Due . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Functional Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Installation Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 External Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Environment Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 DOS 3.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 DOS 3.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 General Notes On DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Modem Result Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Multiple Result Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 First Time Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Command Line Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 RAM Disk Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Coping With A Floppy Based System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Computer To Computer Without Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Alt-Command Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 ASCII Transmit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 BREAK Signal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Capture Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Capture Header . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Phone Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Dialing The Modem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Half Duplex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Take A Time Fix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Re-dial Previous Number . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 The HELP Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Custom Configure The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Program Version And Serial number . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Erase A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Disk Directory Listing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Macro Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Keyboard Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Execute A DOS Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Start Recording Keystrokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Stop Recording Keystrokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Playback Previously Recorded Keystrokes . . . . . . . 29 Toggle Status Line Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Extended Keys In Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Change Logged Disk Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Sort Phone Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Print A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Hang-up The Telephone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Download A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Use <PgDn> Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 DOS Path & External Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Change Communications Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Upload A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 The Pick List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Use <PgUp> Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 DOS Path & External Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 - 2 - Report Time Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 View A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Clear Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Exit The Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Copy A File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Toggle Monitor Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Shell To DOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Screen Dump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Execute A Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Macro To Execute Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Suspend Capture Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Force Checksum Xmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Circular Dialing Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Split Screen Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Review Capture Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Quiet Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Manual LOG Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Enter Host Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Toggle The Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Phone Directory Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 Text Editing Keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Host Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 GT Netmail System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Script Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Script Line Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Script Command Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Script Command Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Status Line Indicators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 System Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Configuration File Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Configuration File Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Color Number Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 ANSI Emulation - Received Characters . . . . . . . . . . 75 ANSI Emulation - Transmitted Characters . . . . . . . . . 77 Support For USRobotics Courier 2400 . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Support For USRobotics Courier HST - 9600 Baud . . . . . 79 Modem Init String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Configuration Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 19200 Baud Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Fixed DTE Operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Hayes 2400 Init String . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Help For IBM Modems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Registration Message . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 Registration Form . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 - 3 - Credit Where Credit is Due. --------------------------- I want to thank the following for their support and encouragement. Donald Fletcher John Perry Garland Thames Tom Lang Allan Winston Charles Heineke Bob Davis Mel Douglass Chris Smith Tom Scallorn Bob Juge Rick Moore Rich Hackney Chuck Forsberg Dave Steinman Rick Kunz Randy Arnold Mike Focke And all of the users of GT POWER. If I have missed you, I apologize. These people have each made very significant contributions to the development of GT. The nature of their contributions has been intangible. Things like the feedback of ideas, the encouragement to excel, and bug reports. In some cases, actual work has been contributed, for example several people have expended considerable effort to design new screens for GT and help rewrite the documentation. (Any bad things or missing things in the documentation are still the author's responsibility! I write terrible documentation.) Here is a story for trivia buffs. Donald Fletcher, whose name appears at the head of the list above, who is virtually unknown within the GT POWER community, continues to be a great supporter of GT POWER. He was the first registered user of GT POWER and to this day, holds S/N 0000001. Donald, who used to be a resident of Houston, often calls me long distance from his new home on the East coast. Hey, Don, if you are reading this, thanks for all the support over the years! - 4 - Features: --------- 1. ANSI Standard terminal emulation, compatible with many super-mini and super-micro computers. The VT-100 terminal, manufactured by Digital Equipment Corporation, is an example of an ANSI Standard terminal. 2. ANSI.SYS style color graphics, without the need of ANSI.SYS! 3. BASIC style PLAY for single voice music. 4. Multiple telephone directories, with 999 entries each. Records the password for each BBS, as well as the date and time of last contact. The total number of calls, accumulated time, uploads and downloads are also recorded. The directory may be perused while on-line with a host system. 5. Circular redialing queue. Up to 200 numbers may be put into queue. 6. Capture Mode, limited only by the amount of disk space available. A spill file is used, when the capture buffer is full. The capture buffer can be reviewed on-line, before saving to disk. The amount of data in the capture buffer is displayed on the status line. 7. ASCII file transmission, using XON/XOFF protocol and/or line- by-line pacing and/or inter-character delays. 8. Full control of all communication parameters. 9. 40 function keys, to store logon, passwords, etc. NEW, the function keys have been expanded to keyboard macro status, so that automation of the program can be easily accomplished, includes record and playback features. 10. Full printer support, using XON/XOFF flow control with the host. 11. Xmodem/CRC protocol. Plus optional support for the Xmodem Checksum protocol. 12. WXmodem protocol. This is the full-duplex, windowed version of Xmodem. 13. Ymodem/CRC protocol. Both the batch and single file version of this protocol are supported. Ymodem uses 1024 bytes per packet vs. 128 bytes per packet in Xmodem. During transmission of a file with Ymodem, if more than 5 errors are encountered, the transmission will fallback to normal length blocks. This saves time, because of the high overhead encountered with Ymodem re- transmission of error blocks. 14. Telink/CRC batch file transfer protocol. - 5 - 15. The exclusive GT POWER protocol, 1k Telink, which combines the batch capabilities of Telink with the efficiency of Ymodem's 1k block length. 16. The Compuserve "B" protocol is supported using CISB.COM, by P&M Software Co. This protocol is used only when connected to the Compuserve Information Service. 17. The exclusive GT POWER protocol, MegaLink, which combines the latest 32 bit CRC technology with a full-flow, PC Pursuit friendly, batch protocol. This protocol is among the most efficient and reliable of protocols. PC Pursuit is a service of Telenet Communications Corporation. 18. SEAlink transfer protocol is supported. This protocol is extremely efficient and ideal for use with such BBS systems as OPUS. 19. Ten slots for external protocols to be added by the user. GT comes with several of these slots pre-setup for the most popular protocols, i.e. Zmodem, Ymodem-G, Kermit, Jmodem, Super8k, and BiModem. These can be easily changed or added to by modifying the External Protocol Table in the GT configuration. 20. DOS Shell. Exit to DOS then return, GT stays in the background. 21. Interactive script language, to automate many repetitive tasks. 22. Optional LOG file. Keeps a complete record of your calls. 23. Advanced "call progress" detection. Detects BUSY, VOICE, NO DIAL TONE, and more, with modems that support extended result codes, such as the USRobotics Courier 2400 Modem. Multiple result code entries can be entered so that more than one modem type can be easily supported. For example, the result codes for Racal-Vadic and Hayes modems could be simultaneously recognized. This is very handy for users of PC Pursuit, allowing them to use the native mode of the Racal-Vadic modems in use by that service. 24. Use of the environment variable, GTPATH, to simplify use of the program on a hard disk. 25. On-screen clock, so there is no need for a memory resident clock program. 26. Host mode. Allows the user to setup a system to accept incoming calls. File transfers can be made without the use of a BBS! Complete security is incorporated into the host. The host mode also includes a powerful message system. A flexible ring-back procedure if provided to enable sharing of a data line with voice requirements. 27. Support for the non-standard COM ports: 3 and 4. Since these are not standard, there are different configurations from each - 6 - manufacturer - GT supports the Everex configuration as the default for COM3 and COM4, however the port addresses are configurable via command line option. 28. For those with limited disk space, a Terminal Only version of GT is distributed. This version is referred to as GTO, for GTerminal Only. It saves more than 70k of disk space when compared with the full GT version. 29. With non-batch protocols, such as Xmodem, WXmodem and Ymodem, GT will scan the screen for the filename indicated to the BBS. This can save double typing of the filename. A very handy feature. To make complete use of this feature, you should set the default protocol for each BBS to be one of the protocols listed above. 30. Support for Zmodem auto-download. This means that during the terminal mode of GT, the program will trap out the Zmodem signature coming from the host and automatically drop into the ZMRX.BAT file whenever detected. 31. GT NetMail. This is a very inexpensive way to communicate with your fellow GT users. Most GT host systems participate in the network, which stretches from Australia thru the US and Canada to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. NOTE: The GT NetMail programs are not shareware. They are provided at no extra cost to users who register GT. An extra incentive to register GT! 32. GT is a shareware product. This means that it is provided at little or no cost to the end user for an evaluation. If the user decides to continue using GT past a reasonable evaluation period, then the user is expected to submit the requested donation. In this spirit, GT has incorporated within it a "usage counter", for each usage the program will delay startup for an additional 1/50th of a second. This delay has a maximum value of 60 seconds. If the user decides to register GT, then the user will receive a key, which bypasses the delay and allows the user to enter the program much more quickly. - 7 - Functional Overview ------------------- GT POWER is a set of programs and files that provide complete capabilities for your system. It has been designed to be based on IBM and compatible micro-computers and it supports a wide variety of modems including all Hayes compatibles, USRobotics, and IBM. As you have seen from the previous three pages which listed many of the features of this program, there are a large number of functional capabilities provided by GT POWER. Nevertheless, you will quickly see that these functions have been provided in a very friendly environment for your use and that the software is quite easy to use. It is not necessary, for example, to remember any commands or special features of the program as there is a comprehensive Help Menu available to you at any time the program is running. Basically there are three usages of a communications system such as GT POWER: 1. To call other computer systems and engage in 'telex-like' conversations with the person (or computer) called. 2. To transfer files (programs and data) between computers. 3. To establish an unattended host mode environment that other computer users can call and interact with. For example, to send files to your system or to leave messages for later review, sometimes called 'Electronic Mail'. GT POWER provides these three broad categories of functions and a great deal more. A few examples include: The ability to use any DOS Commands without exiting the program. Capturing to disk all the text that is exchanged while in the 'telex-like' terminal mode. Automatically dialing the telephone for you. Maintaining a complete log of all telephone activity. Providing a secure environment that protects your system from unwanted invasion by outside callers. Before you can use GT POWER you will need to install the software on your system. The installation process is relatively easy to perform, but it does require that you know a few things about your system in advance. For example, you will need to know which port your modem is connected to (usually #1 if you have a parallel printer or #2 if you are using a serial printer). You will need to know a few technical things about your modem, as well. If you are using a Hayes or Hayes compatible modem (1200 baud) the system is already setup for your use. If not, then you will need - 8 - to have a copy of the technical reference manual that was supplied with your modem. After you have started GT POWER, a SHAREWARE notice will appear, and a delay will commence (1/25th of a second for each usage of the program, with a maximum delay of 30 seconds). After the delay has expired, the program will invite you to 'Press any key to continue'. Pressing a key results in the display of the 'Copyright' screen, which will explain the details of the GT POWER shareware plan, and you will be invited to press 'Y' to continue. Pressing 'Y' results in GT going directly into it's Dialing Directory display (the method of entering the program is extremely simplified for registered users, who will be able to enter the program automatically without any keystroke, after viewing the 'Copyright' notice for a couple of seconds). In the Dialing Directory you will see a list of names and telephone numbers that you have told GT about during previous usage and a short menu is shown at the bottom of the screen. If you wish to call another computer at this time you need only move the cursor to the appropriate line and press the Enter key. GT will then automatically dial the requested telephone number and monitor the progress of the call. That is, it will show you that the call is being placed and it will tell you what is happening on the telephone line thereafter. For example, if the telephone on the other end is busy it will show BUSY (if your modem has extended result codes). When it gets through to the other computer, GT will show you that it has CONNECTED with that system. There are many ways in which files can be transmitted between computers. Text files are often sent without any elaborate conventions that insure the integrity of those transmissions, but program files are always sent utilizing what is called a Protocol. Transmissions that utilize a protocol insure that the file received is exactly like the one sent. GT POWER provides twelve (12) different file transfer protocols for your use. Each one has its own advantages and disadvantages over the others. More important than their differences is that many of the computers that you will be calling can only support a few different protocols and the variety provided by GT POWER insures that you can use the ones provided on the other computer. Subsequent sections of this document will show you the many varied functions and features available with GT POWER in great detail. The host mode capabilities are so extensive, however, that we have elected to provide a separate document to describe them in detail. Note: GT POWER is a Shareware product that may be obtained directly from the author, from any existing user of the product, or through file transfer of the program from any of hundreds of bulletin board systems near you. In almost all cases you will receive the product as a set of five files (GT1500_1, _2, _3, _4, and _5). These files will be in what is known as an ARChive format. In order to extract the actual program and data files from the archive file you have you must use an archive extraction program such as LHARC which is readily - 9 - available on most bulletin boards. - 10 - Installation Notes ------------------ Versions 4.20, 8.00, 9.00, 9.10, 9.20, 11.00, 14.00 and 15.00 of GT introduced new formats for the phone directory. One may ask, "Why so many changes?". The answer is simple, we at P&M Software (P&M stands for Paul and Mari) believe in providing functions requested by our users, whenever possible. Because of all the improvements in the phone directory, users of older versions of GT must run the program GT_UTIL to convert their old directories to the new format. I think you will like the newer format, it includes the date and time that you last called each number in the directory, the total number of times you called each number, the total duration of your calls to each number, a record of upload and download amounts to each number, default file transfer protocol, logon script, and room for ample comments. When run, GT_UTIL will rename your original directory to _GT.DIR, so that you will retain a copy of it for emergency use. The program comes packaged as an .EXE. The program disk may be removed after the program has begun (if using the standard un-overlaid version). There are two methods available to have GT locate the required configuration and control files. The 1st, and possibly the simplest, is to start GT in the directory that contains all of these files. The program will detect the default directory and will refer back to it when needed, even after the user has changed directories. The 2nd method is to use an Environment variable, GTPATH, to point to the directory containing GT's files. This method is more difficult to setup, but is much more flexible once the program is properly installed. NOTE: If GTPATH is set, GT will *not* look in the default directory for any of the needed files, instead will look in the directory indicated by GTPATH. The phone directory may be placed on any drive and directory, the path to the phone directory is set into the configuration file via the Alt- I command. There are also separate PATH's for upload and download directories. The phone directory path MUST be correctly set, otherwise the program will not be able to use the phone directory, but the upload and download PATH's are optional. A script path is also configurable, so that a separate directory may be used to store scripts. A capture path can be configured, so that GT will know where to save your capture sessions (it is usually NOT a good idea to save your captures in the current directory -- you would quickly lose track of them!). Other pathnames may also be configured in GT's setup, refer to item #13 under the "Miscellaneous Options" selection of the Alt-I screen. External Protocols ------------------ As shipped, GT comes pre-configured for 6 external protocols, with 10 - 11 - possible external protocols. To alter these definitions or to add new protocols, you must bring up the Alt-I configuration screen and select #6, the setup for external protocols. You will be presented with the following table: Protocol BAT Menu Batch Two Over No Name File Char XFER? Way? Lay(1) ══ ════════════ ═════ ════ ═════ ════ ════ 1 Jmodem JM J N N N 2 Kermit KR K Y N N 3 Zmodem ZM Z Y N N 4 Ymodem-G YG G Y N N 5 BiModem BI I Y Y Y 6 Super8K SU R Y N N 7 ____________ __ _ _ _ _ 8 ____________ __ _ _ _ _ 9 ____________ __ _ _ _ _ 10 ____________ __ _ _ _ _ (1) Requires the /V:E command line option to activate. The "BAT File" column contains the first two characters that are used to compose the name of the batch file required to execute the protocol. Batch files are provided for the pre-configured protocols, as follows: JMRX.BAT ...... Jmodem Receive JMTX.BAT ...... Jmodem Transmit KRRX.BAT ...... Kermit Receive KRTX.BAT ...... Kermit Transmit ZMRX.BAT ...... Zmodem Receive ZMTX.BAT ...... Zmodem Transmit YGRX.BAT ...... Ymodem-G Receive YGTX.BAT ...... Ymodem-G Transmit BIRX.BAT ...... BiModem Receive BITX.BAT ...... BiModem Transmit SURX.BAT ...... Super8K Receive SUTX.BAT ...... Super8K Transmit Note that the first two characters of each name indicate the protocols in use and the next two characters indicate either receive(RX) or transmit(TX). Since BiModem is a "TWO WAY" protocol, sending and receiving at the same time, the BiModem batch files should be identical for both receive and transmit. The internal structure of each batch file is dependent on the details of the individual protocol driver in use. Each driver varies in the needs it has. The interface from GT to these batch files is consistent, so that you can quickly learn to create new files for new protocols. Up to 9 parameters can be passed to a protocol batch file, the 1st is the COM port number in use and the 2nd is the current baud rate used on the COM port. Parameters 3 through 9 are filename specifications. With batch protocols, the filename specifications may contain the wild card characters '?' or '*'. Please examine the - 12 - included batch files for examples of proper construction. External protocol drivers may overlay GT if they require additional memory to accomplish their chores. However, the overlay feature is disabled, unless you use the /V:E command line option. This method gives you the flexibility to decide which protocols you will overlay and have a master switch on the command line to override. Through the use of a temporary directory, GT$WORK$, GT is able to log the actual files that are received by an external protocol. GT will create this directory automatically under the user's download directory and will move the files received into that directory after logging has been completed. If duplicate files are received, they will be moved to a DUPS directory created automatically under the user's download directory. Under normal operation, the GT$WORK$ directory will be removed automatically after it has served its purpose. If it should remain on your disk, then some sort of problem has been encountered, that GT is unable to handle. IMPORTANT: ========== There are two methods available to have GT hang-up the phone line. First, the default method, the "Hang-up String" is sent to the modem. The "Hang-up String" must contain an escape character - usually "~+++~" for Hayes type modems, so make sure that the S2 register is set properly. GT can also control the modem via the DTR signal. If the DTR switch is set to the "normal" position on the modem, GT can hang-up the phone line by dropping the DTR signal. NOTE: the "normal" position for the DTR switch is *not* the factory setting, which is usually to force DTR at all times (which is completely useless with GT). If you choose the DTR method, you MUST DELETE ALL the characters from the "Hang-up String" in the configuration. It is very important that the modem result codes are properly installed. If the program cannot connect properly then the codes are not correct. There are several things which must agree to enable GT to recognize the modem's result codes: 1st) the desired Vn command must be added to the modem init strings, 2nd) the desired Xn command must be added to the modem init strings, 3rd) the result codes corresponding to the selected Vn command must be installed in the result code table. The Vn command controls whether the modem returns verbose (V1) or numeric (V0) result codes. The Xn command controls the result code set reported to GT from the modem, X0 tells the modem to use the basic result code set (not extremely useful), X1 is better and is the first of the "extended" result code sets, however you should use one of the result code sets that include the BUSY result code -- which greatly speeds the list dialing routines. Example of Environment Usage ---------------------------- Assuming that all the GT files have been placed in a directory named \GT on drive C. Then in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file place the following: - 13 - PATH=C:\GT;C:\ set GTPATH=C:\GT Of course, DOS's PATH variable may have additional directories listed, using the semi-colon to separate the names. The GTPATH variable must have only 1 parameter, the home directory for all the GT files, except the Phone Directory, which may be placed anywhere. NOTE: it is wise to include the root directory in DOS's PATH variable, as this enables COMMAND.COM to be executed as any other program -- this is necessary to run the DOS Shell mechanism. Notes on DOS 3.2 and 3.3 ------------------------ It is necessary to place certain entries into the CONFIG.SYS file when using DOS 3.2 for the proper operation of GT POWER. The entries are as follows: STACKS=30,256 BUFFERS=28 FILES=60 The BUFFERS value can be less if you are using a hard disk with small directories, i.e. less than 100 files per directory. The FILES parameter can also be less, but DOS doesn't use the extra FILES unless needed, so it is not critical. The STACKS value is very important, especially for users that make great usage of scripts. Random failure of the system is possible, if the STACKS command does not have large enough values in it. General Notes On DOS -------------------- It is very easy to use all available file handles within a DOS environment. Especially if you are using external processes like DSZ, PCKERMIT, the DOS Shell, or multi-tasking software. So, it is extremely important that adequate FILES are reserved in the CONFIG.SYS file on your DOS boot disk. It is recommended that no fewer than 50 be reserved, as shown above in the notes on DOS 3.2 and 3.3. When using DOS 3.1, it has been found that a large number of BUFFERS is also beneficial. On the GT support BBS, BUFFERS=95 is routinely used with DOS 3.1. IMPORTANT: The large number of buffers useful with DOS 3.1 can cause severe problems with DOS 3.2. For example, never use a value for BUFFERS greater than 30 with DOS 3.2. The variation between such closely related operating systems is surprising to this observer. Modem Result Codes - 14 - ------------------ The proper setting of the modem result codes is VITAL, if the automatic dialing routines are to work properly. Again, one must use the Alt-I command, then select the modem result codes option. The program will present a list of possible results and the corresponding codes that the modem uses to signal each result. You may change any or all of the result codes, each code may be any string of characters, up to 20 positions long. The default codes are set to the verbose codes supported by the USRobotics Courier HST 9600 baud modem, if your modem does not signal all of the possible results, DO NOT DELETE the code. Especially if you use PC Pursuit, the modems used by Telenet send the BUSY code instead of the NO CARRIER code, so you should leave these codes in the table, even if your modem doesn't support them. Don't neglect the Modem Init String! This string can have a great impact on your modems result codes. Especially important, one should include the highest possible Xn command in Modem Init String. For example, I use X5 with my USRobotics Courier. For the Hayes 1200 baud modems, I suggest a value of X1 and for the 2400 baud Hayes I would use X4. Naturally, the Vn command is equally important. For example, if you use V1 in the init string, then you MUST have verbose codes in the modem result code table. Multiple Result Codes --------------------- GT POWER supports multiple result codes to mean the same result. This is extremely handy if you have a modem that sends several different codes to indicate one of the results in the table, or if you have an application which requires use of different modems with the same setup (for example, PC Pursuit uses Racal-Vadic modems, but most users have Hayes compatible modems). To indicate multiple result codes, you simply enter the various codes with a comma between each code. Do not enter any extra blanks or other non-essential characters in the result code table. For example: 0,OK,GOOD,READY 1,CONNECT,CONNECT 300 Notice the first line above defines 4 separate codes which will correspond to the "OK" response. The second line defines 3 codes that will correspond to the "CONNECT" response. Please note, when using this feature to access non-Hayes type modems, one must remember to switch the Dialing Pre-string to the required value for each modem -- this can easily be done with one of GT's keyboard macros. First Time Usage ---------------- Most of the features of the program are self-documenting, however for the sake of the novice user, some explanation is necessary. - 15 - The GT program is distributed in .EXE, which can be executed immediately by placing your disk into drive A, changing the default drive to A:, if not already, then typing the name of the program, GT1500. Normally, however, the program will be run from a Hard disk after it has been copied into its own directory and the DOS PATH has been established, as well as definition of the GTPATH= variable in the DOS environment per the previous section of this manual. If you are running from a hard disk system setup as previously described then it would be convenient for you to create a batch file that will invoke GT POWER for you. For example, you might create a batch file called GT.BAT which contains only a single line as follows: GT1500 Placing that batch file anywhere in the PATH that DOS has at its disposal will allow you to start GT POWER from any directory by merely typing GT. Once the user has successfully entered the program, the copyright notice will appear. Press the 'Y' (if you are a registered user, the program will auto-start), the phone directory screen will then appear. The phone directory is used to store the phone numbers of the various systems you call. You must enter these numbers before GT can automate your dialing chores. Use the A)dd command in the phone directory to add numbers, by pressing the <A> key. The <Esc> key may be used to exit from the phone directory to the on-line screen. At the bottom of the on-line screen appears various status indicators and the reminder that Alt-H is the help key. A complete list of available commands can be obtained by selecting Alt-H. Commands may be selected while the Help window is still on screen, so that the user does not need to open the Help window repetitively, however some commands are not readily executable while any "window" is open - the time management commands, Alt-U and Alt-F, are an example. If they are executed while the Help window is open, they will cause the screen to scroll! This is not harmful in any way, but renders the Help window less useful. The 25th line on your monitor provides important status information about your system while running GT POWER. Please refer to the Appendix at the end of this document for a complete listing of the contents of the 25th line. Upon initial execution the program creates several files in its home directory. They are: Modify Filename Command Description -------- ------- ----------- GT.KEY ..... Alt-M ...... Stores the macro key definitions. GT.DIR ..... Alt-D ...... Stores the phone directory. GT.CNF ..... Alt-I ...... Stores the program configuration. The keystrokes shown above under "Modify Command" are the ones required to bring up screens which will allow you to customize the - 16 - program for your specific use. - 17 - Command Line Usage ------------------ When you start GT, there are several command line switches that are available to you: name You may indicate a script file to be executed upon start-up of GT. /D You may indicate whether or not you wish to have GT drop the DTR signal to the modem when GT exits back to DOS. /C You may indicate whether you are connected via cable to the host computer. /K You may initiate the capture mode from the very start of the program. /P You may enable logging to the system printer. /1 You may configure the port addresses in use by your serial port. The actual port number to be configured, 1-4, is placed after the slash. The new base address of the indicated port is placed after the slash number with an intervening blank. The address must be given with a leading $ sign and be in hex notation, for example $3F1 would be a valid address. Refer to your hardware documentation for the correct address to use. GT uses standard addresses if you do not override with this option. /Rn This option applies to the GT host mode. It specifies the ring number upon which GT will answer incoming calls. For example /R3 would cause GT to answer on the 3rd ring. NOTE: that the host mode modem init string must contain S0=0 to allow this to work properly. /RBmm:nn This option applies to the GT host mode. It specifies that GT should answer the modem after a "ring back". To enable this option to work properly, the host mode modem init string must contain S0=0. Once installed properly this option makes the GT host mode answer the phone on the 2nd or 3rd ring after a gap of between 'mm' and 'nn' seconds. If the gap between rings is less than 'mm' seconds or greater than 'nn' seconds, GT will not answer the phone. This allows the use of an answering machine on the same phone line as the computer. The answering machine should be programmed to answer on a later ring, the 4th for example. /rb09:30 This would cause the gap to be 9 - 32 seconds. The normal ring interval is 5 - 6 seconds. The high end of this range should *not* be set higher than 45 seconds. - 18 - /S This option modifies the 'quiet' mode. When present, the /S allows the sysop page to be heard, effectively overriding quiet mode for that single function. /Tn This option specifies a new keyboard timeout value for use in host mode. The default value is 10 minutes. The 'n' specifies the new value in minutes. For example: /T15 Would change the keyboard timeout to 15 minutes. /V:s This option allows selected functions to overlay GT while they are being executed. This frees a great deal of memory for these functions to use. The 's' represents the list of functions that will overlay GT. For example: /V:ED The letters following the ':' need not be in any particular order and only the desired functions need be specified. The following functions are may be specified: E = External Protocols D = DOOR batch files L = Logon/Logoff batch files The default is to run these items in a normal shell (non- overlay), if you specify any of these characters with the /V option, then the corresponding function will be executed in an overlay fashion. Crash mail, the GTI interface and the Remote Sysop Shell are automatically overlaid. An external protocol may be selectively run via the overlay method by setting the overlay switch in the External protocol table on the Alt-I configuration screen. In a similar manner, individual DOOR batch files may be selectively run via the overlay method by setting a switch in the GTDDIR.BBS file (see GTHOST.DOC file for details). When overlaying functions in host mode, the program will recycle after a caller has logged off. GT will exit with a errorlevel of 255 and your HOST.BAT file should be made to trap this errorlevel and process it appropriately. For example: HOST.BAT -------- . . cd \gt gt1500 ... host.scr if errorlevel 255 host - 19 - . . The options listed above may be placed on the command line in any order, here are some examples: gt1500 This command would start GT without any script, GT would drop DTR on exit. gt1500 /D Again no script, but this time GT would maintain the DTR signal to the modem after exit to DOS. gt1500 script.scr /d Now GT would start the script file named automatically and would maintain the DTR signal on exit to DOS. gt1500 script.scr GT will now drop DTR on exit to DOS, automatically execute the named script upon startup. gt1500 /C GT will know that it is connected via cable to the host and will not automatically enter the Phone Directory. gt1500 /c /D Shows the combination of the /C and the /D switches. Indicates that GT is connected via cable to the host and that GT should maintain the DTR signal after exiting to DOS. gt1500 /k /2 $3E8 This line would start the capture mode and reconfigure COM port #2 to the base address 3E8 hex. The address must be given in hex with a leading $ sign character. gt1500 /p This would start GT and turn on the system printer to record the log. The log will also be written to the disk file GT.LOG. This is handy for host mode operators, who would like to be able to read the log without taking their system out-of- service. gt1500 /rb host.scr This would start GT, enable ring- back mode and execute the 'host.scr' script file. (Probably to start a GT Host session.) - 20 - The /D option allows the user to maintain the DTR signal to the modem after exiting from GT POWER and one might ask, "Why should DTR be maintained after exit to DOS?". If DTR is maintained, you may exit to DOS without having to hang-up the modem, therefore it is possible to run another comm program, while still connected to the host. For example, if you wanted to run the PCKERMIT.EXE program manually, instead of through GT, the DTR should not be dropped when exiting from GT. You may wish to do this if you don't have enough memory to run GT and PCKERMIT.EXE at the same time. RAM Disk Usage -------------- Distributed with the program is a file called RAMDISK.BAT. It can be used to install and run the program from a RAM disk. To use RAMDISK.BAT, place the program disk in one of the floppy drives and make it the default, then enter the following command: RAMDISK d: e: [scr] Where: "d:" is the drive with the program disk, "e:" is the RAM drive, and "[scr]" is an optional script file to be executed on start-up. The brackets [] just indicate that the script file is optional. Example: "RAMDISK A: C:" Additional command line argument can be placed after the drive letters and they will be passed as command line options to GT POWER within the batch run. - 21 - Coping With A Floppy Based System --------------------------------- It is obvious to the most casual observer that GT uses a LOT OF DISK SPACE. So how does one cope with a floppy based system? The first rule is to place the files that cannot be directed via a path designation onto drive A:. Here is my recommendation for the files that should be on drive A: BULLET1 BBS 336 BULLET2 BBS 3989 DSZ EXE 45728 GT CNF 879 GT DIR 11610 GT KEY 142 GT LOG 6735 GT1500 EXE 241281 GTBULLET BBS 3816 GTBYE BBS 3086 GTDIR BBS 449 GTHELP BBS 1539 GTMDIR BBS 306 GTMENU BBS 1084 GTNEWUSR BBS 1948 GTPASSWD BBS 134 GTSYSID BBS 138 GTUSER BBS 44 GTWELCOM BBS 934 PROTOCOL BBS 206 SYSOP BBS 22 YGRX BAT 29 YGTX BAT 47 ZMRX BAT 40 ZMTX BAT 61 Now some of these files are optional, for example the BULLET?.BBS files are not normally required, and the rest of the *.BBS files can be eliminated if the operator does not use host mode. We have included the DSZ program, for its Zmodem protocol, and left PCKERMIT off. But you might want both or PCKERMIT instead of DSZ. In any case, you must have the one you need. However, it is possible to place one or both of these programs on drive B: if you set you DOS PATH to point at drive B:. Even then, you must be careful that the log file does not grow to exceed the capacity of the disk. The .DIR and .KEY files can also grow, so a careful eye should be kept on the space available on drive A:. It is not advisable for downloads or uploads to be done with drive A:, the configuration paths for downloads and uploads should be set to "B:\". This will keep the rest of drive A: free from these extra - 22 - files. Once mounted in drive A:, this disk should remain until the program is exited. The message base file should be located on drive "B:\". Use the setup option to declare the path for the message base to be drive "B:\". It is under the miscellaneous options selection of the Alt-I screen. Of course, you can save even more disk space by using the GTO version of the program. The GTO version does not include a host mode module and thus saves more than 60k of disk space. If you have only 1 floppy disk, I wish you luck. You won't have a lot of space to play with. The best advice would be to purchase a 2nd disk at the earliest opportunity. The best choice would be a 20 megabyte hard disk or bigger if the budget allows. A reasonable alternative to either a second floppy or a hard disk would be one of the new 1.44 megabyte 3.5" diskette drives. - 23 - Computer To Computer Without Modems ----------------------------------- If the program is used without a modem, using a direct cable connection, all the dialing and modem control strings in the configuration file should be set to empty strings. Also, when using a direct cable connection, the "Carrier is Forced?" parameter should be set to TRUE. Also, the command line switch, /C, should be used to indicate the direct connection to GT. When running a direct connection via cables, with one of the GT systems operating in the host mode, the operator on the terminal mode system can wake up the host system by striking carriage return. NOTE: in this case both systems must be set to the same baud rate ahead of time. The host system will use the default baud rate from the configuration file. The terminal mode GT must use the same rate, if not the default, then set the required baud rate with the Alt-S command. - 24 - Alt-Command Descriptions ------------------------ Alt-A ASCII transmission of a file using the XON/XOFF protocol, where the DC1 character is used for XON and the DC3 character is used for XOFF. If the Pacing Character is set, then line-by-line pacing is also done, i.e. the program will wait for the pacing character to echo from the host at the end of each line, thereby insuring that an overrun error will not occur. The default is not to use line-by-line pacing. Also associated with the ASCII file transmit is the End-of-Line Mode, it determines what characters are sent to the host at the end of each line. The normal End-of-Line Mode for IBM compatible hosts is CRLF, i.e. a carriage return and a linefeed, however some hosts, for example UNIX, require just LF, and others may require only a CR. These are the three options for End-of-line Mode. Also, the user may specify an inter-character delay, in milliseconds, the default delay is set to 0. The Pacing Character, the End- of-Line Mode and the inter-character delay, are options in the configuration file. Use the Alt-I command to alter the configuration. The ASCII inter-character delay adds the indicated number of milliseconds delay between each character transmitted. When uploading messages to IBM style BBS systems, blank lines will cause a problem, since they will cause the host system to terminate message input mode. This can be overcome by setting the Pad Blank Line parameter to TRUE. All of these parameters are located under the ASCII Transmit parameters of the Alt-I screen. +---------------------------------------------------------------+ | NOTE | | | | For uploading messages to most IBM style BBS's, | | you should use an End-of-Line mode of CR. | | | +---------------------------------------------------------------+ Alt-B Send BREAK signal to host computer. The serial port is forced into the spacing state. This is useful when connected to some minicomputers that require the signal to wake-up and allow you to logon. It is not used with most BBS systems. The length of the BREAK signal, in milliseconds, is configurable via the Miscellaneous Options of selection of the Alt-I screen. Alt-C Turn capture mode ON, if it is OFF, or OFF if it is ON. When this mode is turned OFF, either through the Alt-C command or with the Alt-X command, the user will be prompted for a file name wherein to save the contents of the capture buffer. During capture mode operations, a number will appear in the lower left corner of the screen, this is the number of characters, in 1000's, in the capture buffer. Capture mode is useful for recording complete sessions for review later, so you don't read so much on those long - 25 - distance phone calls. When the in-memory capture buffer is full, the program will dump to a spill file on disk, the file name used will be $$SPILL. The operation of the spill file is automatic, but if the program is interrupted for some reason, the file may remain catalogued. Therefore, the user should remove this file when required. It will be placed in the directory with the overlay files. The size of the in-memory capture buffer is configurable, in 1,000's of characters, via the Alt-I screen. If you press Alt-C, accidentally while capture mode is in progress, you may continue capturing data by pressing the Esc key. Capture Header -------------- Text that is saved after a capture session will have a header appended to it. This header will name the last host system called (if any) and the date and time the capture was done. This will help you later, especially if you 'append' multiple captures to one large file. The headers will act as separators between various sessions. Alt-D Modem dialing and phone directory management. The phone directory may have up to 999 entries, if there is enough disk space. The directory screen will automatically disappear whenever a CONNECT type result is detected from the modem. Multiple phone directories are supported, to get more than 1 phone directory use the E)xch command while the phone directory is being displayed, this will allow you to switch between directories. Among other things, the phone directory support 2 very important items: A) personalized passwords, and B) default transfer protocol. Using the personalized passwords, one can store a different password for each host system listed and then access it automatically via a macro key when logging into each system. A macro key should be programmed with %P to enable it to send the proper password for each system. (Please refer to the description of the Alt-M below for a discussion of macro key setup.) If you select a default transfer protocol for each entry in the phone directory, then you will be able to eliminate several of the keystrokes required to start a file transfer, as GT will anticipate the selection of the protocol type. Alt-E Turn Half Duplex ON if it is OFF, or OFF if it is on. Half duplex is used when the host does not echo what you type. A Half Duplex indicator will show on the bottom line of the screen, HDX, when in this mode. Also, the duplex mode can be set automatically by entering that information into the Dialing Directory. Alt-F Fix time. That is, mark the current time, so that you can - 26 - measure time used, with the Alt-U command. Alt-G Re-dial the last number dialed. This command will loop continuously until a CONNECT is signaled by the modem or the user presses <Esc> to quit. The user may press N)ext to force the program to perform a quick re-dial. Alt-H Produces the HELP screen for the user. Alt-I Reconfigure the program defaults. The parameters listed below for the .CNF file can be changed via this command. Alt-J Display version and serial number of GT in use and the amount of free memory left for GT to use. Alt-K Kill a file. Delete a file from the disk. Alt-L Display disk directory, under a user supplied mask. For example, to see all files with a PAS extension on the logged drive and current directory, the user would enter the mask "*.PAS", when prompted. Or see just the files with an extension of .C by entering the mask "*.c", when prompted. By default, the program will show all files, if no mask is entered by the user. Alt-M Macro key management. Allows the user to define the contents of the function keys F1 through F10, and all combinations of the function keys and Shift, Ctrl or Alt. This gives the user 40 different macro keys. The password, from the phone directory, may be stored in a macro key by putting the characters %P into one of the keys, then whenever that key is struck the password for the currently connected BBS will be transmitted. For example, I put my name into F1, the letter Y into F2 and my password into F3. Like this: F1 = Paul|~Meiners| F2 = Y| F3 = %P| Note: These 3 items could just as easily have been placed into 1 macro key, like this: F1 = Paul|~Meiners|~Y|~%P| The | character is entered into a macro key when you want GT to send a carriage return, a ~ is used when you want a 1 second delay, and a ; is used when you wish to include a comment in the macro key. The ; character is configurable, in case you need to include it in the macro key. Use the Alt-I command to setup GT for your requirements. Each entry in the phone directory can have a different password associated with it, so you can customize your - 27 - passwords for each BBS you call. Makes things a lot more secure and easier to manage. Control characters can also be placed into a macro key. Normally, you can use the Alt key and the numeric keypad, if you know the ASCII code for the character, however there are some control codes that cannot be placed directly into a macro key, such as Ctrl-Z. To put a Ctrl-Z, or any other control character into a macro, you enter a % character followed by the decimal value of its ASCII code. For example the Ctrl-Z would be %26. The value following the % may not exceed 255 -the maximum value of any one character. The transmission rate of characters from the macro keys is configurable. The "ASCII inter-character delay" under Alt-I is used to pace the transmission of these keystrokes. Keyboard Macros --------------- Beginning with GT POWER 14.00, the macro keys can be used as full fledged 'keyboard macros'. This means that beyond storing logons and other simple phases, they can now be used to ease the operation of the program itself! Any command that you can give GT from the keyboard can be stored in one of these keys. Plus there are some commands that can only be executed via a macro key. Here are some rules for constructing keyboard macros: The { and } characters are used to denote a special key sequence to the macro processor. For example: {HOME} would denote a strike of the 'Home' key. Also, 'Alt' keystrokes can be issued in the same fashion, for example {@-} would indicate the 'Alt -' keystroke. The sequence {?} is used to solicit input from the user. For example, {@L}*.doc| would cause the Alt-L command to list all DOC files in the current directory. There are some commands that can only be accessed via a macro key (we ran out of other command keys!). Here is the list: {@=} Execute a DOS command. Nifty way to execute any DOS program or command (such as a text editor) with one keystroke. For example: {@=}qed| This would execute the 'qed' program and return to GT when finished. {@=}{?}| This would execute any program that the user named when prompted for input. - 28 - {@>} Start the recording of all keystrokes for later playback. For example: {@>}foo.mac| When executed, this macro would cause all following keystrokes to be recorded in the 'foo.mac' file. {@.} Stop the recording of keystrokes. Once recording has been started, this command will stop the recording and close the macro file named when recording started. {@<} Start the playback of the keystrokes previous recorded in a macro file. For example: {@<}{?}| This would execute any macro file that the user named when prompted for input. {@;} This command toggles the update of the status line. The command is useful for people who are using "text to voice" equipment, if the status line is continually updated the voice output can be quite a nuisance. Extended keys can also be represented via keyboard macros. We have already seen how the Alt keys can be represented, Alt-A is {@A} for example, but other extended keys can be issued also. Here is a list of the available symbols for use: {UP} Up Arrow key. {DOWN} Down Arrow key. {LEFT} Left Arrow key. {RIGHT} Right Arrow key. {HOME} Home key. {END} End key. {^END} Ctrl-End key combination. {PGUP} PgUp key. {PGDN} PgDn key. {INS} Ins key. {DEL} Del key. {BS} Backspace key. {ESC} Esc key. {TAB} Tab key. {BTAB} Backward Tab key. (Shift Tab). {^PRT} Ctrl-Prt key combination. {NUL} The 'nul' character. Binary zero. The F keys themselves can be indicated within a macro. For - 29 - example {F1} would be a press of the F1 key. {^F1} would be a press of the Ctrl-F1 key. {@F1} would a press of the Alt- F1 key. And {$F1} would be a Shift-F1 key press. Including an F key press in a macro key acts as a GOTO for the macro execution, no nesting of macros is done. In addition to the old subtitutions that can be made in a macro key, such as the %P for the password, the user may now use the following: %C COM port number. %B Baud rate. %P Current BBS password. %R Substitutes to 'ctty' when executed remotely, or 'rem' when done local. | Carriage return. ~ Delay for a second. %nn Represent any ASCII keystroke by its decimal value. Alt-N Allows the user to change to a new logged drive and/or new working directory. Alt-O Sort the dialing directory into ascending sequence by name, number, date, times on, elapsed time or baud rate. Performs an IN MEMORY sort, so there must be enough memory to hold all the phone directory entries. Alt-P Print a file. Configuration options are available to enable pagination of the printed output and the number of lines per page. Alt-Q Hang-up the phone line, put the modem "ON HOOK". If there is a "Hang-up String" defined in the configuration file, it is sent to the modem, otherwise the DTR signal to the modem is dropped for a second and then the modem initialization string is sent to the modem. Alt-R Receive a file using either the default protocol listed in the phone directory or one chosen from a menu. Communications parameters are automatically changed to/from 8 bit no parity, and the 8th bit stripping is disabled for the duration of the transfer. CRC is used automatically, if the remote system supports it. When using a batch protocol, the names of the files will be supplied by the host. If the carrier signal from the host is lost during file transfer, the alarm will sound and the "Carrier Loss" window will open. The alarm will continue to sound until the user strikes a key. Note: If VT-100 emulation mode is not being used, the <PgDn> key may be used instead of <Alt-R>. Note: For proper operation of the Kermit file transfer, the - 30 - PCKERMIT.EXE file must be available in one of the places pointed to by DOS's PATH command. This is true of DSZ.EXE also, when using the Zmodem or Ymodem-G protocol. Also, the batch files ZMRX.BAT, YGRX.BAT and KRRX.BAT must be along the DOS PATH. These batch files are actually invoked when a Zmodem, Ymodem-G or Kermit download is requested, a direct call to DSZ.EXE or PCKERMIT.EXE is not performed. This is very helpful for a number of reasons, most importantly it allows you to customize the interface to either program. Alt-S Switch communication parameters. The program starts with the default values. Permissible values for the baud rate are: 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, or 19200. Note: the PCjr does not operate at speeds above 4800 baud. Alt-T Transmit a file using either the default protocol listed in the phone directory or one chosen from a menu. Communications parameters are automatically changed to/from 8 bit no parity, and the 8th bit stripping is disabled for the duration of the transfer. CRC is used, if the remote system requests it. When using a batch protocol, it is possible to transfer many files at one time (limited only by available memory to store the filenames). If the user wishes to perform a batch transfer, he must specify the names of the files to transfer using the DOS wildcard notation; for example, to transfer all files with the .PAS extension, when asked for the filename, respond with "*.PAS". A drive and path may optionally be specified with the filename. The files found matching the criterion will be transmitted. If the carrier signal from the host is lost during file transfer, the alarm will sound and the "Carrier Loss" window will open. The alarm will continue to sound until the user strikes a key. The Pick List ------------- When the transmit command is invoked, the user will have the opportunity to select a 'pick list'. When prompted for a filename, the user may type a file select mask, for example *.arc and press the <Tab> key instead of instead of the carriage return. This will produce a sorted 'pick list' from which the user can select the files to be transmitted. The arrow and other direction keys can be used to navigate the list, the carriage return will mark entries, and the <Esc> key will start the transmission. Of course, all of this assumes that you are using one of the batch protocols, like MegaLink. The marked entries will be transmitted, if no entries are marked, then GT will not perform a transmission. Also, it should be noted, that the 'pick list' can only be used with internal protocols, it does not function with either Zmodem, Ymodem-G or Kermit. Note: If VT-100 emulation mode is not being used, the <PgUp> key - 31 - may be used instead of <Alt-T>. Note: For proper operation of the Kermit file transfer, the PCKERMIT.EXE file must be available in one of the places pointed to by DOS's PATH command. This is true of DSZ.EXE also, when using the Zmodem or Ymodem-G protocol. Also, the batch files ZMTX.BAT, YGTX.BAT and KRTX.BAT must be along the DOS PATH. These batch files are actually invoked when a Zmodem, Ymodem-G or Kermit upload is requested, a direct call to DSZ.EXE or PCKERMIT.EXE is not performed. This is very helpful for a number of reasons, most importantly it allows you to customize the interface to either program. Alt-U Used time. Report the time used since the last ALT-F command and the last dial of the phone or the start of the program, whichever occurred last. Total elapsed time in hours minutes and seconds, is reported. Alt-V View the contents of a file, uses the same style as MORE, the DOS utility. Use the <Esc> key to stop the command. Alt-W Clear the screen. Alt-X Terminate and return to DOS. If a script is active, this command will not be effective until all scripts are finished. If the script is currently at an ONLINE command, then Alt-X will cause termination of the ONLINE command and return control to the script. To exit the script you should press the <Esc> key after the ONLINE command has been terminated. Alt-Y Copy a file. This procedure will copy any unprotected file. Filenames must be fully specified. No wildcards are allowed, ONLY the current drive and directory need not be specified. Alt-Z Toggle monitor mode on/off. In monitor mode, all codes are shown so that the user may see exactly what is being sent by the host computer. Control codes are shown with the ^ symbol preceding, i.e. ^[ is the ESC code, ^X is the CAN code, etc. You must refer to an ASCII code chart for a complete list. Alt-1 DOS Shell port. GT stays in the background, while you exit to DOS. When you want to return to GT, just issue the "EXIT" command and you will return to GT. Note: you need a lot of memory to do this, more than 400k is recommended. Alt-2 Dump screen to the file "$$SCREEN". If the file already exists, then the screen is appended to the file, otherwise the file is created and the screen written to it. Alt-3 Execute a script. Scripts may also be executed by placing the name of the script file on the DOS command line that - 32 - starts GT. For example: "A>GT1500 filename", would begin GT and cause the script stored in filename to begin automatically. Refer to the description of the script language at the end of this document. To execute a script via a macro key, place the following string of characters into a macro key. {@3}foo.scr| Where 'foo.scr' represents the name of any valid script. Using this technique, it is possible to have easy access to many of your script files. Alt-4 Suspends capture mode, if it is active. While suspended you may hit Alt-4 again to resume capturing or Alt-C to terminate capture mode. Useful when you wish to append to the capture buffer from selected sources. Alt-5 This option is used to force GT to use "checksum" as the default Xmodem protocol. This avoids the pitfalls of using CRC protocols with non-standard systems. Very useful for transferring files with older systems or non-IBM systems. Alt-6 Begins execution of the "circular dialing" queue. All "marked" entries in the phone directory will be dialed in- turn, until a connection is made or the user stops the execution by pressing <Esc>. Individual entries may be canceled by pressing <C>, while the entry is being processed on the screen. The user may immediately proceed to the next entry in the queue by pressing the <N>. The user can repeat the dialing of the current number, if found busy, by pressing the <R>. Use the <G> command on the Phone Directory screen to "mark" entries for the circular dialing queue. See explanation of the Phone Directory commands below. Alt-7 This key acts as a toggle to begin/end split screen mode. During split screen operation whatever the user types will appear at the bottom of the screen and will be buffered until a carriage return is struck. Alt-8 Review the in-memory portion of the capture buffer. The <PgUp>, <PgDn>, <Home> and <End> keys may be used to move around in the buffer. <PgUp> and <PgDn> move through the buffer a page at a time, the <Home> and <End> keys move you to the start or end of the buffer. Use the <Esc> key to quit viewing the buffer. The L)ocate command is activated by pressing the <L> key. It may be used to locate text in the capture buffer below the current location. If a find is made, the text will be moved to the top of the screen. The <Up-Arrow> and <Dn-Arrow> keys may be used to scroll one line at a time. - 33 - Alt-9 Toggle the beeps on/off. Go into quiet mode or back to normal mode. Does not change the playing of music or the window whistle (which are both controlled via configuration options), just the bell. To control the window whistle and music playing refer to the miscellaneous section under the Alt-I command. Alt-0 Make a manual entry in the Log file. Log file must be open before you can make entries. Open the Log file by setting the Log file flag = TRUE on the configuration screen. See the Alt-I command. Alt - The program will enter host mode and await incoming calls. ^PrtSc Toggle the printer ON/OFF. Press the <Ctrl-PrtSc> key. Use <Fn-Echo> on the PCjr. - 34 - Phone Directory Commands ------------------------ A = Add an entry to the dialing directory. C = Change an entry in the dialing directory. Whenever an entry is added or changed in the phone directory, the user will be asked to enter a password which can be used by placing a %P in a macro key. K = Kill an entry in the dialing directory, sorting of the directory is recommended after this option or the Add option. L = Locate a BBS by name. You may specify partial names and the search is not sensitive to capital letters. The search begins with the current directory screen and proceeds to the end of the directory. N = Find the next occurrence of the last BBS requested in the <L> command, above. The search begins where the previous search left off and finds the next match, if any. M = Dial a number not in the directory. The user is prompted for new communications parameters. Entry number = Dial one of the entries in the directory. GT will automatically change the communications parameters. To indicate that the phone number needs to be prefixed or suffixed, put one of the prefix characters before or after the number. The 4 prefix characters are: - + * and !. The actual prefix and suffixes must be setup via the Alt-I command. Usage: -74 would cause the 74th number in the directory to be dialed with the prefix associated with the -. +81! would cause the 81st number in the directory to be dialed with the prefix associated with the + and the suffix associated with the !. G = Mark a BBS for entry into the "circular" dialing queue. If already marked, the mark will be removed. So, this command acts as a toggle between the marked and unmarked state. When using this command, if the user responds with "CLEAR", when asked for the BBS number, all marks will be cleared. The user may enter a list of BBS's to be marked or cleared by separating each number from the next with either a space or comma. For example: "22,30,40" could be entered when responding to the request for BBS No's. The user may also respond with the word "ALL", in which case all entries will be marked. And the lastly the user may enter a range of numbers. - 35 - For example: 22 30-40 55 would mark 22, the range 30 to 40, & 55. E = Exchange the current directory with another one. For example, one could have two directories, 1 for local BBS's and 1 for long distance calls. Don't give any path information, when entering the filename this option calls for - ALL phone directories are located using the "Directory PATH" from the configuration file. Use the Alt-I command to set this path as required. T = Toggle the display, between the call count and accumulated time display, and the display of the date and time of the last call. There are 4 different displays possible to view with the "T" command. NOTE: The Left-Arrow and Right-Arrow keys serve the same function as the "T" command. Esc = Quit, returns to the online screen. PgDn = Display the next page of the directory. PgUp = Display the previous page of the directory. Home = Go to the first page of the directory. End = Go to the last page of the directory. Up-Arrow = Move highlight to entry above the current highlighted entry. Dn-Arrow = Move highlight to entry below the current highlighted entry. Return = Dial the entry currently highlighted. Spacebar = Marks the entry that is currently highlighted for use by the circular dialing routine. Also, one may execute several of the Alt commands directly while the Phone Directory is still on the screen. For example, you may go directly to the Circular Dialer by pressing Alt-6. Ordinarily, the only Alt commands that are not available while in the Phone Directory are those that would be executed while on-line, for example the Alt-T command would make no sense while still in the Phone Directory. The phone directory was expanded in GT 11.00 to include two new fields: the logon script and the default file transfer protocol. If the logon script is filled, then the indicated script will be executed whenever a connection is made with the associated BBS. The default - 36 - file transfer protocol, if specified, will be automatically used whenever doing a file transfer with the associated BBS. The phone directory was again expanded in GT 15.00. This time to include three new options: duplex (full or half), emulation mode and 8th bit stripping. These fields may be in one of three states: TRUE, FALSE or empty. If they are empty, then GT will leave the default settings in effect. Editing Keys ------------ When editing Phone Directory entries, Macro Key definitions, configuration setup entries and all other text type entries, the program responds to the following editing keys as indicated: Backspace .... Delete character to the left of cursor. Del .......... Delete character under the cursor. End .......... Move the cursor to the end of the field. Ctrl-End ..... Erase from the current cursor position to the end of the field. Home ......... Move the cursor to the start of the field. Ctrl-Home .... Erase the current field entirely, no matter what the current cursor position is within the field. Ins .......... Toggle between insert and overwrite mode. When in insert mode the cursor becomes fat. Left Arrow ... Move the cursor to the left 1 position. Right Arrow .. Move the cursor to the right 1 position. Return ....... Finish the current field and move to the next. Esc .......... Terminate edit. Saves the changes made thus far. - 37 - Host Mode --------- The setup for host mode is complicated enough that a separate document file has been written describing this procedure. Rest assured, that once the proper setup has been achieved, GT should operate with ease, both in and out of host mode. Refer to the file GTHOST.DOC for a complete description of the host mode and to NETMAIL.DOC for a description of the GT netmail system. - 38 - Scripts ------- The script language allows the user to automate most of the features of GT. Following is a description of the script syntax. Several preliminary comments about scripts: 1) a script can be canceled by hitting <Esc>, 2) the CYCLE command can be stopped by pressing <Ctrl- K>, 3) the strings and other literal information in the syntax should be enclosed within "..." if they contain white-space, blanks, tabs or commas, otherwise they need not be so enclosed. All fields and operators must be separated on the line by the use of white-space. Scripts are interactive, so that the user can modify them on-the-fly. In order to do this, 30 variables have been setup, they are called V0 through V29. They are referenced in either assignment statements, READLN or GETLN statements. In order to use them, a technique called "variable substitution" is used. Instead of the V, the variable number is prefixed with a %, thus V0 through V29, become %0 through %29. Variable substitution may not be done within "...", since the contents of a variable is considered to be a field, i.e. you cannot build a field from several concatenated variable substitutions. For example: %1%2 would be invalid. It is not possible to do variable substitution within "...", for example: "%2" is not valid. If you use a variable that has not been initialized, it will be a null string. The data in variables is stored as strings of characters, up to 78 characters long. I used the word "field" in the paragraph above, by it I mean that part of a script command that either is enclosed by "..." or contains no white space. Script commands are sequences of fields separated by white space. For example: SET 1200,N,8,1 contains 5 fields. In addition to the 30 user variables provided, there are also built-in system variables that provide information about the status of the system. They are as follows: %BAUD The current baud rate. %COM The current COM port number. %DCD The current DCD, Data Carrier Detect, status. TRUE if present, FALSE otherwise. %FAIL This variable is set after a SPAWN, WAIT or file transfer command to indicate success or failure. TRUE if failure detected, FALSE if all is well. %NAME This variable is set after connecting with a BBS via the DDIAL command (or a manual directory dial) - 39 - to the name of the BBS. %TIME The current time. %DATE The current date. You will notice the words TRUE and FALSE above, these are new boolean constants that are used to test the %DCD and %FAIL state with the CASE statement. Line Labels ----------- A script may have line labels. These labels are used with the GOTO command to alter the flow of execution of the script. A line label must be coded with a ':' character in the first position, followed by a name of up to 20 characters. For example: :LOOP . . other script commands go here . GOTO LOOP To exit such a loop, the script writer must use the CASE statement and test for the proper exit condition. Then a transfer of control out of the loop can be executed. Script Command Summary ---------------------- ; ............ A line that begins with a semi-colon is ignored by GT. ADD .......... Adds two integers. ALARM ........ Causes an alarm-like sound, until a key is pressed. ASCII XMIT ... Transmit a file using ASCII transmit protocol. AUTOBAUD ..... Send a whacking carriage return to the host. AWAIT ........ Wait for a specified time. BATCH-YMDM ... File transfer via the Ymodem Batch protocol. BEEP ......... Make a short beep on the system speaker. BREAK ........ Send a "Space Break" to the host. CALL ......... Invoke another script, like subroutines, and return. CAPTURE ...... Toggle capture mode ON/OFF. CASE ......... Test the value of a variable. Or existence of a file. CD ........... Change disk directories. CHAIN ........ Invoke another script, like subroutines, but NO return. CLEAR ........ Clear the screen. CONCAT ....... Concatenate several strings into a single result. COPY ......... Copy part of one string to another. CYCLE ........ Repeat execution of the current script. DDIAL ........ Dial a host from the phone directory. DIAL ......... Dial the specified phone number. DIV .......... Divides two integers. Drive Change . Change the default disk drive. DUPLEX ....... Toggle duplex between FULL/HALF. - 40 - ECHO ......... Echo script commands to the screen. EMULATE ...... Set ANSI terminal emulation. END .......... Groups commands with a DDIAL or DIAL command. ESAC ......... Terminates a CASE command. EXCH ......... Change phone directories or keyboard macro files. EXIT ......... Used to exit the program. FLUSH ........ Throw away the contents of the serial buffers. FUNCTION ..... Send a macro key. GETLN ........ Read a line from serial port and store in a variable. GOTO ......... Go To a line label in the script. GOTOXY ....... Position cursor to the x,y screen coordinates. HANG-UP ...... Hang up the modem. HOST ......... Enter host mode. LEN .......... Return the length of a string. LOG .......... Make an entry in the log file. LOWER ........ Convert a string to lowercase. MEGALINK ..... File transfer via the MegaLink protocol. MKWIN ........ Make a video window with a label. MUL .......... Multiplies two integers. NAME ......... Used with DIAL command to name the host. ONLINE ....... Allows user to temporarily leave the script. PAD .......... Pads string, either right or left justified. POS .......... Find occurance of one string within another. PRINT ........ Toggles the printer ON/OFF. Protocol ..... You may use any external protocol in the Alt-I config. QUIET ........ Toggles the beeper ON/OFF. QUIT ......... Exit from script, but remain in GT. READLN ....... Reads input from keyboard into a variable. RECV ......... Receive a file via Xmodem protocol. RIGHT ........ Copy the rightmost 'n' chars from string to string. RMWIN ........ Remove a video window. SCREEN ....... Toggle screen output ON/OFF while WAIT is active. SEALINK ...... File transfer via the SEAlink protocol. SEND ......... Send a string to the host. SENDLN ....... Send a string to the host, followed by carriage return. SET .......... Used with DIAL command to manually set comm parameters. SETCOLOR ..... Set screen colors, both foreground and background. SHELL ........ Execute a program or DOS command. SPAWN ........ Invokes external program, without extra COMMAND.COM. SPLIT ........ Set split screen mode. STR .......... Convert an integer to a string. SUB .......... Subtracts two integers. SWAP ......... Swap the positions of the BackSpace and Del keys. TELINK ....... File transfer via the Telink protocol. 1KTELINK ..... File transfer via the 1k Telink protocol. TRIM ......... Remove leading and trailing blanks from string. TWAIT ........ Timed wait in milliseconds, max wait is 32 seconds. TDIFF ........ Calculates the difference between two times. UPPER ........ Convert a string to uppercase. VAL .......... Convert a string to an integer. Vn = ......... Assign a value to a variable. WAIT ......... Wait for some string to be received from host. WHEN ......... Trap a string sent from host, during a WAIT & respond. WRITE ........ Write a string to the screen. - 41 - WRITELN ...... Write a string to the screen, followed by a CR. XMIT ......... Transmit a file via Xmodem protocols. - 42 - Script Command Descriptions --------------------------- Command Description and Example ------- ----------------------- 1KTELINK Transfer a batch of files using the 1k Telink protocol. Works the same as TELINK, described below, but uses the 1k packet size for increased efficiency. ADD Adds two integers and stores the result in the requested variable. Example: V6 ADD 3 7 WRITELN %6 This would print 000010 on the screen. The integer that is the sum of 3 and 7. ALARM Causes a continuous ringing sound to be made until a key stroke is made by the operator. Example: ALARM Alarm is continuous until a key is pressed. ALARM 5 Alarm continues for the indicated number of seconds, 5 in this example, or until a key is pressed. ASCII XMIT Transmit a file using the ASCII protocol. Refer to the Alt÷A command above under the explanation of command keys. The same routine that executes the Alt-A command key performs the ASCII XMIT. Example: ASCII XMIT filename The filename given is transmitted. No wildcards may be used. Only 1 file at a time may be transmitted. AUTOBAUD Used after the DIAL or DDIAL command to set the hosts baud rate to the caller's. The AUTOBAUD command can use the carriage return or the blank to set the rate. Usually, the carriage return is used and it is the default, however some systems require the blank. Examples: AUTOBAUD For carriage return use. - 43 - AUTOBAUD BLANK For blank use. AWAIT Used to delay execution of the script until the designated time. GT uses 24:00:00 convention for midnight. The hour field does not roll over until 1 A.M. Therefore there is no zero hour, it jumps from 24 to 1. For example: 24:30:00 would be 12:30 in the morning. Examples: AWAIT hh:mm:ss AWAIT 9:45:00 The time is formatted hours, minutes and seconds, all fields must be entered. Note: midnight is 24:00:00, the hour does not role over until 1 AM. BATCH-YMDM Transfer a batch of files via the Ymodem Batch protocol. Examples: BATCH-YMDM RECV * The filenames are supplied by the host. BATCH-YMDM XMIT filename The filename listed is transmitted. Wildcard characters may be used to send a batch of files. BEEP Causes the speaker to emit a beep. Example: BEEP BREAK Used to send a Space Break to the host. Some hosts will use this to wake-up and logon the user, mostly UNIX systems and other mini-computers. Example: BREAK CALL Causes a branch in the flow of execution to the scriptname specified and automatic return to the calling script when finished. Upon return to the calling script, execution is started at the next statement following the CALL statement. Example: CALL scriptname - 44 - CAPTURE Used to turn-on Capture Mode from within a script. There are two forms: "CAPTURE" and "CAPTURE filename". The first form is used to begin capturing data, the second form terminates Capture Mode and names the file to receive the captured data. Example: CAPTURE { Begin capturing here } . . . CAPTURE filename { Finish capturing here } CASE & ESAC Those of you familiar with UNIX should recognize the use of ESAC, case spelled backward. For the others, ESAC is used to mark the end of the CASE statement. The CASE statement is used to test for the truth or falsity of some condition, for example it could be used to implement a menu. The syntax is: CASE target_value OF op1 test_value1 statement-1 statement-2 . . . op2 test_value2 statement-1a statement-2a . . . ESAC Where there may be any number of "op" tests and any number of statements between "op" tests. The CASE statement will perform the following tests until it reaches the 1st one that is TRUE, (target_value op test_value), when a TRUE test is found, then the statements associated with that test are executed. ONLY one set of statements is selected, as soon as they have been completed the remainder are skipped, until the ESAC is encountered. Execution continues after the ESAC. If no test evaluates to TRUE, then all are skipped and execution begins after the ESAC. Possible "op" codes are: = Test for equality. > Test if target_value greater than test_value. - 45 - < Test if target_value less than test_value. >= Test if target_value greater than or equal test_value. <= Test if target_value less than or equal test_value. ~ Test if the test_value is contained within the target_value. ? If no other test prior to this evaluated to be TRUE, then this will be TRUE. Usually placed just before the ESAC. There is no need for a test_value with this "op" code. This is a default operator and is equivalent to the ELSE in Pascal's CASE statement. EXIST and !EXIST ---------------- These two operators are used to test for the existence of a file. The "target_value" of the CASE statement is the name of a file and EXIST evaluates "true" if that file exists, while !EXIST evaluates "true" if that file does not exist. See example. Boolean values -------------- You can treat the "target_value" of a CASE statement as if it was a boolen value. A value of zero is considered "false" and non-zero is "true". Further, the "op" code field may contain the words TRUE or FALSE, so that a boolean test is performed. For example: CASE %DCD OF TRUE writeln "Carrier is present" FALSE writeln "Carrier is not present" ESAC In this case, if the variable %DCD was TRUE then the first case would execute, if it was FALSE then the second would execute. For example: GETLN V2 CASE %2 OF ~ BUSY WRITELN "BUSY found in target!" ~ CONNECT WRITELN "CONNECT found in target!" - 46 - ? WRITELN "Neither found in the target!" ESAC In this example, the V2 variable is read from the serial port, then tested to see whether it contains the word BUSY or the word CONNECT. The match is not exact, but the test_value must be wholly contained somewhere in the target. CLEAR WRITELN WRITELN "Communications Menu" WRITELN "-------------------" WRITELN "1. Call the PC Interconnection BBS" WRITELN "2. Call the Fido's Partner BBS" WRITELN "3. Call the Dow-Jones Retrieval Service" WRITELN "4. Call the Compuserve BBS" WRITELN "5. Exit to DOS" WRITELN WRITE "Enter your choice. " READLN V1 CASE %1 OF = 1 CHAIN PCINSCRP = 2 CHAIN FIDOSCRP = 3 CHAIN DOWJSCRP = 4 CHAIN COMPSCRP = 5 WRITELN "Goodbye, and thanks for the call." TWAIT 3000 EXIT ? WRITELN BEEP BEEP WRITELN "Your only choices are 1 through 5." TWAIT 10000 CYCLE ESAC In this next example, the use of EXIST will be demonstrated: V2 = "foo.bar" CASE %2 OF EXIST XMIT %2 ? WRITE "Skipping " %2 ", cannot locate file." ESAC - 47 - Notice how all fields are entered with "white space" between them. This is required, as "=5" is wrong, and "= 5" is correct. CD Change directories. Example: CD directory Works like the DOS equivalent, except that it has no display function. CHAIN Causes a branch in the flow of execution of the script to the scriptname designated. No automatic return to the invoking script is made. Example: CHAIN scriptname CLEAR Used to clear the screen and place the cursor in the home position. Example: CLEAR CONCAT Used to concatenate several strings into a single variable. Example: V1 CONCAT "xyz" "qed" "45678" WRITELN %1 This would produce the string "xyzqed45678" on the console display. COPY Copies a sub-string from the input argument and saves the result in the indicated variable. Example: V4 COPY "abcdxxxefgh" 5 3 WRITELN %4 This command extracts the string starting the 5th postion with a length of 3 characters. Therefore the information written to the screen would be the string "xxx". The script language contains no LEFT command, since the COPY can be used to do this. For example, to obtain the left most 3 characters from a string one would do the following: - 48 - V4 COPY "qwerty" 1 3 CYCLE When found, it causes the script processor to repeat execution of the script from the beginning. For example, when you wish to make a script to dial a list of BBS's, then repeat the script when finished it would look like this: NAME "xxxxxxxxxxxx" DIAL "123-4567" AUTOBAUD ONLINE END NAME "yyyyyyyyyyyy" DIAL "123-4567" AUTOBAUD ONLINE END . . etc., etc... . CYCLE 5 TIMES The CYCLE command in the example above would cause the script to repeat 5 times. If the cycle count is not specified, then 10 times is the default. Note: it is not good practice to put script commands that toggle between on/off states in a cycled script, unless you cycle them back to the original state before the CYCLE command is issued. Otherwise the command will cycle on/off from execution to execution. An example of a toggle command is DUPLEX or QUIET, you should put them into initialization scripts and NOT in a script that is CYCLEed. The CYCLE command can be manually terminated from the keyboard by pressing Ctrl-K. For example: Script-a -------- QUIET Toggle beeps off. ECHO Toggle command echoing on. AWAIT 1:30:00 Wait for 1:30 am. CHAIN script-b Execute script-b. Script-b -------- NAME "xxxxxxxxxx" Name who we are calling. DIAL "123-4567" Dial the modem. . . etc., etc... . CYCLE 5 TIMES Execute script-b 5 times. Drive Change - 49 - Change default disk drive. Works like the DOS equivalent. Example: C: DIAL Used to dial the modem. Examples: DIAL phone# WITH REDIAL DDIAL name WITH REDIAL The phrase WITH REDIAL is optional. In the second form, DDIAL, the "name" is found in the user's dialing directory and the parameters for baud rate, and phone number are set automatically. If the "name" cannot be found in the directory, then the script will resume execution after the next END statement, as if the host was unavailable. The "name" does not have to be complete, it searches for the first BBS name in the directory that contains "name" within it. Upper and lower case letters are treated the same. The commands, following the DIAL or DDIAL command, may be grouped together to form the commands required to access a particular host. The END command is used to mark the end of such a group. If a connection cannot be made with the host, then the commands between the DIAL and the END are skipped. If no END is found, the rest of the commands in the script are skipped. Please refer to the sample script that comes with the documentation. DUPLEX Toggle between full and half duplex. The starting condition is FULL duplex. You may also specify the state you wish by using the words ON or OFF. For example: DUPLEX Toggle duplex to the opposite state. DUPLEX ON Turns half duplex on. DUPLEX OFF Turns half duplex off. ECHO Causes script commands to be displayed on the screen as they are executed. Useful for debugging new scripts. EMULATE Starts or stops ANSI standard terminal emulation. Examples: - 50 - EMULATE ON Begins VT-100 emulation. EMULATE OFF Ends VT-100 emulation. END Used with DIAL to group commands for a particular host. EXCH Causes the program to exchange phone directories or keyboard macro files. So that more than 1 phone directory or macro file may be used. Example: EXCH DIRECTORY filename The filename is the name of the new phone directory. Note, there is one difference between the script command and the manual, Alt-D, method to do this: this file must exist or an error will occur. With the manual method, the file will be created, if it does not already exist. EXCH MACROS filename The filename is the name of the new keyboard macro file. If it can be located, its contents will be loaded into the function keys. The filename on the EXCH command must not contain any path information. The program looks for all phone directories under the "Directory PATH" from the configuration file and all macro files in the GT home directory. Use the Alt-I command to set the "Directory PATH" and the GTPATH environment variable to set the GT home directory. EXIT Used to exit the program from within a script. Example: EXIT FLUSH Flushes the contents of the serial input buffer. Useful prior to an ONLINE or before dialing a new host. Example: FLUSH FUNCTION Execute one of the macro keys. Examples: FUNCTION KEY 2 This example would execute the string stored in F2. - 51 - FUNCTION KEY ALT 2 Executes the contents of Alt-F2. You can also use SHIFT and CTRL in addition to ALT. FUNCTION IMMEDIATE "xyz" The IMMEDIATE form of the FUNCTION command is used to execute a macro in a literal string which follows the word IMMEDIATE. There is a special problem with macro stored in a script file, that is the '%' character. The '%' character is special, both to the macro interpreter and to the script interpreter. In order to get the script interpreter to pass a '%' through to the macro interpreter, one must code a double, like this: '%%'. For example: FUNCTION IMMEDIATE "%%P" This would cause the macro "%P" to be executed by the macro interpreter. GETLN Get a line of data from the host. Leading blanks and control characters are stripped off. The command will timeout after 40 seconds waiting for the terminating carriage return or linefeed. Note: Carriage returns and linefeeds are stripped from the beginning of the input. One of these control characters will terminate input ONLY after some data has been accumulated. Example: GETLN V4 A variable must be specified to receive the data. The variables have pre-assigned names: V0 through V29. GOTO Transfer flow of execution to another location within the current script. The destination location must be marked with a 'line label', as described above. Example: :FOOBAR . . . GOTO FOOBAR GOTOXY Used to position the cursor at a x,y screen coordinate. This position is always calculated relative to the current window, see MKWIN and RMWIN, if any is active. - 52 - Example: GOTOXY 10 4 Postion the cursor to column 10, row 4. Column 1, row 1 is the upper left position of the screen or window. HANG-UP Used to hang-up the modem. HOST Used to enter host mode automatically from a script. Nothing else should be in the script following the HOST command. This command should not be contained in a script that is called from another script. Examples: HOST HOST MODE The word MODE is optional and is used for documentation of the script only. LEN Measures the length of a string and stores the result as indicated. Example: V6 LEN "1234567890" WRITELN %6 This would print 000010 on the screen, because the string is 10 characters in length. LOG Make an entry in the log file. Example: LOG "This is an entry in the log file, or whatever!" LOWER Convert a string to lowercase and store in the request variable. Example: V4 LOWER "ABCD" WRITELN %4 This would print the string "abcd" on the screen. MEGALINK Transfer a batch of files using the MegaLink protocol. Examples: - 53 - MEGALINK RECV * The file names are supplied by the host. MEGALINK XMIT filename The filename listed is transmitted to the host. Wildcards are allowed, to do a batch transfer. MKWIN Makes a window on the video screen. All cursor positioning and WRITEs will take place within the window until it is removed (see RMWIN below) or overlaid with another MKWIN window. Example: MKWIN x1 y1 x2 y2 "label" 'x1' is the x coordinate of the upper left corner. 'y1' is the y coordinate of the upper left corner. 'x2' is the x coordinate of the lower right corner. 'y2' is the y coordinate of the lower right corner. "label" The text string that will be displayed as the title of the window. MKWIN 3 10 78 15 "Text input window" MUL Multiplies two integers and stores the product as requested. Example: V3 MUL 2 12 WRITELN %3 This produces 000024 on the screen, which is the product of 2 times 12. NAME Used to name the host that the user is calling. Shows up on the Redial window. Used with the DIAL command. Not used with the DDIAL command, because the BBS name from the dialing directory is used. Example: NAME string ONLINE Used to exit, temporarily, from script to manual mode. Useful when using a script to call a host and then go into manual operation once connected. Example: ONLINE - 54 - +----------------------------------------------------------------+ | NOTE | | | | When you press Alt-X, you exit back to the script | | and script execution begins where it left-off. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------------+ PAD Pads a string with a pad character, on the right or left, until the specified width is reached, then stores the result as requested. Example: V12 PAD "foo" 10 " " WRITELN %12 The string "foo " would be printed on the screen. V5 PAD "bar" -7 "." The string "....bar" would be printed on the screen. The negative width indicates the right justification and the indicated pad character is the ".". POS Finds the occurence of one string within another. Returns the position of the found string or 0 (FALSE) if not found. Example: V1 POS "xxx" "abcdxxxefghi" WRITELN %1 This would print 000005 on the screen, since the "xxx" was found at the 5th character of the mask string. V10 POS "xxx" "abcde" WRITELN %10 This would print 000000 on the screen, since the "xxx" cannot be found within the 2nd string. PRINT Toggle the printer on and off. The printer will run as data is received from the host. Equivalent to Ctrl-PrtSc. Example: PRINT Toggle the PRINT on and off. - 55 - PRINT ON Toggle commands may specify the requested state. This would turn the printer ON. PRINT OFF Turn the printer OFF. QUIET Toggle the beeps on and off. The starting condition is to have beeps ON. Example: QUIET Toggles from existing state to the opposite state. QUIET ON Turns off the beeps and other noise. QUIET OFF Turns on the noise. READLN This command is used to read data from the operator into one of the 10 variables. The variables have pre-assigned names: V0 - V29. The syntax is: READLN variable_name For example: WRITE "Enter desired time to start. (hh:mm:ss): " READLN V2 AWAIT %2 Notice the %2 in the 3rd line of the example, the % tells the script processor to do a variable substitution at this point, so the value input for variable 2 is inserted into the AWAIT command. Thus causing the script to pause until the desired time. Note: When responding to a READLN the user must type the response followed by a carriage return. If the user wants to terminate the script at the READLN command, enter ^K followed by a carriage return. RECV Receive a file using the Xmodem protocol. Example: RECV filename Receives a single file from the host. RIGHT Extracts the rightmost part of a string. Example: - 56 - V3 RIGHT "....xyz" 3 WRITELN %3 This command would print the string "xyz" on the screen, because the right 3 characters of the source string are stored in V3. RMWIN Remove window made with prior MKWIN. All windows made with MKWIN should be removed before final exit from the script. SCREEN Used to turn-off the screen display, i.e. stop incoming data from appearing during the WAIT command. Examples: SCREEN OFF Turns screen off. SCREEN ON Turns screen on. SEALINK Transfers a batch of files using the SEAlink protocol. Examples: SEALINK RECV * Receives a group of files sent by the host. SEALINK XMIT filename Transmits the filename given to the host. A batch of files may be sent by using wildcard characters. SEND Used to send a string to the host. The string may contain the | character, which will be changed to a carriage return. Up to 10 strings can be sent to the host with one command. Example: SEND string1 string2 The two strings would be sent to the host without any gaps between them. The strings may be in "...", if embedded blanks are required. SENDLN Same as SEND above, but sends a carriage return at the end of the transmission. Example: SENDLN string1 string2 - 57 - Up to 10 strings can be sent to the host with one command, the carriage return is sent following the last string. SET Used to set the serial port parameters: COM port, baud rate, parity, data bits and stop bits. Examples: SET 1200,N,8,1 This would set 1200 baud, no parity, 8 data bits and one stop bit. Legal baud rate values are: 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, and 19200. Legal parity values are N=none, E=even and O=odd. Legal data bits are 7 or 8. Legal stop bits are 1 or 2. SET COM2 2400 E 7 1 This SET command would work in a similar fashion to the first example, however it would also switch the COM port to number 2. SETCOLOR Set the screen colors to be used with the next WRITE or WRITELN command. Example: SETCOLOR 11 0 Set the foreground to 11 (Light Cyan) and the background to 0 (Black). Dark Colors Light Colors ----------- ------------ 0 : Black 8 : Dark Gray 1 : Blue 9 : Light Blue 2 : Green 10 : Light Green 3 : Cyan 11 : Light Cyan 4 : Red 12 : Light Red 5 : Magenta 13 : Light Magenta 6 : Brown 14 : Yellow 7 : Light Gray 15 : White SHELL This command allows you to execute any program or DOS command, if there is enough memory available. Example: SHELL "copy file1 file2" This would cause the COPY command to be executed and the files named to be copied. SPAWN Invokes an external program as a child process. Does not execute a second copy of COMMAND.COM. Sets the %FAIL flag if the external program returns an error code on "exit()". The SPAWN command supports arguments that are passed to the - 58 - child process as command line paramters, up to 10 can be specified, arg0 through arg9, where arg0 is the name of the child process. Example: SPAWN c:\gt\dsz.exe port %COM speed %BAUD rz This example would cause the DSZ.EXE program to be executed to receive files. Upon return from the SPAWN, the %FAIL variable will be set according to the success or failure of the transfer. SPLIT Starts or stops Split-Screen operation. Examples: SPLIT SCREEN ON Begins Split-Screen. SPLIT SCREEN OFF Ends Split-Screen. STR Converts an integer argument to a string result with the requested width. Example: V5 STR 234 6 WRITELN %5 The above code would write a string to the screen that consisted of 3 leading blanks and the numbers 234. In other words, the string in V5 would be " 234". SUB Subtracts two integers and stores the result as requested. Example: V21 SUB 10 3 WRITELN %21 This would print 000007 on the screen, which is the integer that is the result of 10 minus 3. SWAP This command swaps the position of the <Backspace> and <Del> keys. This is needed by many people who use the VT-100 emulation mode. Examples: SWAP KEYS ON This would swap the two keys, <Backspace> and <Del>. - 59 - SWAP KEYS OFF This would reverse a previous swapping of the keys. Note: Key swaps made with this command are not made a permanent part of the .CNF file. They go back to the default value at the start of the program. Use the Alt-I command to make the swap permanent. TDIFF Calculates the difference between two time values and reports the result in minutes in integer format. Example: ;Capture starting time V1 = %time V2 = %date WRITELN "The current date/time is: " %1 " " %2 ONLINE ;Calculate difference between now and the starting time V3 TDIFF %time %1 ;Convert answer from integer to string format V4 STR %3 ;Tell the operator about the time consumed WRITELN %4 " minutes spent ONLINE on " %name " BBS" TELINK Transfer a batch of files using the Telink protocol. Examples: TELINK XMIT *.pas Transmits all files with the .PAS extension. TELINK RECV * Receive a group of files from the host. TRIM Removes leading and trailing blanks from a string and stores the result as indicated. Example: V7 TRIM " qed " WRITELN %7 The command would strip the spaces and store "qed" in V7. Then the WRITELN would print the "qed" on the screen. TWAIT Timed wait, in milliseconds. The maximum wait period is 32767 milliseconds. Example: - 60 - TWAIT number The "number" is the number of milliseconds to delay the execution of the script. UPPER Convert a string to uppercase and store in the request variable. Example: V4 UPPER "abcd" WRITELN %4 This would print the string "ABCD" on the screen. Vn = Variables can be assigned values in 2 ways, through the READLN command above, or within the script itself, they can be assigned values, much the same way it is done in FORTRAN and other high-level languages. The syntax is: Vn = value For example: V0 = "the PC Interconnection" V7 = "555-1234" V2 = "Johnny Jones" Note: The use of blanks to isolate the "=" from the other fields, this is REQUIRED. VAL Converts a string argument to an integer value. Example: V1 VAL "23" WRITE %1 This would produce 000023 on the screen for the user to see. The string might have contained leading white-space and trailing non-numerics (the conversion ends with the first non-numeric. If no characters are found to be numeric, the result would be 000000. WAIT Used to make the execution of the script wait for a particular string to be sent from the host. Examples: WAIT FOR string WAIT n FOR string The string may be in "...", if embedded blanks are required. In the 2nd form, the "n" represents the number of seconds to - 61 - wait before timing-out the host. Note, the timeout clock only counts down when no data is being sent by the host. If the first form is used, the default time-out period is 40 seconds. If the WAIT command times out waiting for the string to arrive, the %FAIL variable will be set TRUE, so that the script can test for the failure and take action based upon the failure. WHEN Sets up a string to trap out, while waiting with the WAIT command. Whenever the indicated string is trapped, then the response shown will be sent to the host. This feature is mostly used to trap the "More" string and send a Y or N to the host. If required by the host, a carriage return may be inserted in the response string by using a | character. Both the string trapped and the response are limited to a maximum of 30 characters each. Example: WHEN "More" THEN "N" This will keep the WAIT command from getting stuck at the "More" prompt. Note: up to 6 WHEN commands remain in effect. Individual WHEN's may be disabled by omitting the THEN clause. For example: WHEN "More" THEN "N" Setup the trap. WHEN "More" Turns off the trap. WRITE Used to write a string to the screen, does not send to the host. Up to ten strings can be written with one WRITE command. Each string should have white-space surrouding it. Example: WRITE string1 string2 string3 Would write the 3 strings to the screen without any space between them. WRITE "foo." "bar" Would write "foo.bar" to the screen (without the "..." of course). WRITELN Used to write a string to the screen with a carriage return, linefeed combination at the end of the line, does not send to the host. Example: - 62 - WRITELN string Please note that WRITELN behaves the same way as the WRITE above, that it can write up to 10 strings to the screen with one WRITELN command. WXMODEM Transfer a file using the WXmodem protocol. Examples: WXMODEM XMIT filename Transmits a file to the host. WXMODEM RECV filename Receives a file from the host. XMIT Transmit a file using the Xmodem protocol. Example: XMIT filename Transmits a file to the host. YMODEM Transfer a file using the Ymodem protocol. Examples: YMODEM XMIT filename Transmits a file to the host. YMODEM RECV filename Receives a file from the host. - 63 - Appendix -------- 25th Line Status Indicators --------------------------- CAPTURE: 999 Capture mode is on, and the number displayed is the amount of data, in 1000's of characters, in the capture buffer. Suspend: 999 Capture mode is on, but suspended currently. The number displayed is the amount of data in 1000's of characters in the capture buffer. BBS Name If no capture is currently active, the name of the BBS, you are currently communicating with, will be displayed. Caller Name In host mode, the name of the current caller to your system will be displayed. CONNECT 99:99 Time CONNECTed to a BBS in hours and minutes. OFF LINE Indicates you are currently not connected to a BBS. CABLE CONNECT Indicates that you are currently using a cable connection to your host system. ^ The Caps Lock is on. # The Num Lock is on. Q Beeps are turned off. CD Carrier Detected (is present). When carrier is lost, an alarm sounds. PR The printer is on. VT VT-100 terminal emulation is enabled. HDX Half Duplex is true, the default in host mode. Chk Checksum Xmodem is true, the default is CRC Xmodem. SCR A script is currently active. It may be hidden by the ONLINE command, but it is there. baud rate The current baud rate in use: 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, or 19200. 99:99 The current time. - 64 - System Files ------------ Here is a list and short description of each of the many files provided with the GT POWER system: GT1500.EXE .... Absolute program. The one to execute. GTO1500.EXE ... The GTerminal Only version of GT. Called GTO. GT1500.DOC .... This file. The documentation. DOOR.EXE ...... This program is used when a function overlays GT. The /V command line option cannot function if this program cannot be located on the disk. GTBIMOD.EXE ... Interface program executed in the BITX and BIRX batch file. PCKERMIT.EXE .. The program which performs Kermit file transfers. PCKERMIT.TXT .. Documentation for PCKERMIT.EXE. DSZ.EXE ....... Performs Zmodem and Ymodem-G file transfers. DSZ.TXT ....... Documentation for DSZ.EXE. * GT.DIR ........ The phone directory, data file. * GT.KEY ........ Macro key definitions, data file. * GT.CNF ........ The configuration, data file. RAMDISK.BAT ... Sample runstream to execute GT from ramdisk. * GT.LOG ........ Log file. Note: don't edit the log file with an editor which places a CPM EOF (Hex 1A) at the end of a file. GT is unable to append log entries to a file which ends with the CPM EOF - a quirk of Turbo PASCAL. GT_UTIL.COM ... Program to convert old directories to newer format, produce printed listing of phone directory, import text list of BBS's to GT format directory. Also, converts some Qmodem formats to the GT format. GT_UTIL.DOC ... Short doc file for GT_UTIL. PURSUIT.SCR ... Script used to access the PC Pursuit network. PCPMENU.SCR ... Script called by PURSUIT.SCR, used to access PC Pursuit. SCRIPT.SCR .... A sample script for use with GT. REGISTER.DOC .. Description of the registration plan. FORM.DOC ...... A registration form, ready to be filled in and printed. GTHOST.DOC .... Documentation for host mode. GTDOOR.BAT .... Executed when host mode caller requests "Shell to DOS". GTDOOR1.BAT ... Sample DOOR batch file. GTDOORS.BBS ... DOOR menu text file. KEYBOARD.MAC .. Keyboard macros to use with ANSI.SYS and the DOS Door. GTWELCOM.BBS .. Welcome screen for host mode. }****** GTUSER.BBS .... Record of last user's name. } PROTOCOL.BBS .. Protocol menu text file. } PREQUEST.BBS .. Pre-questionnaire text file. } QUESTION.BBS .. Questionnaire template file. } GTBULLET.BBS .. Bulletin file for host mode. } BULLET1.BBS ... Custom bulletin file #1. } Example files used BULLET2.BBS ... Custom bulletin file #2. } in GT host mode. - 65 - GTMENU.BBS .... Main menu file for host mode. } These are ordinary GTPASSWD.BBS .. Password file for host mode. } text files and may GTHELP.BBS .... Help file for host mode. } be changed with an GTDIR.BBS ..... Directory control list. } ASCII text editor. GTMDIR.BBS .... Message area control list. } GTDDIR.BBS .... DOOR control list. } GTSYSID.BBS ... Initial system ID for callers. } WELCOME.BBS ... Message area welcome file. } MBULLET1.BBS .. Message area bulletin file. } GTBYE.BBS ..... Goodbye file for host mode. }****** MBAG401.COM ... The netmail bagger program. } Refer to MDRIV045.COM .. The netmail driver program. } netmail MDRIV045.000 .. The overlay file for MDRIVER. } documentation MDIST401.COM .. The netmail distribution program. } for explanation NETMAIL.DOC ... The netmail documentation file. * The files marked with an "*" above are created automatically whenever GT cannot locate them. - 66 - Configuration File Layout ------------------------ In position 1-3 of each record in the configuration file is a code to identify a parameter. After the "=", the value of the parameter appears. CM= COM port number, 1,2,3 or 4. ST= Number of Stopbits. DA= Number of Databits. PA= Parity. 0=None,1=Even,2=Odd SR= Stripping option. Strip parity bit from serial port input. BA= Default Baud Rate. 300,1200,2400,4800,9600 or 19200. MB= Maximum Baud Rate. Restricts values found in Phone Directory. CS= Honor CTS from modem option. S2= String to set modem to 300 baud. }****** S4= String to set modem to 1200 baud. } S5= String to set modem to 2400 baud. } S6= String to set modem to 4800 baud. } S7= String to set modem to 9600 baud. } S8= String to set modem to 19200 baud. } For non-Hayes P0= String to set modem to 7 bits, no parity. } modems only. See P1= String to set modem to 7 bits, even parity. } table on page 56. P2= String to set modem to 7 bits, odd parity. } P3= String to set modem to 8 bits, no parity. } P4= String to set modem to 8 bits, even parity. } P5= String to set modem to 8 bits, odd parity. } P6= String to set modem to 7 bits, mark parity. } P7= String to set modem to 8 bits, mark parity. }****** PR= Dialing Pre String. PO= Dialing Post String, use the | character where a Return is required. HU= The modem hang-up string. PF= Phone number prefix/suffix. Associated with the - character. P+= Phone number prefix/suffix. Associated with the + character. P*= Phone number prefix/suffix. Associated with the * character. P!= Phone number prefix/suffix. Associated with the ! character. MI= Modem initialization string. Use the | character where a Return is needed. HO= Host mode, modem initialization string. AS= Answer string. When issued, this string should cause the modem to answer an incoming call. SY= Modem command string to turn the speaker ON. SN= Modem command string to turn the speaker OFF. RT= After carrier timeout has occurred, this is the time between redial, in seconds. FC= Forced Carrier. Some modems force carrier even when a call is not in progress, if this is the case, set this parameter to TRUE. CT= Timeout time for carrier to appear, in seconds. DP= Directory PATH. This variable tells the program where to look for the phone directory. This parameter is provided mainly for people who wish to put the dialing directory on a RAM-disk. TP= Download PATH. All files received by GT are placed, by default, in this directory. User may override, by typing full pathnames when entering filenames. Effects host mode operation also! - 67 - UP= Upload PATH. Does not apply to host mode operation. SP= Script PATH. Scripts are stored in this directory. CP= Capture PATH. Capture saves are done to this directory. MP= Message base PATH. Controls where GT will place the *.CTL files and the GTMSGS sub-directory. XO= The decimal value of the XON character. Used to control data flow Starts data flow after XOFF has been issued. XF= The decimal value of the XOFF character. Used to control data flow Stops data flow when issued. Helps insure that buffer overflow does not occur. VT= If TRUE, turns on VT100 emulation, using ANSI escape codes. If VT100 emulation is requested, music will not be played, and will show on the screen as text. This happens because of a conflict between the full ANSI definition and the musical notes. This does not pose a problem for most BBS users, because they do not need the full ANSI emulation. BBS's that send music and graphics use IBM ANSI graphics, which can be processed without setting VT=TRUE. For BBS use, this parameter should be set FALSE, and the IBM ANSI graphics will be processed. WN= Suppress window noise. Do you want video game whistling windows? AW= Auto line wrap mode. If FALSE, characters received while the cursor is in column 80 of the screen will not wrap to the next line. LF= Auto Linefeed mode. If TRUE, then a linefeed will be automatically supplied whenever a carriage return is received. FG= The default foreground color number. Any one of the 16 values in the table below. BG= The default background color number. Any one of the DARK shades, 0-7, from the table below. CC= The comment character used with the macro keys. MX= Number of Xmodem buffers to allocate. 4 - 255 are the legal values. A smaller number should be used on systems with only 128k, larger values can be used if more memory is available. Each buffer takes 128 bytes. DM= DMA mode. Some computers have no DMA chip, some have defective DMA chips. If you have one of these computer, you will obtain better results with file transfers, if this parameter is set to SLOW. If you have a normal IBM PC with good DMA chip, set this parameter to FAST. PC= The Pacing Character. This is the character echoed by the host at the end of each line. If you set this character, the program will wait for it to be echoed by the host at the end of each line during an ASCII file transmission. The default is no Pacing Character. The abbreviations CR and LF may be used in this field to indicate the carriage return and linefeed characters, as well as the | character for carriage return. EL= End-of-Line Mode. This determines the line terminating characters sent to the host, during ASCII file transmit, to delimit the end-of-line. Defaults to CRLF, carriage return and linefeed. The other options are LF, only linefeed, and CR, only carriage return. AD= ASCII inter-character delay. Specified in milliseconds. The default value is 0. - 68 - WF= Window foreground color number. Anyone of the 16 values from the table below. WB= Window background color number. Anyone of the DARK shades, 0-7, from the table below. WR= Window-frame foreground color number. Anyone of the 16 values from the table below. WS= Window-frame background color number. Anyone of the DARK shades from the table below. HF= Option hi-lite color, foreground. HB= Option hi-lite color, background. OF= Option lo-lite color, foreground. OB= Option lo-lite color, background. TF= Status line color, foreground. TB= Status line color, background. WU= Window Title color, foreground. WV= Window Title color, background. DU= Phone directory hi-lite color, foreground. DV= Phone directory hi-lite color, background. CR= Chat foreground. For remote caller. CF= Chat foreground. For local sysop. LG= If TRUE, GT will keep a log of all BBS's called and files transferred. Default is FALSE. PD= Current phone directory name. Default is 'GT'. SB= Minutes of inactivity until the screen is blanked. A value of 0 disables the screen blanker. CK= If TRUE, GT will automatically check diskspace available prior to downloading any file. If FALSE, GT will not check diskspace before downloads. MM= If FALSE, GT will not play music received from the host system. If TRUE, the music will be played. If emulation mode is TRUE, this switch is forced to be FALSE. RC= Result codes. The code is defined by the numeric code and the code actually returned by the modem. There are 17 possible codes, only 15 of which are used. Example: RC=1,CONNECT SO= Bios video routines. If TRUE, the Bios video routines will be used my the window handler, instead of direct memory access. The Bios routines are much slower, but have the benefit of compatibility with multi-tasking operating systems. PG= Pagination of printer output. If TRUE, the output on the printer will be paginated, so that it doesn't print on the perforations. LP= Lines per page. Works with the pagination option. KY= Name of the current macro key file. Default is 'GT'. BS= Swap position of BackSpace and Del keys, used with VT-100 emulation. BL= BREAK length in milliseconds. TL= Tilde length. The tilde ~ is used to add delay to various string sent to the modem. HN= Off-hook string. Sent to modem to make it go off-hook. HY= On-hook string. Sent to modem to make it go on-hook. NK= Option to make NO KILL the default message security. SM= Message path for M)essages to the SYSOP. DD= The default file directory. The one callers first see when they connect. - 69 - LO= Log file path. The log will be stored in this directory. CL= Capture memory buffer limit in 1,000s of characters. BP= Blank pad mode. Used to control the sending of blanks lines in ASCII transmit mode. If TRUE, then blank lines will be padded with blanks. Helps with message upload to BBSs. EW= Exploding windows option. If TRUE, then GT's windows will explode when they open. AR= Auto redial on BUSY result from modem. If TRUE, GT's will automatically redial a number that is BUSY when dialed from the phone directory. E0= External protocol definition #1. E1= External protocol definition #2. E2= External protocol definition #3. E3= External protocol definition #4. E4= External protocol definition #5. E5= External protocol definition #6. E6= External protocol definition #7. E7= External protocol definition #8. E8= External protocol definition #9. E9= External protocol definition #10. * = Comment lines. Note: These entries may either be changed via the Alt-I command, or with any text editor that produces standard ASCII files, such as EDLIN. - 70 - Configuration File Defaults --------------------------- CM=1 ST=1 DA=8 PA=0 SR=FALSE BA=1200 LB=300 MB=19200 CS=FALSE RS=FALSE CL=16 P0= P1= P2= P3= P4= P5= P6= P7= S2= S3= S4= S5= S6= S7= S8= S9= S1= PR=ATDT HU=~+++~ATH| PF= P+= P*= P!= PO=| MI=AT V1 Q0 E0 X1 S0=0 S2=43| SY= SN= RT=90 HY=ATH0| HN=ATH1| FC=FALSE AR=TRUE CT=60 DP=C:\GT TP= UP= SP= LN=0 LD= LR= E0=J,N,N,N,JM,Jmodem - 71 - E1=K,Y,N,N,KR,Kermit E2=Z,Y,N,N,ZM,Zmodem E3=G,Y,N,N,YG,Ymodem-G E4=I,Y,Y,Y,BI,BiModem E5= , , , , , E6= , , , , , E7= , , , , , E8= , , , , , E9= , , , , , LF=FALSE LO=C:\GT TL=1000 BL=250 CP=C:\GT XO=17 XF=19 VT=FALSE EW=FALSE WN=FALSE SO=MIXED FG=7 BG=0 CC=; MX=8 PC= EL=CR BP=FALSE WF=2 WB=0 WR=1 WS=1 WU=14 WV=4 DU=11 DV=0 CR=11 CF=2 HF=14 HB=0 OF=6 OB=0 TF=3 TB=6 LG=FALSE AD=0 ED=0 PD=GT DM=FAST FD=FALSE MM=TRUE LP=60 KY=GT BS=FALSE AW=TRUE - 72 - CK=TRUE SB=0 AS=ATA| PG=FALSE MP=C:\GT DD=C:\GT HO=AT V1 Q0 E0 M0 X1 S0=1 S2=255| NK=TRUE SM=C:\GT RC=0,0,OK RC=1,1,CONNECT RC=2,2,RING RC=3,3,NO CARRIER RC=4,4,ERROR RC=5,5,CONNECT 1200 RC=6,6,NO DIAL TONE RC=7,7,BUSY RC=8,8,NO ANSWER RC=9,9,CONNECT 4800 RC=10,10,CONNECT 2400 RC=11,11,RINGING RC=12,12,VOICE RC=13,13,CONNECT 9600 RC=14,14,CONNECT 4800/ARQ RC=15,15,CONNECT 1200/ARQ RC=16,16,CONNECT 2400/ARQ RC=17,17,CONNECT 9600/ARQ RC=18,18,CONNECT 19200/ARQ - 73 - Color Number Table: ------------------- Dark Colors Light Colors ----------- ------------ 0 : Black 8 : Dark Gray 1 : Blue 9 : Light Blue 2 : Green 10 : Light Green 3 : Cyan 11 : Light Cyan 4 : Red 12 : Light Red 5 : Magenta 13 : Light Magenta 6 : Brown 14 : Yellow 7 : Light Gray 15 : White - 74 - ANSI Emulation - Received Characters ------------------------------------ Cursor Up .................................. ESC [ Pn A Cursor Down ................................ ESC [ Pn B Cursor Forward ............................. ESC [ Pn C Cursor Backward ............................ ESC [ Pn D Cursor Position ............................ ESC [ Pl ; Pc H Cursor Position (Home) ..................... ESC [ H Horizontal and Vertical Position ........... ESC [ Pl ; Pc f Horizontal and Vertical Position (Home) .... ESC [ f Set Scrolling Region ....................... ESC [ Pt ; Pb r Set Origin Mode ......see notes below....... ESC [ ? 6 h Reset Origin Mode .......................... ESC [ ? 6 l Index ...................................... ESC D Reverse Index .............................. ESC M Reverse Linefeed ........................... ESC I Next Line .................................. ESC E Save Cursor ................................ ESC 7 or ESC [ s Restore Cursor ............................. ESC 8 or ESC [ u Cursor Key Mode Set ........................ ESC [ ? 1 h Application Keypad Mode .................... ESC = Cursor Key Mode Reset ...................... ESC [ ? 1 l Numeric Keypad Mode ........................ ESC > Select US Character Set .................... ESC ( B Select Line Drawing Character Set .......... ESC ( 0 Turn Off Character Attributes .............. ESC [ m Selects Bold Characters .................... ESC [ 1 m Selects Underlined Characters .............. ESC [ 4 m Selects Blinking Characters ................ ESC [ 5 m Selects Reverse Video Characters ........... ESC [ 7 m Set Horizontal Tab Stop .................... ESC H Clear A Horizontal Tab Stop ................ ESC [ g Clear All Horizontal Tab Stops ............. ESC [ 3 g Erase From Cursor To End Of Line ........... ESC [ K Erase From Beginning Of Line To Cursor ..... ESC [ 1 K Erase Complete Line ........................ ESC [ 2 K Erase From Cursor To End Of Screen ......... ESC [ J Erase From Beginning Of Screen To Cursor ... ESC [ 1 J Erase Complete Display ..................... ESC [ 2 J Delete Character At Cursor ................. ESC [ Pn P Insert Line At Cursor ...................... ESC [ Pn L Delete Line At Cursor ...................... ESC [ Pn M Select Insert Mode ......................... ESC [ 4 h Reset Insert Mode .......................... ESC [ 4 l Select Newline Mode ........................ ESC [ 20 h Reset Newline Mode ......................... ESC [ 20 l Select Auto Line Wrap Mode ................. ESC [ ? 7 h Reset Auto Line Wrap Mode .................. ESC [ ? 7 l Turn Printer On ............................ ESC [ ? 5 i Turn Printer Off ........................... ESC [ ? 4 i Turn Printer Controller On ................. ESC [ 5 i Turn Printer Controller Off ................ ESC [ 4 i - 75 - Print Screen ............................... ESC [ i Request Cursor Position Report ............. ESC [ 6 n Response: Cursor Position Report .... ESC [ Pl ; Pc R Request ID ................................. ESC [ c Response: VT102 ..................... ESC [ ? 6 c Notes: ESC is used to represent the escape character, decimal 27. Pn represents a variable numeric parameter, the parameter is a decimal number transmitted to the program by using ASCII characters. Pl represents the LINE, and Pc represents the COLUMN, these are numeric parameters sent using ASCII characters. Pt represents the TOP LINE of a scrolling region, and Pb represents the BOTTOM LINE of a scrolling region, these are numeric parameters sent using ASCII characters. The spaces shown are for readability, they are not sent by the host. When "Origin Mode" is set, the cursor is confined to the scrolling region. Whenever a change takes place in the "Origin Mode", the cursor is moved to the home position. The cursor is also moved to the home position whenever a change is made in the scrolling region. - 76 - ANSI Emulation - Transmitted Characters --------------------------------------- Function Keys .............................. User Programmable. End ........................................ ESC O R Ctrl-End ................................... ESC O S Del ........................................ DEL Ins ........................................ ESC O n Home ....................................... ESC [ H PgUp ....................................... ESC [ O r PgDn ....................................... ESC [ O q Shift-Tab .................................. ESC [ O x Left Arrow ................Normal........... ESC [ C Keypad Mode...... ESC O C Right Arrow ...............Normal........... ESC [ D Keypad Mode...... ESC O D Up Arrow ..................Normal........... ESC [ A Keypad Mode...... ESC O A Down Arrow ................Normal........... ESC [ B Keypad Mode...... ESC O B Others ..................................... Standard Values. Note: The blanks are included for readability only. - 77 - Support For USRobotics Courier 2400 ----------------------------------- Here are the proper switch settings for the Courier modem: Switch Setting ------ ------- 1 UP, Normal DTR. This is not the factory setting, so it should be changed by the user. GT requires this setting for proper operation of the host mode. In terminal mode, GT does not require this switch setting. Instead, you can specify a hang-up string in the configuration area. 2 Doesn't matter to GT. Use the Vn command in the modem init strings to get proper setting. 3 DOWN, Result Codes are displayed. 4 DOWN, No Command Echo. Again, this is preferred, but not required. 5 Doesn't matter to GT. 6 UP, carrier detect signal is present only when on-line. This is not the factory setting and should be changed by the user. 7 Doesn't matter to GT. 8 DOWN, Use Normal AT commands. 9 Doesn't matter to GT. 10 Doesn't matter to GT. Quad Switch UP, Use Normal Pin Assignments. - 78 - USRobotics Courier HST, 9600 Baud Modem Support. ------------------------------------------------ The switch settings for the HST modem are much the same as the Courier 2400 baud modem above, so I will not discuss them. The main difference between these two modems falls into three catagories: 1. Init String Usage. The HST modem supports a variety of '&' commands that can be placed into the init string. The standard values for use with GT are &M4, &H1, and &B0. These values should be added both to the terminal and host mode init strings. 2. Configuration Setup. When used with any modem that uses MNP or ARQ error correction technology, GT should have the "Honor CTS from modem" parameter set = TRUE. In this way, GT will stop sending data to the modem when the CTS signal is lowered. 3. 19200 Baud Rate. When using the 19200 baud rate, GT will not fallback to a lower rate at CONNECT time. This means that the init strings must be changed to include &B1, which signals the modem that the cpu-to- modem rate is being held constant. This is extremely useful when optimum thru-put is required. However, take note that GT may overrun the receiving computer at 9600 baud. GT is capable of sending at the very highest rates your computer is capable of and if the remote computer cannot accept the data at the higher rate, an overrun condition may arise. GT will try to avoid this by respecting any XON/XOFF signal sent by remote during a MegaLink file transfer (when the danger of overrun is the highest). 4. Fixed DTE operation. When operating a high speed modem, it is quite often desirable to optimize performance by forcing the computer to operate at a high fixed baud rate, while the modem(DCE) rate floats with each connection. GT supports this capability through the use of three configuration parameters: Fixed DTE, CTS Flow Control, and RTS Flow Control. These parameters are located under #30 of the Alt÷I configuration screen. When using these options, be sure that the modem is also set to use a compatible operating mode. The RTS flow control will be used during file transfers, when GT is going to write a block to the disk, GT will drop the RTS signal to the modem, then write to the disk, raising the RTS signal afterward. The CTS signal is used by the modem to stop GT from transmitting when the modem's buffer is nearly full. GT will resume transmission once the CTS signal is raised again. The Fixed DTE does not "freeze" the baud rate, rather the baud rate is selected in the normal manner (usually from the value in the dialing directory), rather the Fixed DTE keeps GT from - 79 - shifting to the DCE rate upon connection. If you wish to have a frozen baud rate, you can set the minimum and maximum baud rates in the program's configuration to the desired value. This would result in a frozen baud rate. - 80 - Hayes 2400 Initialization String -------------------------------- The Hayes 2400 baud modems do not have any switches that need to be set on the board with the exception of the port select switch which is accessible on the end plate itself. All settings that would normally be set by switches are program selectable and, once set, they may be stored into a writable ROM on the card itself for further use. Following are the Modem Initialization string contents that have been found to work satisfactorily when using GT POWER: ATE0V0X4S0=0L2S2=43&C1&D2M1&W| The above string may have embedded blanks without affect. Following are the Host Mode initialization settings that have been found to work in GT POWER: AT V0 Q0 E0 X4 S0=1 S2=255 M0| The above settings show the use of 'TERSE' result codes from the modem. As was pointed out in an earlier part of this documentation, 'VERBOSE' result codes are preferable. The use of TERSE mode (as selected by setting V0 rather than V1) was shown here to give you a complete picture of both ways of setting up your system. The standard (default) result code table distributed with GT POWER assumes VERBOSE mode. Therefore, if you select TERSE mode you will have to change that table as follows: Description Code ================= ========== 1. OK ................. 0 2. CONNECT ............ 1 3. RING ............... 2 4. NO CARRIER ......... 3 5. ERROR .............. 4 6. CONNECT 1200 ....... 5 7. NO DIAL TONE ....... 6 8. BUSY ............... 7 9. NO ANSWER .......... 8 10. CONNECT 2400 ....... 10 11. RINGING ............ N/A 12. VOICE .............. N/A 13. CONNECT 9600 ....... N/A 14. CONNECT 1200/ECC ... N/A These are the MNP & ARQ 15. CONNECT 2400/ECC ... N/A result codes, sometimes 16. CONNECT 9600/ECC ... N/A known as RELIABLE. - 81 - Modem Setting Strings for IBM Modems ------------------------------------ Baud String ---- ------ 300 <Ctrl-N>SP 2| 1200 <Ctrl-N>SP 4| I do not know what the string should be for people who have IBM 2400 baud modem, but I suspect it would be: <Ctrl-N>SP 5 Data Format String ----------- ------ 7-N-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 0| 7-M-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 1| 7-E-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 4| 7-O-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 3| 8-N-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 5| 8-M-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 6| 8-E-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 9| 8-O-1 <Ctrl-N>FO 8| - 82 - Registration Message -------------------- Dear GT User: 6-20-89 I know you are asking yourself, "Why should I send a contribution for GT"? Here are a few answers. 1. The shareware copy of GT has a delay at the start of the program. When you register you will receive a key that will allow an you to enter the program quickly. 2. You will receive a registered copy of GT, with your own serial number. If you distribute GT, and someone registers your serial number, you will get a split of the contribution. For every copy registered with your serial number, you will receive 25% of the amount tendered. 3. You will receive a copy of the latest version of the companion program, Sysop Tools. 4. You will receive a copy of "Turbo CALC". This is the powerful spreadsheet program from P & M Software Co. 5. You will receive copies of the latest GT netmail programs, which will allow you to pass electronic mail along the GT netmail system. NOTE: the GT netmail programs are not shareware and can only be obtained thru registration of GT. 6. Phone support is available to registered users, have your serial # handy when you call. The number is 602-285-9914 voice, 602- 285-1146 & 713-772-2090 modem. The modem lines are open 24 hours a day, the voice line is available during normal office hours, 8 - 5 pm Mountain Time. 7. A key will be provided to registered users, so that the opening copyright screen will remove itself automatically. In the spirit of shareware, we ask that the key not be disclosed to non- registered users. 8. You will receive an alive program, supported by its author. Continued support of GT or any other "User Supported" program depends on the financial support of its users. Pure survival of the best and fittest. To show our intention to support our products, we are proud to offer our new customers a 30 day money back guarantee. If you wish to register, or if you are already registered and wish to upgrade to the latest version of GT, please fill out and return the following form: - 83 - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | | GT POWER | | Registration Form | | | | | | Date: __________ TO: P & M Software Co. | | 3104 E. Camelback Rd. | | #503 | | Phoenix, AZ 85016 | | U.S.A. | | | | FROM: Name: ________________________________________ | | | | Address: ________________________________________ | | | | ________________________________________ | | | | ________________________________________ | | | | Work Phone # (_____)_______________________ | | | | Home Phone # (_____)_______________________ | | | | | | CHECK VERSION(S) OF GT POWER WANTED: | | 1 selection no extra charge, additional selections, $7 each. | | | | 14.03 15.00 | | ===== ===== | | | | _____ _____ PC, XT and clones (non-overlaid). | | | | _____ _____ PC, XT and clones (overlaid). | | | | _____ _____ AT/286 and clones (non-overlaid). | | | | _____ _____ FOSSIL version for MSDOS compats (non-overlaid). | | | | | | NOTE: Each selection above includes copies of GT and GTO. | | | | | | CHECK DESIRED SELECTION(S): | | | | ____ Initial registration of GT POWER 15.00. | | $70 U.S. suggested price for version 15.00 | | | | ____ Initial registration of GT POWER 14.03. | | $50 U.S. suggested price for version 14.03 | | | | ____ Upgrade from 14.03 to 15.00 of GT POWER, $30 U.S. | | For users who registered after 7-1-89. | | | - 84 - | ____ Upgrade from 14.03 to 15.00 of GT POWER, $20 U.S. | | For users who registered prior to 7-1-89. | | | | ____ Enter standing order. Available to credit card customers. | | All releases sent automatically. Fees are charged just | | before shipment of product. Bug fixes will be charged | | a handling fee of $10, plus $5.00 postage for overseas. | | Feature release will be charged at $20 each, plus $5.00 | | postage for overseas. | | | | | | PLEASE INDICATE SERIAL # AND VERSION OF PROGRAM YOU HAVE: | | (Press ALT-J to display serial number.) | | | | Serial # _____________ Version # 15.00 | | | | | | PLEASE INDICATE AMOUNT ENCLOSED: | | | | Base contribution amount .......... __________ | | | | Extra versions, add $7 per copy ... __________ | | from check-list above. | | | | For 3.5" diskettes, add $5 ........ __________ | | | | TEXAS residents, 8% sales tax ..... __________ | | | | Outside NORTH AMERICA, add $5 | | for AIR MAIL postage ........... __________ | | | | Foreign Bank Draft Fee, add $7 | | for banks outside of U.S. ...... __________ | | | | Total Enclosed (U.S. DOLLARS) ..... | | ========== | | | | PLEASE INDICATE METHOD OF PAYMENT: | | | | If using credit card, please indicate your card no. and | | expiration date. On MasterCard(r) include the Interbank No. | | | | ___ MasterCard(r) Interbank No. _____________ | | ___ Visa | | ___ Check Credit Card No. ____________________________ | | ___ Money Order | | Expiration Date _____________ | | | | Signature __________________________________ | | | | | | Please DO NOT send cash. Send check, money order, or credit card | | information. Your request will be filled promptly upon receipt. | | | - 85 - | Customers residing outside of the United States of America should | | submit payment in the form of a check drawn in U.S. DOLLARS on a | | New York City bank or use one of the credit cards listed above. | | | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ - THE END - - 86 - - 87 -