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AmigaFax The Amiga Fax System C-Born Software Systems August 26, 1992 =========================================================================== ii Copyright (C) 1992 by C-Born Software Systems All right reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in Australia. PRODUCTION NOTE This document was produced using the LaTEX document preparation system macro package for AmigaTEX , Tomas Rokicki's implementa- tion of Donald Knuth's TEX typesetting system, running entirely on Commodore Amiga computers. (This particular version was run through dvi2tty, hence it's not as pretty as it could be. The original can be supplied as a TeX DVI file, for those with TeX.) About... All the software described herein was developed in Australia by C- Born Software Systems, on Commodore Amiga computers. =========================================================================== Contents 1 Introduction 1 1.1 What is AmigaFax? .............................. 1 1.2 Summary of Features .............................. 1 1.3 System Requirements .............................. 2 2 Installation 3 2.1 Installing the Software .............................. 3 2.2 Basic Configuration .............................. 3 2.3 Hardware .......................................... 4 2.4 ARP ................................................ 4 2.5 Extra FONTS ......................................... 4 2.6 Printer Setup ...................................... 4 2.7 Configuring for Hardware and User Preferences .......... 5 3 Configuring the System 7 3.1 General Configuration ............................... 7 3.2 AmigaFax User Interface ............................... 7 3.3 Fax Page Layout Options ............................. 8 3.4 Fax Viewer Configuration ............................ 8 3.5 Fax Printer Configuration ............................ 8 3.6 Fax Spooler Configuration ............................ 9 3.7 Fax Receiver Configuration .......................... 9 3.8 Fax Transmitter Configuration ....................... 9 3.9 Modem Command and Status Strings ..................... 10 4 The Workbench Interface 11 4.1 AmigaFax ............................................ 11 4.2 FaxAutoAnswer ........................................ 12 4.3 FaxSpool ........................................... 12 iii =========================================================================== iv CONTENTS 5 Operating from the Shell 13 5.1 AFAX ........................ 13 5.2 NEWFAX ...................... 14 5.3 AFAXSPL ..................... 14 5.4 MKAFAX ...................... 14 5.5 AmigaFax Command File Format ... 14 5.5.1 Fill Mode ......... 15 5.6 AFAXSEND .................. 15 5.7 AFAXPRT .................... 16 5.8 FAA ......................... 16 5.9 AFAXILBM .................... 17 5.10 VIEWAFAX ..................... 17 5.11 FXFX ........................ 18 5.12 DVIFAX ...................... 19 A Configuration Specifics 21 A.1 FAXLIB:Aliases ............... 21 A.2 FONTS ...................... 21 B Integration with other software 23 B.1 UUCP ........................ 23 B.2 TEX ........................ 23 B.3 PostScript .................. 23 B.4 Printer Driver .............. 23 B.5 BBS Systems ................ 23 C FaxModem Specifics 25 C.1 ZyXEL U-1496 ............... 25 C.2 Maestro 9600XR ............. 26 =========================================================================== Chapter 1 Introduction =========== 1.1 What is AmigaFax? AmigaFax is a software package that, in combination with a FaxModem, allows you to send and receive facsimile information from your Amiga com- puter. Received faxes can be viewed, printed, forwarded to other fax ma- chines, and saved as ILBM files which can then be accessed using many standard Amiga programs. You can transmit text, ILBM graphics, and combinations of these as faxes. Using the AmigaFax command language you can add text from any Amiga font, along with logos and ILBM graphics, to create high quality multi-page fax documents. AmigaFax can be set up to automatically send documents to multiple recipients, to send faxes at or after set times, and to answer incoming fax calls automatically. Faxes can be printed on plain paper, using your normal Amiga printer. AmigaFax is highly configurable, allowing you to set up a custom envi- ronment that best suits your hardware and way of working. 1.2 Summary of Features o Automatic Reception AmigaFax may be configured to receive faxes in the background, or to answer an already ringing line in Fax mode. Autoanswer may also be integrated with a UUCP or BBS environment, where incoming calls may be Fax or data, by using a specially modified version of the getty program that recognises Fax calls. 1 o Automatic Transmission Faxes may be queued for transmission after a particular time, to take advantage of lower off-peak telecom rates, for example. You may specify the number of times to try before giving up on transmission, and the period at which retry attempts should be made. All call progress is logged, and progress may be monitored from the main program. Call logging displays when attempts were made, the success or failure of the call, and the Called Number ID of the remote Fax machine reached. o Multiple Recipients Fax numbers may be entered either directly, or using defineable aliases. Therefore instead of sending to `99123456', you could send it to `Fred'. In the same way, an alias can refer to a list of other aliases, or num- bers, so that one fax could be sent to `Customers', representing a list of customers. o Flexible Fax Viewer The Fax viewer allows you to view a fax document at scales of from 1:1 to 1:8. A 1:3 scale igenerally gives a quite readable image while still fitting the entire Fax width across a standard Amiga screen. You can easily zoom in on areas of particular interest if required. o Powerful Document Builder This allows you to mix any Amiga font or ILBM graphic on a page, include text, ILBM or AmigaFax command files anywhere on a page or in a document, perform alignment at character or pixel level, justify text regardless of font size, automatically add standard information such as address, signature, logo, and current time/date. o Highly User Configurable The configuration file allows you to set the system up to suit your requirements. You can define your prefered editor for text and for graphics, set a standard file to use as a template when creating new Fax documents, customize your dial type (pulse/tone, special prefix to get outside line, etc), set the Caller ID string to identify yourself to remote Fax machines, define the modem type you are using, and set many system default values. o Multiple Serial Port Support Using the A2232 multi-serial port card, AmigaFax can support mul- tiple FaxModems simultaneously, each modem being able to transmit and receive facimiles and data. o Uses Preferences Printer Because the Amiga Preferences printer is used to print out the docu- ments, you can tradeoff speed for resolution as you require. o Workbench or CLI interface AmigaFax can be run either from the workbench, or from a shell or CLI interface. In either case, an easy to use graphical presentation makes operation straightforward. 1.3 System Requirements AmigaFax requires AmigaDOS version 1.3 or greater. It operates with AmigaDOS 2.0, and will run on Amigas from the original A1000 through to the A3000. It is possible to run on an unexpanded A1000 with 512K RAM and 1 disk drive, but in this case memory and disk restraints will limit the number and size of faxes that may be generated or received. In general the more memory and disk available the better. For unattended Auto-receive operation a hard disk system is highly desirable. Chapter 2 Installation =========== Warning...Be sure to back up your original disks, and use working copies of the disks for normal operation. 2.1 Installing the Software Information on installing the AmigaFax software on your system is given in the ReadMe file on the distribution disk. Insert the distribution disk, and from the WorkBench double-click on the ReadMe icon for instructions. The installation script should automatically handle most installations. To use it, from the WorkBench double-click the Install_Now icon, or from a Shell window type amigafax:install. The script will prompt you for information required to complete the installation. If you are updating to a later revision, the installation procedure will not overwrite your configuration or alias files, so you will not lose information. However in this case you may want to examine the files in the directories lib.user and s.user on the distribution disk for examples of more recent configuration options. The AmigaFaX software requires certain logical assignments to be made. The installation procedure will create a file afax:s/User-Startup. You must edit your S:User-Startup (2.0) or S:Startup-Sequence (1.3) to include the contents of that file, which will be typically something like: assign afax: Work:AmigaFax mount null: run >nil: <nil: l:fifo-handler if exists afax:s/AFAX-Startup execute afax:s/AFAX-Startup endif If your devs:MountList doesn't contain an entry for the NULL: device, append the MountList file from the devs directory on the AmigaFax to it. 2.2 Basic Configuration There are many possible ways to operate the AmigaFax software. You may wish to operate it as the only software using your FaxModem, or have it share the modem with other software such as AmigaUUCP. The AmigaFax spooler may be started when you boot up your computer, or only when you want to send a fax. Fax Auto-Answer may be left on all the time, started only when you are expecting a fax, or not used at all. If you want the fax-spooler to start when you boot up your system, you must add the line run >nil: <nil: AFAX:C/afaxspl to your startup sequence. This can be done in the AFAX:s/AFaxAssign file, for example. Normally this would only be necessary if you send a lot of faxes with delayed spooling, and your computer may be rebooted often, as the spooler is automatically started when sending a fax. If you want auto-answer with Fax detection running constantly in back- ground, you may either use the modified Getty command, or use faa di- rectly, by adding the line run >nil: <nil: faa somewhere in your startup sequence. Note that the modified getty will allow you to receive data and fax calls effectively, and is the recommended approach. However if you only wish to receive faxes, faa is effective and may be started by double-clicking on the FaxAutoAnswer icon. 2.3 Hardware The cable between your Amiga and Modem MUST connect CTS,RTS, DTR, DCD, TXD, RXD and GND conductors. CTS and RTS are used for flow control handshaking. DTR is used to keep the modem on line - hangup occurs if it is dropped. DCD is used for carrier detection. TXD 2 Transmit Data RXD 3 Receive Data RTS 4 Request to Send CTS 5 Clear to Send GND 7 Signal Ground DCD 8 Data Carrier Detect DTR 20 Data Terminal Ready 2.4 ARP If you have the ARP library installed (Libs:arp.library) the system will make use of it for file requesters. Support for the ASL library under AmigaDOS2.0 has now been added to AmigaFax. It is used in preference to ARP. 2.5 Extra FONTS Some extra fonts have been included in the FaxFonts directory. You may let the installation script copy them into your FONTS: directory, or under AmigaDOS2.0 you may copy them into another directory, and modify your startup to extend the FONT: assign to that directory. The extra fonts are from the Computer Modern series, as used with TEX. 2.6 Printer Setup AmigaFax currently uses the standard printer driver, as configured in Pref- erences. A future update may allow you to override the default settings via the configuration file. Using a dot-matrix printer, Halftone Dithering, Integer Scaling, Black and White, Density 7 appears to work reasonably well. 2.7 Configuring for Hardware and User Preferences You will need to modify the file FAXLIB:Config to suit your specific hard- ware and preferences. See Chapter 3 for details on how to do this. Chapter 3 Configuring the System =========== The file FAXLIB:Config is used to configure the basic operation of AmigaFax to suit your particular hardware and preferences. You must edit this file carefully, using a text editor. You should always keep a backup copy of this file. The configuration options are continually being added to as AmigaFax grows, so if you are upgrading you should look at the latest copy. This will NOT overwrite your existing configuration as part of the installation process. From version 1.30, AmigaFax configuration can be done using local or global environmental variables. This will override the values read in from the FAXLIB:Config file. For example typing from the CLI/Shell SetEnv LocalID +61-52-786355 will override the LocalID string with the new number. 3.1 General Configuration o Debug Debug level, 0-9. Takes one numeric argument. Useful for fault- finding, observing handshake between the Amiga and your FaxModem. o LogFile Specifies the file for logging debug and error information. If not given, information will not be logged. o LocalID The rest of the line is used as the local identifier string, which is passed to the remote fax machine. This is usually your fax number, and is limited to 20 characters. o Device The device to use for connecting to the modem, usually serial.device (default). This should only be changed if using a different serial de- vice, as with a third-party serial hardware. o Unit Takes one numeric parameter as the unit number to use on the given device. Default is 0. For example when using the first port on the A2232 multi-serial, set this to 2. 3.2 AmigaFax User Interface These items are used by the afax program. o Editor The name of the your prefered text editor, for example TxEd, ced, memacs, dme, mg, or Ed (default). I use mg (MicroGnuEmacs). o ILBMEditor The editor you prefer for editing IFF ILBM graphics, for example dpaint. o Template The name of a file to use as a template for building fax documents, If given, the editor will be given a copy of this file to work on when you ask for a new fax file. This may include references to your address, your signature, etc. 3.3 Fax Page Layout Options These items are used by the mkafax program. o DefaultFont This is the default font, used for normal text unless otherwise spec- ified. It takes two parameters, the font name, and size. The font cmtt10 41 looks quite good for standard text. o HeaderFont This is the font used for page headers. o PHeader If given, a header will be printed on each fax page, and the rest of the line used as the main text, along with the date, local ID string, and page number. If not given, no header will be printed. o LeftIndent The left indentation (border) to be used, in pixels. Many fax machines will not print to the full fax width, and typically an indentation of at least 50 pixels (approx 1/4 inch) on each size is required to avoid losing characters. o RightIndent The right indentation (border) to be used, in pixels. 3.4 Fax Viewer Configuration These items are used by the viewafax program. o ViewScale Takes one numeric argument, 1-8. This is the default scale used by the fax viewer when it starts up. A value of three allows a standard fax to fit across the screen. A scale of 1 shows maximum detail. 3.5 Fax Printer Configuration These items are used by the afaxprt program. o MinLines Takes one numeric argument. This is the minimum number of lines that must be on a fax page before we print it. The default value is 0 (zero), meaning print all pages. This is for cut-sheet feeders (Laser Printers), where the fax may be just a little longer than one page. Use a value of around 100 here to stop getting `blank pages' printed out. 3.6 Fax Spooler Configuration These items are used by the afaxspl program. o SpoolInterval This is the time interval, in minutes, at which the outbound fax queue is scanned for untransmitted files. 3.7 Fax Receiver Configuration These items are used by the faa program. o RSetup The receive setup string. This optional string is sent to the modem. Unlike versions before 1.23, the string is NOT preceded by AT. In- stead, the line is sent as it appears. This allows multiple commands to be sent when initializing the modem. This allows you to add com- mands to set such things as speaker use and volume. o RStatus Receive Status. If present, a status window will pop up when a fax is being received, showing various details such as name, connect speed, transmitter ID, amount of data received. It takes two optional nu- meric parameters, which are used for the top and left edge pixel po- sitions to place the window. o DLEmode There are many incompatible modems and modem ROM revisions about. This allows you to specify certain things about how your FaxModem sends your data. It currently takes one numeric argument, (0, 1 or 3). - 0 (default) treat DLE in received data as escape (Maestro 3.1, ZyXEL 3.99+) - 1 Received DLE is g3 data (ZyXEL Vn3.90, Supra?) - 3 RAW input mode. Data is saved raw. For debug only. 3.8 Fax Transmitter Configuration These items are used by the afaxsend program. o WSetup The transmit setup string. This optional string is sent to the modem. As in the RSetup line, the line is sent to the modem as it appears (since 1.23). This allows you to add commands to set such things as speaker use and volume. 3.9. MODEM COMMAND AND STATUS STRINGS 13 o DialType Takes the parameters Pulse (default) or Tone. o DialPrefix Prefix to add before number when dialling. I use it to get an outside line (dials 0 first), by setting it to ATDP0,DT, which will pulse-dial 0, then tone-dial the rest of the number. o DoPadding This should not be necessary. However, some FaxModems to not ob- serve the minimum scan-time restrictions set by the standard. When connecting to slower fax machines, this may result in missed scan- lines. Note that if you set this parameter, it will usually result in fax transmissions taking longer, as worst-case padding must be added. o WStatus Write Status. If present, a status window will pop up when a fax is being transmitted, showing various details such as name, connect speed, receiver ID, percent of file sent. It takes two optional numeric parameters, which are used for the top and left edge pixel positions to place the window. 3.9 Modem Command and Status Strings Certain modem commands and status codes have now been made variable. The variables default to their own value, and may be set in the Config file, or as environment variables. eg setenv +FLID +FLI will result in the string +FLI rather than +FLID being used for setting the local ID code. Variables are: o Status - +FCON Fax connect established - +FCSI Called station identifier follows - +FTSI Transmitting station identifier follows - +FDCS Current session parameters follow - +FK - +FPTS - +FHNG Fax hangup (terminal) o Command - +FDT Fax Data Transmit (I am about to transmit) - +FDR Fax Data Receive - +FLID Local ID string follows o Dual Use - +FET Fax End of Transmission (Followed by status code) - +FDIS Constrain session parameters Chapter 4 The Workbench Interface =========== Once configured, AmigaFax may be operated either from a Shell or CLI (Command Line Interface), or from the Workbench. If you choose to operate from the Workbench, you will find three main icons, `AmigaFax', `FaxAutoAnswer' and `FaxSpool'. 4.1 AmigaFax When you double-click on the `AmigaFax' icon, the main AmigaFax control window will open. This allows you to edit, compile and view faxes, queue them for transmission, review previously queued transmissions, and so forth. There are currently six string gadgets, six pushbutton gadgets, and one toggle gadget on the control window. The gadget functions are: o FINE/STD This toggle gadget allows the user to toggle between Fine (200 DPI) and Standard (100 DPI) vertical resolution, when creating AFax files. Standard resolution takes half the space, and half the time to trans- mit, of Fine mode, but Fine looks MUCH nicer !! o To: This is the intended recipient of the Fax. It may be just a phone number, or it may be an alias. When you enter a string and press return, if the first character is a digit it will be treated as a number, otherwise it will be checked for aliases. If no aliases are found, the string is removed, otherwise the number of aliases found is shown. Refer to section A.1 for more information on aliases. o From: This is picked up from the LocalID field in your Config file, if present. You may override this value. It is a 20 character string sent to the remote Fax to identify you as the sender, usually your phone number for return faxes. o Source: This is the name of the fax source document, usually an AmigaFax command (.FCOM) file, although plain text or ILBM files may also be used. If you press return with an empty string, and ARP is installed, a requester will prompt you for a filename. o AFAX: This is the name for the actual fax file. The system will usually pick a name for you, but you may wish to override it. Note that the AFAX file name will be reserved, but not actually created, until time to send the Fax. You may force creation with the "Make" gadget if you wish to test that it is created correctly. If a document is to be faxed to multiple recipients, only one copy of the AFAX file will be made. It is automatically deleted when all recipients have been reached. o Tries: The maximum number of times to try to get a fax through to a specific recipient if problems are encountered, such as remote phone being engaged. Defaults to three. o Time: The Fax will not be sent until after this time. An empty field means send at any time. Fill in as hh:mm, (24 hour format) then press return. The system will interpret the time, and display the result. Time can only be in the future, past time is rounded up by a day. o New Create a new Fax document, and edit it using your configuration editor. The file pointed to by the configuration entry "Template" will be used as a fax pro-forma. The system will pick a default document name for you, which you may keep or override. o Edit Edit a Fax document, using your configuration editor. Note that you may set both a text and a graphic editor in your config file. o Make The system will attempt to build an AFAX file from your source document. This is not necessary when sending faxes, but does allow you to check whether the document will appear as you wish. o Preview Invokes the AFAX viewer program, so you can preview the completed document. o Send Your facsimile document will be queued for sending to the appropriate recipients. If the fax-spooler is not running, you will be asked if you wish to start it. o QCheck This gadget will bring up the queue check window, to monitor the progress of outgoing Faxes. From here it is possible to requeue Faxes that have exceeded their error allowance, and to remove the spool files for faxes that have been successfully sent, or that are still queued for transmission. 4.2 FaxAutoAnswer This icon will activate the background automatic-answer facility. If it is already operating, you will get the choice of removing the existing applica- tion (stopping it), or replacing it with the new version. You may wish to replace it if you have modified the configuration file settings. Note that you should only activate the auto-answer system in this fash- ion if you are not using the GETTY mode of operation, and only want to receive facimile transmissions, not data. 4.3 FaxSpool This icon will activate the background fax-spooler program. If it is already operating, you will get the choice of removing the existing application (stop- ping it), or replacing it with the new version. Note that in normal operation the main AmigaFax program will start the spooler for you when you queue a fax for transmission, or you will run it up automatically in your startup sequence. You may wish to replace it if you have modified the configuration file settings. Chapter 5 Operating from the Shell =========== There are 11 separate executable modules included in the release. o afax Intuitionized interface for AFAX create/edit/send etc o newfax Notifies new fax received, allows print/view/delete, etc [Intuitionized interface] o afaxspl Fax spooler daemon, many options/features o mkafax Convert documents to AmigaFax AFAX IFF file format o afaxprt Print and AmigaFax AFAX IFF file using preferences printer o afaxsend Send an AmigaFax AFAX IFF file to a remote Fax machine o faa Receive Fax documents in auto-answer mode o afaxilbm Convert pages from an AmigaFax AFAX IFF file to ILBM format o viewafax FAX viewer o fxfx Manipulates fax files o dvifax Converts TEX.dvi file to fax format (Registered version only) 5.1 AFAX AFAX:c/afax - no command line switches at present. This brings up a win- dow which you can use to create new Fax documents, edit the documents, create the actual AFAX files, and send your faxes. 5.2 NEWFAX AFAX:C/newfax faxname This program is automatically invoked by faa when a fax is received. It puts up a window informing you of the Fax, with details about it (name, sender ID, number of pages), and allows you to view, print or delete the document. 5.3 AFAXSPL [run >nil: <nil:] afax:c/afaxspl [-s] [-i n] With the -S option, the spooler will run once only, checking for any faxes waiting to be spooled out. In this mode, it could be launched using cron/dcron/amicron at whatever times you wish to send faxes. Otherwise it will run in background and check for faxes to spool at in- tervals of every n minutes, where n is the interval in minutes from the con- figuration file default, optionally overridden by the -i command-line switch. You could do this perhaps every 1/2 hour, (n = 30), or even at 1 minute intervals while testing. The spooler checks for files of the form FAXSPOOL:*.SPL. These are human-readable. As calls progress, results are added to the end of the file. If successfully sent, the file is renamed FAXSPOOL:*.OK . If unsuccessful for more than the specified number of tries, it is renamed FAXSPOOL:*.ERR . Note that you can re-spool a .ERR file by using an editor to increase the allowed tries, then renaming it back to .SPL . 5.4 MKAFAX mkafax <docfilename> <AFAX_filename> mkafax currently recognizes the IFF file types AFAX and ILBM, plain text files, and AFAX command text files, as input. A plain text file will be converted to an AFAX file using default settings. An IFF ILBM will be converted to a single-page FAX document. Only the first plane is converted, to convert multi-plane (eg DigiView Pics) use another tool, such as PfiltView (AmigaTeX). May integrate later ? An AFAX command file uses lines starting with a dot (.) as special commands, similar to TROFF style text processors. The file MUST start with .FCOM on the first line. 5.5 AmigaFax Command File Format An AFAX command file uses lines starting with a dot (.) as special com- mands, similar to TROFF style text processors. The file MUST start with .FCOM on the first line. .FCOM on the first line to be recognised as a command file. .FCOM may optionally be followed by a dialstring or target alias. (Currently unused, future compatability) Other commands currently supported are : .PG Clear out the old page and start a new one .LM n Set the left margin to n characters, in the current font .LI n Set the left indentation to n pixels (default 50) .RI n Set the right indentation to n pixels (default 50) .LJ Left-justify text and Graphics from now on .RJ Right Justify text and Graphics .CT Center Text and Graphics .TS n Set Tabs every n characters (default 8) .PL n Set page length to n (pixel) rows (default 2292 == A4) .FILL Turn on fill mode .NOFILL Turn off fill mode .VERBATIM All text read in will be printed verbatim, until .ENDVERB .VERBINC filename Include a file in verbatim mode. Still requires a .ENDVERB .ENDVERB End verbatim mode .FONT name size Set the font as specified. Typical use might be .FONT topaz 11 .FONT diamond 20 .FONT cmr10 30 and so on. . (dot followed by white-space) Rest of line is a comment .INC file Include the named file. File may be text, ILBM, or another command file. Type is auto-recognised. If a full path is not given to the include file, the current directory will be searched, then the FAXLIB: directory. Thus addresses, signatures, etc may be kept in FAXLIB: .DATE Insert a line with the current date and time, using current font and line settings. Any line not beginning with a . will be processed as normal text, ac- cording to the current settings. 5.5.1 Fill Mode In this mode, lines will be filled from input to full width (inside LR indent) in the current font. Line filling terminates on a dot command, blank line, or end of page. Left Margin is disabled while filling. See the included test.com file for examples of useage. 5.6 AFAXSEND afaxsend [-t -d -P] <dialstring_alias> <AFAX_filename> eg afaxsend Jeff MyFaxFile 5.7. AFAXPRT 23 -D name - Use name for the device (default serial.device) -U num - Use device unit num (default 0) -t - Use Tone Dialing -P - Padding on (default) -p - Padding off Attempts to dial out, connect to the remote fax machine, and tranfer the specified document. If the first character of dialstring is not a digit, and not a name alias, the whole string will we be sent to the modem non-prefixed as a dial string. If an alias is used, it may be a group alias, resulting in the fax being sent to everyone in that group. 5.7 AFAXPRT afaxprt [-pnum] <AFAX_filename> eg afaxprt -p2 MyFaxFile If the -p option is not used, all pages are printed. Sends the AmigaFax document to the preferences printer. It is a good idea to set your printer for high density. Using a dot-matrix, Halftone Dithering, Integer Scaling, Black and White, Density 7 appears to work ok. Note that this has not been extensively tested with printers other than the HPLJIII and the Star NX10. 5.8 FAA faa [BaseName] Fax auto-answer. Sets up the FaxModem to auto-answer and recognise Fax or data tranmissions. Incoming Faxes will be saved in AFAX format. the default BaseName is FAXREC:FAX, so that incoming faxes will be named FAXREC:FAX0000 FAXREC:FAX0001 FAXREC:FAX0002 etc. Note also that although faa recognises the difference between Fax and Data, it currently does nothing special with data. I hope to integrate this with the UUCP system in the future. Any other suggestions ? To terminate the faa program, send it a CTL_C break. If you ran it directly from your shell, just type control-C and wait. If you used RUN or RUNBACK, send a break to its process number. (eg break 7 all) Command Line switches are: -dn - Set debug on, level n (default 1) -D name - Use name for the device (default serial.device) -U num - Use device unit num (default 0) -a - Immediate Answer -G - Run from a Getty -z - Diagnostic, do not detach, so debug messages can be read The Immediate Answer switch assumes phone is ringing, configures the modem & answers immediately. It probably makes sense to attach this to an alias if you use it this way. eg. alias fa "faa -a" The Getty option specifies that faa was run from a Getty. It will not modify the serial port parameters. It assumes that the Getty has answered the phone, detected a Fax call, and set up the line accordingly. Faa will connect, collect a Fax document, and return control to the Getty. 5.9 AFAXILBM afaxilbm [-pnum] <AFAX_filename> <ILBM_filename> eg afaxilbm -p2 RAM:AFAXR001 FX.ILBM This will extract the specified page from the AFAX file to the named ILBM file. It may then be viewed using standard ILBM viewing programs, such as LoadImage from Fish disks 281 and 355, of programs like Deluxe- Paint. If no page number is given, all pages will be extracted to separate files, and given names of the format base.1 base.2, etc The default ILBM file base name is afax_ilbm 5.10 VIEWAFAX viewafax [opts] <FaxFile> The fax viewer is normally started automatically by from the NewFax win- dow. When invoked from the CLI, it takes the options: -d debug_level -p Page_Number -s Scale The current version of the viewer keeps one entire fax page in memory. If the page will not fit in the requested scale, it tries to reduce the resolution until it finds one that will fit. Once a page is displayed, you can move about the page using the arrow keys. There is a scale gadget at the top left of the window, in the form of 1:n, where n is the current scale (say 3). You can click on the gadget, delete the current scale, and enter your own, in the range 1 to 8, where 1 is 1:1 (full size), 2 is 1:2 (half size) etc. To the right of that gadget is another of the form Page: n where n is the current page displayed. Again you may enter the required page number in this gadget. To the top right of the window is a group of gadgets of the form | << -- >> |. These are actually four gadgets, which allow moving through the pages of the fax. From left to right they are First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, and Last Page. You may use the windows sizing gadget to resize the window. However with the current viewer, sizing the window larger than the fax page will result in the window shrinking to the page size at the next movement. Several keys are active in the viewer window. o Down Arrow (Cursor Key or Numeric Pad) Move window down fax page. o Up Arrow (Cursor Key or Numeric Pad) Move window up fax page. o Right Arrow (Cursor Key or Numeric Pad) Move window right on fax page. o Left Arrow (Cursor Key or Numeric Pad) Move window left on fax page. o Numeric pad keys 1,3,7,9 Diagonal window movement o i Flip fax page vertically. Useful when faxes are sent upside-down. o q Quit from viewer o b Move back on page in fax file o n Move to next page in fax file o f Move to first page in fax file o e Move to end page in fax file o s Make fax smaller - reduce scale one step o l Make fax larger - increase scale one step 5.11 FXFX This utility allows you to split and merge AFAX format fax files. A typical use is where you have a complete fax document, perhaps generated by TeX- >dvifax, or received as an AFAX fax-file and you want to sent it with an attached cover page, or you want to extract one or more pages from the document. The command-line format is: fxfx infile [-range] [infile[-range]] [...] outfile Some examples: fxfx file1 file2 copies fax files file1 to file2 fxfx file1 file2 file3 file4 merges all pages from file1-3 to create file4 fxfx file1 file2 -1,3,5-7,9- file3 -4 file4 merges all pages from file1, pages 1,3,5-7 and 9 on from file2, and page 4 from file3, to create file4 The range is currently sorted, so to reverse page order is currently not simple, eg fxfx file1 -3 file1 -2 file1 -1 file2 to create file2 from pages 1-3 of file1 in reverse order. 5.12 DVIFAX This module works with the AmigaTeX package from Radical Eye Software, to enable you to convert a TEX.dvi file into an AmigaFax fax file. The command line syntax is dvifax file.dvi -o file.afx You will be prompted for various size and scaling numbers. You are probably best to accept the default values (hit return) unless you have a very good idea what you are doing. The Squeeze Fax option will remove all white-space from the top and bottom of each page. This can result in significant savings in transmission time, and in fax paper at the other end. When creating faxes with dvifax, you may want to add a cover page. This can be done easily with the fxfx utility. Appendix A ============ Configuration Specifics A.1 FAXLIB:Aliases This file allows you to alias numbers to names, create fax mailing groups, etc. Aliases may be defined in terms of other aliases. For example we could have: joe: 1234596 fred: 9876123 bill: 0981234 andy: "0,123-4567,,," customers: joe, fred, bill Lines beginning with # are treated as comments, a comma means the alias list continues. If you want to include spaces or commas in an alias (commas are a way of inserting delays into a dial-string), you should surround the aliased number with double quotes. Adding coma-delays at the end of a dial string can be useful when dialing numbers that take a long time to respond, avoiding possible timeouts. The alias system is modelled closely on the one used in Matt Dillon's UUCP package. See UUCP documentation for more details. Thanks, Matt. A.2 FONTS AmigaFax can use all the standard Amiga fonts. Under AmigaDOS2.0 the ability to perform font-scaling means that you can generate quite impressive documents very easily. The AmigaFax distribution also includes a selection of larger sized fonts from the Computer Modern series, which again allows very high quality faxes to be produced. These were generated from standard TEXfonts using the TEXF program. Note that these fonts do not contain the umlaut characters commonly used in Europe. These include the fonts cmr10, cmbx10, cmssbx10 and cmtt10 in sizes from 29 to 103. I would suggest that anyone using AmigaDOS 2.0 use the standard Amiga fonts. Even Topaz scaled to 30 point size or greater comes out quite effectively. Play around until you find a setup you like. Appendix B ============ Integration with other software B.1 UUCP AmigaFax was designed from the beginning to integrate with UUCP, in particular with Matt Dillon's AmigaUUCP1.15D. Using the modified Getty program provided, a Fax call will be recognised, and the Fax auto-answer program will be called to handle it. Normal logins and UUCP connections should function as usual. Other facilities, such as network fax-server capability, can be provided to enhance the basic AmigaFax system. B.2 TeX We have written a dvifax program, which will take a standard TEX .dvi file, and transform it to an AmigaFax file, with superb quality output. This is now provided with the distribution. B.3 PostScript PostScript support is not yet in place, but it is on the list. Priority given depends on demand. B.4 Printer Driver An AmigaFax printer-driver is also high on the list of things to do. This will allow any program that normally produces output using the standard Amiga Preferences printer to produce AmigaFax files as output. B.5 BBS Systems The FifoBBS BBS system for VLT is no longer distributed with AmigaFax. There several BBS systems that should work well alongside AmigaFax, the one we are currently using at C-Born is TransAmiga. This is a freely distributable shareware package which also supports FidoNet. It is available from several sources, including Amiga ftp sites. See the file BBSREADME in the distribution disk BBS directory for more details. =========================================================================== Appendix C ============ FaxModem Specifics C.1 ZyXEL U-1496 The ZyXEL U-1496 provides data rates to v32bis and higher, with v42bis er- ror correction and compression. It is capable of facsimile data rates greater than 9600bps, currently up to 14400bps. ZeroOne makes ROM upgrades available through their BBS, with frequent upgrades. They are very helpful and responsive to customer requests. The latest ROM version we have used is V5.00. With this ROM, it is possible to lock the DCE/DTE data rate for fax with the sequence ATS38=8S18=n, where n is the DTE speed as per the S20 register list, eg 2 for 38.4Kbps, 3 for 19.2Kbps. There is a Voice-mode ROM for the ZyXEL currently in Beta-test. When this is released, we will try to integrate it with AmigaFax. this will allow you to send and receive voice messages, as well as fax and data calls, all from your Amiga. A few more tips on configuration, with getty. In my standard startup line I have been setting the page-length to A4, as my printer is A4, which is the standard here. However, it appears that my fax (and most others) when appending their header/footer lines, force the page past A4. This has not been a problem in the past, but now the U1496 must be obeying the page-length setting, and forces out an extra very short page for each A4 page. This causes handshake problems, etc. So for now, the best solution seems to be setting up for unlimited page- length. The AmigaFax software has no problem with this, but your printer may, if single-sheet type. Another option allows fax data-rates greater than 9600. Not many fax machines support this yet, but we may as well use it, just in case. The +FDCC options are as follows: +FDCC=1,5,0,2 ^ ^ ^ ^ | | | +- Page Length: 0=A4(297mm) 1=B4(364mm) 2=unlimited | | +--- Page Width : 0=1728 Pixels in 215mm (Current AmigaFax Limit) | +----- Bit Rate : 0=2400 1=4800 2=7200 3=9600 4=12000 5=14400 +--------Vert. Res. : 0=Normal(98 lpi) 1=Fine(196 lpi) Other options cover compression format, error correction mode, binary file transfer, and scan time. These are not yet supported, probably not until the standards are finalized. The line I use to start up Getty is: RunBack Getty -Mh -B19200 -x8 -F6 AT&C1&D3+FDCC=1,5,0,2 As I have the FaxModem running from a AS2232 multiport serial card, with a maximum baud rate of 19200, I must limit the DCE/DTE rate to that. C.2 Maestro 9600XR This is a low-cost Australian made 2400bps data, 9600bps send/receive fax modem, based on the Exar chipset. It does not allow DCE/DTE rate lock- ing, and as of the latest version ROMs we have, still has occasional problems in correctly synchronising to incoming fax data, resulting in `garbage data' faxes, and missing lines from the top of pages. These problems may have been fixed in later ROM versions, but we have not been notified of any up- grades. The modem software does not appear to observe specified line-scan delays, which may result in missing lines when transmitting to older/slower fax machines. A typical Getty startup-line for this modem is: RunBack Getty -Mh -B2400 -F AT&C1&D2+FDCC=1,3