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Text File | 1985-05-15 | 15.6 KB | 302 lines

Documentation for TMODEM TMODEM is short for Turbo Modem. A communications program for IBM Personal Computers and compatible units. The author, Paul Meiners, and his company, P & M Software, reserve 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. $20 is recommended. Send donations to the following address: P & M Software Company 9350 Country Creek #30 Houston, Texas 77036 In addition, the user is granted the right to make unlimited copies of the program and to distribute these copies as he desires, except that the author reserves the sole right to distribute the program for profit. The user may ask for a duplication charge, not to exceed $5 per copy. Features: 1. Limited VT-100 emulation. 2. ANSI.SYS style color graphics. 3. BASIC style PLAY for single voice music. Nice, but due to PASCAL's limited sound capability, it plays in foreground, so the serial input buffer may wrap around while the music plays. The serial input buffer contains 5k bytes. 4. Fully buffered, interrupt driven, serial I/O. 5. XMODEM file transfer. 6. Removable window subsystem. 7. Telephone directory, with up to 999 entries. 8. File capture, limited ONLY by the amount of available memory. 9. ASCII file transmission, using XON/XOFF protocol. 10. Utility package of BASIC style procedures and functions. 11. Full control of all communication parameters. 12. 40 macro keys, to store logon, passwords, etc. Most of the features of the program are self-documenting, however for the sake of the novice user, some explanation is necessary. The program is distributed in .COM, 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, TM. Once the user has successfully executed the program, the copy- right notice will appear, and the user will be asked if music is wanted, strike a "y" if you want music, if not, then strike any other key. The on-line screen will then appear. At the bottom of the online screen appears a reminder of the most frequently used commands. These commands may be selected by depressing and holding the ALT key along with the indicated ALPHA key. If the user needs a command that does not appear on the screen, a complete list of available commands can be obtained by selecting ALT-H. Commands may be selected while the HELP screen is still on screen, so that the user does not need to call up the HELP screen repetitively. Here is a brief description of each command: ALT-T .... Terminate and return to DOS. If other windows are open on the screen, this command will be deferred until all windows have been closed. ALT-R .... Receive a file using XMODEM protocol. ALT-X .... Transmit a file using XMODEM protocol. ALT-A .... Transmit a file using the ASCII XON/XOFF protocol, where the DC1 character is used for XON and the DC3 character is used for XOFF. ALT-C .... Turn capture mode ON if it is OFF, or OFF if it is ON. When this mode is turned OFF, either thru the ALT-C command or with the ALT-T command, the user will be prompted for a file name wherein to save the contents of the capture buffer. During capture mode operations, a '*' or 'W' will appear in the lower left corner of the screen. The '*' reminds the user that capture mode is ON, the 'W' warns the user that memory space is short. Capture mode will make use of all available memory. Capture mode is useful for recording complete sessions for review later, so you don't read so much on those long distance phone calls. ALT-L .... Display disk directory, under a user supplied mask. For example, to see all files on the logged drive and current directory, the user would enter the mask "*.*", when prompted. Or see just the files with an extension of .PAS by entering the mask "*.pas", when prompted. ALT-N .... Allows the user to change to a new logged drive and/or new current directory. ALT-V .... View the contents of a file, uses the same style as MORE, the DOS utility. Use the "End" key to stop the command. ALT-K .... Kill a file. Delete a file from the disk. ALT-Y .... Copy a file. This procedure will copy any unprotected file, however it copies in multiples of 128 bytes, so the resultant file may be a little longer than the original. This is OK for most applications, but some programs are sensitive to the lengths of files, in which case this procedure, probably, will produce unusable output. Also, filenames must be fully specified. No wildcards are allowed, ONLY the current drive and directory need not be specified. ALT-M .... Macro key management. Allows the user to define the contents of the function keys F1 thru F10, and all combinations of the function keys and shift, Ctrl or Alt. This gives the user 40 different macro keys. ALT-H .... Produces the HELP screen for the user. ALT-I .... Reconfigure the program, without exiting to DOS. The parameters listed below for the .CNF file can be changed via this command. ALT-S .... Switch communication parameters. The program starts with these default values: 1200 baud, No Parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit. Permissible values for the baud rate are: 300, 1200, 2400. 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 carrier is detected, unless the Forced Carrier config param is "TRUE". ALT-O .... Sort the dialing directory into ascending sequence by name or number. Performs a IN MEMORY sort, so there must be enough memory to hold all the phone directory entries. ALT-G .... Redial the last number dialed. This command will loop continuously until carrier is signaled by the modem, the Forced Carrier config param is 'TRUE', or the user presses a key. ALT-E .... Turn Half Duplex ON if it is OFF, or OFF if it is on. If Half Duplex is ON, then a 'H' will appear in the lower right corner of the screen to remind the user. ALT-Q .... Hang-up the phone line, put the modem "ON HOOK". Drops the terminal ready signal to the modem for 3 seconds and resets the UART. ALT-W .... Clear the screen. ALT-P .... Play a tune, at random, from the several tunes prestored in the program. ALT-F .... Fix time. That is, mark the current time so that you can measure time used, with the ALT-U command. ALT-U .... Used, time. Report the time used since the the last ALT-F command and the last dial of the phone or the start of the program, whichever occured last. Total elapsed time in hours, minutes and seconds, is reported. ALT-Z .... Toggle monitor mode on/off. The dialing management sub-section has a list of commands also: A = Add an entry to the dialing directory. C = Change an entry in the dialing directory. K = Kill an entry in the dialing directory, a sort of the directory is recommended after this option or the Add option. M = Dial a number not in the directory. D = Dial a number that is in the directory. S = Stop the modem, after it has dialed, but before it goes online. This allows you to dial another number when a previous number is busy, without waiting for the modem to timeout waiting for carrier. F = Display the next page of the directory. B = Display the previous page of the directory. Q = Quit, returns to the online screen. Note: When editing Phone Directory entries or Macro Key definitions, 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. ^End ......... Erase from the current cursor position to the end of the field. Home ......... Move the cursor to the start of 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. There are several files associated with the system. Here is a description of each: TM.COM ......... Absolute program. The one to execute. TM.DOC ......... This file. TMODEM.DIR ..... The phone directory, data file. TMODEM.KEY ..... Macro key definitions, data file. TMODEM.CNF ..... The configuration, data file. You may need to edit the configuration file, using EDLIN or other DOS compatible editor, so here is a detailed examination of the file: 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. The codes are: ST= Stopbits DA= Databits PA= Parity. 0=None,1=Even,2=Odd BA= Baud Rate. 300,1200 or 2400. WA= Number of ticks in 1/3 of a second, at 4.77 MHz clock. The value should be larger if the clock is faster. The units for the value is milleseconds, and it is used for waiting, hence the WA=. PR= Dialing Pre String. PO= Dialing Post String, use the | character where a RETURN is needed. MI= Modem initialization string. The default value, AT S0=0|, will cause the modem not to answer the phone. Again, use the | character where a RETURN is needed. SY= Modem command string to turn the speaker ON. SN= Modem command string to turn the speaker OFF. RT= After carrier timeout has occured, this is the time between redials, 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 param is provided mainly for people who wish to put the dialing directory on a RAM-disk. 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= Turns on limited VT-100 emulation, using the ANSI escape codes. Note: if VT-100 emulation is requested, music will not be played, and will show on the screen as text. This happens becuase of a conflicit between the full ANSI definition and the musical notes. * = Comment lines. Note: these entries may also be changed via the ALT-I command. For Example: ST=1 | DA=8 | PA=0 | BA=1200 | WA=333 | PR=ATDT | PO=| | MI=AT S0=0| | SY=AT M1| | The DEFAULT defaults! SN=AT M0| | RT=60 | FC=FALSE | CT=35 | DP=A:\ | XO=17 | XF=19 | VT=FALSE | If the program is used without a modem, using a direct cable connection, all the dialing and modem control strings in the config file should be set to empty strings, for example the line with the MI parameter should read, "MI=". Also, when using a direct cable connection, the FC parameter should be set to TRUE. The program has been written to use Hayes compatible commands with the modem. Because the program controls the modem via the DTR signal, Data Terminal Ready, the cable between the computer and modem must provide a connection for pin 20 and the modem should have the internal switches set so that the DTR signal is monitored. The program uses the Carrier Detect signal from the modem to detect when a call has been connected and when to stop redialing, for this reason the modem should have it's switches set so that the Carrier Detect signal is ONLY sent when present on the phone line. If this is not possible, set the FC= parameter, to TRUE.