Columbia Kermit/kermit.zip/newsgroups/misc.19951130-19960209/[e-mail] _Mon Dec 25 18:11:13 1995.msg

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From: [e-mail] (Frank da Cruz)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Subject: Re: Where's the mouse pointer? (K95)
Date: 25 Dec 1995 23:11:10 GMT
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 187
Message-ID: <4bnb2e$[e-mail]>
References: <4birjt$[e-mail]>
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In article <4birjt$[e-mail]>, Clarence Dold  <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> I just installed K-95.
> Aside from the rather silly DOS batch file use for setup,
>
It's not a DOS batch file -- it's a program, SETUP.EXE.  It does what it
needs to do.  Nevertheless, we will have a GUI installation program (that
does exactly the same thing, more or less, but looks prettier :-) soon,
since first impressions do indeed seem to count for much.

> ... everything moved cleanly.  After warning me that I should make sure
> that the Windows modem setup was correct, this batch file prompts me
> individually for each item that I just finished checking in the Windows
> setup, and then asks me to confirm each line with another carriage
> return...
>
We *could* say that because the accuracy of this information is so
important to the correct functioning of the program, that we make you go
through it again for safety.

But the fact is, as you have probably learned by now (by reading the
BUGS.DOS file), the Microsoft Telephony (TAPI) capability is not yet
active, and so Kermit 95 is presently unable to get this information from
Windows, as it should be able to do.  TAPI is an advertised and essential
feature of Kermit 95, and as soon as we can get it working, it will be
available to you as a patch, and the SETUP program will no longer have to
for this information.

> My Practical Peripherals modem is item 14 on the list.
> Or is it item 15?  They both read the same.
> Ah, 14 is really some modem that starts with "M", alphabetically just
> before "P", which really is item 15.
>
Oops!  Nobody reported this before -- you're right, it's a bug in the setup
program.  Item 14 is really Multitech; Item 15 is Practical Peripherals.
Thanks for noticing & reporting this one!

> The users' guide has enough typos to be distracting.  Didn't anyone
> read it?
>
We'd be happy to receive a list of the ones you've noticed.

> The default for the backspace is still DEL.  True, that is pure VT100,
> but nobody else has a default like that on a PC emulation program.
>
Well, that's arguable.  This one falls into the "you can't please
everybody" category.  As many readers know, some hosts and services want
you to send DEL (Rubout, ASCII 127) to erase a character, others want you
to send Backspace (ASCII 8).  You can read the long story about this in
our FAQ:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/faq.html
  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/faq.txt

In any case, which default are you talking about?  Each Dialer entry has
its own setting for this.  If any of them are wrong, we'd like to know.

If you run K95.EXE without the Dialer, or you create a new Dialer entry
without cloning an existing one, then in that case we might say the
"default default" is DEL.  It has to be something.  You can change it on
a per-connection basis in the Dialer entry's keyboard page.  To change the
default for new entries, change it in the DEFAULT entry.  To change the
default when running K95.EXE without the Dailer, put:

  set key \264 \8

in your K95CUSTOM.INI file.  There is very little in Kermit 95 that you
cannot change to suit your preferences.

> 600+ entries in the supplied dialer directory?  Is that really a feature?
>
A lot of people think so.  You don't have to use them or keep them if you
don't want to (see notes in BUGS.DOC and in our FAQ).  But even then, many
of them make good models that people use for creating their own entries
quickly.  It's easier than issuing sixty SET commands, no?

> A small DOS box as the default connection screen?
> It's a 32-bit Win95 Console, not DOS?
>
It is a 32-bit Windows 95 console window.  There is nothing DOS about this
program.  It is indeed unfortunate that it *looks* like DOS (and that
Windows insists on inserting the DOS icon into the Title bar, even though
K95.EXE has its own built-in icon), but that's how Windows 95 consoles look.

> Then why can't I close it with a click on the close button, without
> getting a DOS-like warning?
>
Windows 95 does not pass the Close message to console applications.

Clearly, there are many disadvantages to console mode.  In our FAQ we
discuss our reasons for releasing Kermit 95 initially as a console
application.  Now we are working on converting it to a full GUI
application, which registered users will receive at no additional cost.

In the meantime, let's not forget what the program actually *does*, as
compared with how it looks.  See the comparisons of Kermit 95 with other
Windows 95 and NT communication applications on the Kermit 95 Web page:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html

> I really thought I wouldn't mention any of the above, since it does
> _work_, but if I weren't a Kermit user of 12+ years, I would have taken
> it back, and used PCPlus 2.1 instead.  The ZModem, Kermit, and FTP
> transfers are each faster than the K-95 versions, in spite of the fact
> that PCPlus is a 16 bit program.
>
We benchmarked Procomm Plus 2.0 against Kermit a couple years ago and did
not find this to be true.  We have not yet had the opportunity to run
benchmarks against version 2.1.  But we did perform benchmarks against
HyperTerminal 1.0 using a V.34 modem connection with the following
results (see http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95hyper.html for details):

                        HyperTerminal     Kermit 95

  Kermit Text file:         557 cps       5573 cps
  Kermit ZIP file:          453 cps       3206 cps
  Zmodem Text file:        5148 cps       5461 cps
  Zmodem ZIP file:         3241 cps       3263 cps

What did you get with Procomm?

> Anyway...  The real reason for this call is that I can't find my
> mousie ;-)  Marking and pasting seems to work (although the wisdom
> of reinventing cut and paste in a program that can only be run under
> windows escapes me).
>
Kermit 95 includes its own mouse handler that lets you do things faster
than Windows would (such as select-and-paste in one movement) and that
lets you do things that Windows does not let you do (such as steer the
terminal cursor as if you were punching arrow keys lots of times).  These
things are documented on pages 55-58 of "Kermit 95".  If you do not like
Kermit 95's mouse features, you can bypass them by using the Windows
editing buttons on the Toolbar.

> The little yellow highlighting appears when I mark
> something, and I can easily paste it into another window.  I only read
> the book once, so I can't remember how to paste into the Kermit window.
>
It's in there.  Granted it might not be totally intuitive, but once you
learn it, it becomes very handy: Hold down the Ctrl key, use mouse button
1 to select the desired text, release button 1.  The selected text is
transmitted.

If you select without holding down the Ctrl key, the text goes to the
Windows Clipboard.  Then you can still paste the selected text with
Shift-Insert, as in other Windows apps.

If you don't happen to like these particular physical mechanisms, you can
change them.  Kermit 95's mouse actions are fully remappable to any mouse
buttons -- or keys! -- and any combination of mouse buttons or keys with
Ctrl, Alt, or Shift.

> But there is no mouse pointer.  I have to guess where it is.  Actually,
> I just start marking wherever I am, and drag the highlight to where I
> want to start, then let go, and begin a mark again.  Tacky as hell, but
> then this is K95, and I truly believe I must get used to it.
>
I'm not sure what you mean here -- The Windows mouse pointer is fully
operative and in evidence.  The only difference between Kermit marking and
Windows marking is the shape and coloration of the selected text: Kermit
95's built-in selection mechanism strips trailing blanks, rather than the
Windows style "select a rectangle and fill empty spaces with blanks".  The
Kermit way turns out to be more useful in a communications setting, but
you don't have to use it if you don't want to -- just use the Mark, Copy,
and Paste buttons on the toolbar.

> I just discovered that a K95 telnet connection, via PPP under Win95,
> doesn't count as "activity" to Winsock.  I got a box indicating that my
> line had been idle for 20 minutes, did I want to disconnect?  This
> happens with PCPlus, but that isn't a 32 bit program, so it doesn't
> interface properly with Winsock.  Usage does seem to update the count of
> characters in the little modem box in the task bar.
>
> Probably to be dismissed as a Win95 bug.  Certainly not the fault
> of Kermit.
>
Not necessarily a bug in Windows 95 or anywhere.  TCP/IP in general, and
Winsock in particular, do not have any special low-level "keep alive"
mechanism.  The only way to tell if a connection is alive is for the
application itself to send or read data.  But it's not necessarily the
place of a terminal program to do this automatically on your behalf.

Perhaps there is some setting in the Windows 95 Registry you can change to
eliminate the warning box, or adjust the trigger to a time interval that
you like better.

- Frank