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SERIAL 2.00 TABLE OF CONTENTS WHAT IS SERIAL? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 HOW TO USE SERIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 ERRORLEVELs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Quiet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Verbose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Enable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Disable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Uninstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 HotKey:{Letter} . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Row:{row} . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Column:{column} . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 COM1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 COM2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 COM3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 COM4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Port[:port] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 THE SERIAL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 THE HOTKEY (CTL-ALT-S) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 CAVEATS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 A WORD FROM THE SPONSOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 OTHER PROGRAMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 WARRANTY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 REVISION HISTORY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 SERIAL 2.00 Page 1 of 19 WHAT IS SERIAL? ═══════════════ SERIAL is a TSR (Terminate and Stay Resident) program that runs on an IBM-compatible computer. It uses just over 3500 bytes of RAM (Random Access Memory) when it is installed. SERIAL continuously shows the status of one of the SERIAL ports on your computer (COM1, COM2, COM3, COM4, or another special PORT of your choosing). What SERIAL shows you on the screen looks something like this: COM1 115200 N81 DtrDsrRtsCtsRiCd In this case, SERIAL is showing you the status of COM1. The bit rate (oft times mistakenly called the "baud rate") is currently 115200 bps (bits per second), No parity, 8 data bits, and 1 stop bit. The following bits are all currently set: Data Terminal Ready (DTR), Data Set Ready (DSR), Request To Send (RTS), and Clear To Send (CTS). The telephone is ringing (RI=Ring Indicator), and the far end modem is sending us a carrier (CD=Carrier Detect). If you have ever dealt much with SERIAL ports (especially modems), you know what a pain in the neck they can be. SERIAL communications is one of the most complicated things a computer can do, and it unfortunately can take a lot of "messing around" to get things to work correctly. SERIAL shows you, on screen, pretty much anything you may need to know about your SERIAL port that can help you find and fix problems. If you don't understand some of the terminology above (like "DTR", "carrier", or "baud"), you need to read about SERIAL communications from a book or magazine article dedicated to the subject - it is beyond the scope of this documentation. SERIAL can be moved anywhere on the screen at any time, or you can change the SERIAL port at any time, either by typing SERIAL [options] at the DOS command line, or by hitting the HOTKEY (the default HOTKEY is Ctl-Alt-S, see pages 9 and 12) after SERIAL is loaded in memory. I have seen other programs that are similar to SERIAL, but none of them worked exactly like I wanted them to. They would either put their information in a specific place on the screen and couldn't be moved or "turned off", would show only COM1, would not show all of the information needed (for instance, would not show the bit rate or parity information), or would not work in both DOS and Windows. SERIAL accomplishes all of these tasks in one program, and uses only a very small amount of memory to do it (around 3500 bytes of RAM). SERIAL 2.00 Page 2 of 19 HOW TO USE SERIAL ═════════════════ The most convenient way to use SERIAL is to load it into to memory every time you start your computer by putting a "SERIAL [options]" line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. SERIAL will then always be there when you want to know about one of your SERIAL ports. You can generally leave SERIAL DISABLEd (turned off or "hidden", see page 7) most of the time, since you usually don't care about your SERIAL ports. If you're having trouble with a SERIAL port, you can ENABLE (turn on or "unhide", see page 7) SERIAL until you get things figured out. You can move it anywhere on the screen or temporarily hide it at any time if it gets in your way. You can then DISABLE SERIAL again until you need it again. You can also (by making yourself a batch file) ENABLE SERIAL every time you start your communications program, so that any time you are working with your SERIAL ports you know what's going on. A batch file to do this for a communications program called "modem" might look like this: ECHO OFF C: CD \modem SERIAL /Enable IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO ERROR modem SERIAL /Disable REM Turn SERIAL off GOTO END :ERROR ECHO Error occurred while installing/updating SERIAL. :END CD \ If you don't know how to write Batch files, I strongly encourage you to learn - the ability to write and use Batch files will save you literally hours of work and frustration in years to come. Instead of just DISABLing SERIAL (page 7), you can also UNINSTALL SERIAL from memory completely (see page 7) if you don't need it any more. DISABLing SERIAL accomplishes the same thing, but UNINSTALLing SERIAL will free up about 3500 bytes of memory to use for other things. SERIAL can also be installed (loaded) into High Memory with DOS's LOADHI or LH command. SERIAL doesn't use very much memory anyway (about 3500 bytes), but installing it into High Memory (if you can) will leave you with even more memory for your other programs to use. Read your DOS manual if you want to learn more about memory management (LOADHI, EMM386, EMS, XMS, HMA, UMB, etc.). SERIAL 2.00 Page 3 of 19 SERIAL sets the following ERRORLEVELs after it executes, to give you an indication of what happened. If you don't understand the purpose or value of ERRORLEVELs, I suggest you read about them in your DOS manual. ╔════════════╦════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ERRORLEVEL ║ MEANING ║ ╠════════════╬════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣ ║ 0 ║ No problem - SERIAL was installed or updated OK ║ ║ 1 ║ Couldn't understand one or more of the Options ║ ║ 2 ║ Memory problem with the computer ║ ║ 3 ║ Tried UNINSTALL without SERIAL installed ║ ║ 4 ║ A different version of SERIAL was found in memory ║ ║ 5 ║ Incorrect DOS version (needs to be at least 3.0) ║ ╚════════════╩════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ SERIAL 2.00 Page 4 of 19 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS ════════════════════ SERIAL is fairly liberal in what it will accept as Options. All Options must be entered separately, and can either start with a "/" or a "-". Options that require a number or character to be entered as part of the Option (indicated by a ":" separator in the descriptions below) can either use a ":" or "=" as the separator. They can be upper or lower case, do not need to be separated by spaces, and can be entered in any order. If the same Option is entered twice with two different settings, or conflicting Options are entered, the last one entered takes precedence. Note also that there are usually several different ways to enter the same Option. For example, to DISABLE SERIAL (turn it off, page 7), you could type any of the following: SERIAL /D SERIAL /Disable SERIAL /Hide SERIAL /Off The Options all have a "shorthand" code ("/D" in this case) and one or more "longhand" codes ("/Disable", "/Hide", and "/Off" in this example). The shorthand codes take up much less room and are easier to type, but the longhand codes are probably easier to remember and to read. You can use whichever makes the most sense to you. For instance, the following are equivalent: SERIAL /D /E -R=1 -Column:1 SERIAL -Enable /row=1-c=1 SERIAL 2.00 Page 5 of 19 * /? * /Help /H Any of these options will pull up a HELP table which gives a quick summary of the possible command line Options for SERIAL. * /Q, /V * /Quiet /ShutUp * /Verbose /Talk These Options are complements of each other. The /Q (or /Quiet or /ShutUp) Option tells SERIAL not to write any status messages about what SERIAL is doing to the screen. The /V (or /Verbose or /Talk) Option tells SERIAL to write all of the status information to the screen. With the /V Option, any time you type SERIAL [options] at the command line, SERIAL tells you all kinds of things about the status of SERIAL in memory. Here's a typical example: COM Port: 1 User Port #: 03F8 Status: Enabled Graphics: No HotKey: Ctrl-Alt-S Placement: Row 1, Column 76 Look through the rest of the command line Options (below) if you need to know what all of this stuff means. With the /Q Option, none of this status information is shown on screen - SERIAL is QUIET. This status information tends to clutter up your screen if you call SERIAL a lot, but also gives you some information you may want to know. It's up to you whether you want SERIAL to show it or not. The default for SERIAL is /V (to be VERBOSE about things). If you want SERIAL to normally be QUIET, the best way is to put a "SET SERIAL=/Q" line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (see "THE SERIAL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE" section on page 11). Then SERIAL will normally be QUIET. If then, for some reason, you need to know the status of SERIAL, you can type "SERIAL /V" to get a one-time view of SERIAL's status. SERIAL 2.00 Page 6 of 19 * /E * /Enable /On /Show /Unhide Any of these Options will ENABLE SERIAL (turn it on, or "Unhide" it if it was hidden with a /D, directly below). When SERIAL is initially installed in memory, the default is /E (you can see the status of a SERIAL port on the screen). * /D * /Disable /Hide /Off Any of these Options will DISABLE SERIAL (turn it Off, or "hide" it). SERIAL still remains in memory when it is DISABLEd, but you can't see it. SERIAL can be UNINSTALLed from memory completely with the /U Option (directly below). * /U * /Uninstall /Remove Any of these Options will permanently UNINSTALL (or at least try to UNINSTALL) SERIAL from memory. Effectively, you can do the same thing ("hide" SERIAL) with a "SERIAL /D" (directly above), but "SERIAL /U" will free up about 3500 bytes of RAM on your machine to use for other things. SERIAL 2.00 Page 7 of 19 * /T, /G * /Text /TextOnly * /Graphics /Always There are two general categories of "modes" that a computer screen can be in: "text mode" and "graphics mode". When the screen is in a TEXT mode, SERIAL usually works very well and doesn't have any problems. When the screen is in a GRAPHICS mode, however, SERIAL doesn't always work correctly. There is a more detailed discussion of this in the "CAVEATS" section below (page 13). With /T, SERIAL handles this problem by only turning itself on when the screen is in a TEXT mode. If the screen is in a GRAPHICS mode, SERIAL automatically hides itself (just as if you had typed "SERIAL /D", page 7). When the screen goes back to a TEXT mode, SERIAL turns itself back on. With /G, SERIAL tries to be on all of the time, even when the screen is in a GRAPHICS mode. However, even with /G, you can't always see SERIAL. There are some programs that diligently fight what SERIAL is trying to do, and effectively hide SERIAL anyway. The default is /T (to only show SERIAL in TEXT modes). SERIAL does work with many GRAPHICS programs, but not all. The way I use SERIAL, I have a "SET SERIAL=/G" line in my AUTOEXEC.BAT file (see "THE SERIAL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE" below, page 11). That way SERIAL will come on even in GRAPHICS programs if I type the HOTKEY (see pages 9 and 12). Hopefully, a future release of SERIAL will have this GRAPHICS problem completely solved. Send me some ideas on things to try! SERIAL 2.00 Page 8 of 19 * /K:{Letter} * /HotKey:{Letter} /Key:{Letter} Any of these Options will tell SERIAL to change the HOTKEY from Ctl-Alt-S to Ctl-Alt-{Letter}. {Letter} must be a letter between A and Z. For example, to change the HOTKEY for SERIAL from Ctl- Alt-S to Ctl-Alt-Z, you could type one of the following: SERIAL /K:Z SERIAL /Key = Z SERIAL /HotKey:Z The HOTKEY is used to access SERIAL after it has been installed into memory (see "THE HOTKEY (CTL-ALT-S)" section below, page 12). This Option allows you to change the HOTKEY if it conflicts with one of your other programs, or if you for some reason just don't like the S. * /R:{row}, /C:{column} * /Row:{row} * /Col:{column} /Column:{column} These Options are how you locate SERIAL on the screen. You tell SERIAL to put itself at a specific ROW and/or COLUMN on the screen. ROW 1 is at the top of the screen, and COLUMN 1 is at the left of the screen. The ROW and COLUMN numbers can be anywhere between 1 and 1000 (I have never yet seen a screen with more than 63 ROWs or 132 COLUMNs, so I figure 1000 is a good maximum number to use). If you enter a number that is bigger than your actual screen size, SERIAL just puts itself at the appropriate edge of the screen. For example, say your screen is a standard 25 ROWs by 80 COLUMNs. If you enter a "SERIAL /Row:1 /Col:1000", SERIAL will be put in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. In general, you want to put SERIAL in a part of the screen that doesn't change a lot, and that isn't on top of where the text cursor might be while you are in the middle of a program (usually, somewhere on a program's "menu" line, if it has one, is a good place). The default location for SERIAL is the upper right-hand corner of the screen. SERIAL 2.00 Page 9 of 19 * /1, /2, /3, /4 * /COM1 * /COM2 * /COM3 * /COM4 These options are how you tell SERIAL which standard SERIAL port to show information about (COM1, COM2, COM3, or COM4). A computer can actually have more than four SERIAL ports, but COM1-COM4 are the only ones that have fixed, standard addresses that SERIAL knows for sure where to find. SERIAL will also let you look at non-standard SERIAL ports (see the PORT option directly below). The default is /1 (for SERIAL to show the information about COM1). * /P[:port] * /Port[:port] Either of these options are how you enter a non-standard serial PORT address, and/or have SERIAL start showing you information about the non-standard PORT address. The PORT address must be entered in hexidecimal. For example, let's say you have a special SERIAL PORT at address 02E8 (this is actually COM4, but let's pretend you don't know that). You can look at the status of this special PORT with SERIAL by typing one of the following: SERIAL /Port:02E8 SERIAL -Port = 02E8 SERIAL /P:2E8 SERIAL will then show you the status of this particular special PORT. Let's say you do this, and then jump over to look at one of the other SERIAL ports (COM1-COM4). Since you've already told SERIAL about your special PORT address, you don't need to tell it again. You can have SERIAL start showing you information about the special PORT again by simply giving SERIAL the PORT option without the address, as follows: SERIAL /Port or SERIAL /P The default special (User) PORT address is 03F8 (which is actually COM1). If you have some special PORT address that you always want SERIAL to look at, you should set the SERIAL environment variable up to do it for you automatically (see "THE SERIAL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE" section directly below, page 11). You can toggle SERIAL between showing you the standard COM1-COM4 ports and the special User PORT either with the command line options or with the HOTKEY (see pages 9 and 12). SERIAL 2.00 Page 10 of 19 THE SERIAL ENVIRONMENT VARIABLE ═══════════════════════════════ SERIAL also looks for an environment variable called SERIAL. This variable can have any of the command line Options listed above (starting on page 5), except /? (HELP, page 6) or /U (UNINSTALL, page 7), or their variations. SERIAL reads the Options from the environment variable SERIAL before it reads the Options on the DOS command line. Whatever Options you have for the SERIAL environment variable effectively become your "defaults", but can be overridden by an Option you type at the command line. This could be useful, for example, if you usually want to have SERIAL DISABLEd (hidden, page 7). If this were the case, you could put the line "SET SERIAL=/D" or "SET SERIAL=/Disable" in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file (before your "SERIAL [options]" command line, if you have one in your AUTOEXEC.BAT), and SERIAL will normally be DISABLEd. To ENABLE SERIAL, you would then either need to type "SERIAL /E" (see page 7) or Ctl-Alt-S,Enter (see pages 9 and 12). If you have anything in the SERIAL environment variable, SERIAL tells you what it is every time you type "SERIAL [options]". This will remind you of your "default" settings in case SERIAL does something you don't expect (usually, if SERIAL does something unexpected, it's because you changed the "default" settings with the SERIAL environment variable and forgot what you did!). If you don't know what an "environment" is, or what it is used for, I suggest you read about it in your favorite DOS book. SERIAL 2.00 Page 11 of 19 THE HOTKEY (CTL-ALT-S) ══════════════════════ Any time SERIAL is installed in memory, you can "access" SERIAL by pressing a Ctl-Alt-S on the keyboard (pressing Ctl, then Alt, then S, holding all three down at the same time). If you have changed your HOTKEY (with "SERIAL /K:{Letter}", page 9), you access SERIAL with a Ctl-Alt-{Letter}. After you have "accessed" SERIAL, you can do almost everything you can do with a "SERIAL [options]" line from the DOS prompt. You can DISABLE or ENABLE SERIAL (page 7), toggle SERIAL between GRAPHICS and TEXT-only modes (page 8), move SERIAL anywhere on the screen (see the ROW and COLUMN options on page 9), and change the SERIAL port you are looking at (see the COM1-COM4 and PORT options on page 10). The only things you can't do are UNINSTALL it (page 7), change the HOTKEY (page 9), or change the special PORT address (page 10) - you have to be at the DOS command line and type "SERIAL [options]" to do these things. If you press the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S) on the keyboard, SERIAL stops showing you the SERIAL port status and instead shows you a list of the keys you can press to change or view things about SERIAL. If you press a key that doesn't make sense to SERIAL, it beeps at you. For example, if SERIAL is already at the right edge of the screen, SERIAL beeps at you if you try to move it any further to the right. The following keys are allowed to be typed after you press the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S): 1 - Changes SERIAL to show COM1 2 - Changes SERIAL to show COM2 3 - Changes SERIAL to show COM3 4 - Changes SERIAL to show COM4 P - Changes SERIAL to show the special (User) serial PORT address Arrow Keys - Moves SERIAL up, down, left, or right 1 space PgUp/PgDn - Moves SERIAL to the top/bottom of the screen Home/End - Moves SERIAL to the left/right edge of the screen Enter - Done changing things, keep showing SERIAL Esc - Done changing things, hide SERIAL Enter or Esc must be the LAST thing you type after the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S). When you type the Enter or Esc, SERIAL returns control of the keyboard back over to the computer so that you can keep running your programs. SERIAL 2.00 Page 12 of 19 CAVEATS ═══════ If SERIAL isn't anywhere on the screen when you think it should be, there are several possible reasons: 1. SERIAL was never installed into memory. Type "SERIAL [options]" at the DOS command line to install SERIAL into memory. 2. SERIAL was installed into memory, but was later UNINSTALLed (with a "SERIAL /U", page 7). Reinstall it by typing "SERIAL [options]". 3. SERIAL has been DISABLEd (with "SERIAL /D", page 7, or with the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S) followed by "Esc", page 12). You can reENABLE SERIAL with "SERIAL /E" (page 7) or Ctl-Alt-S,Enter (page 12). 4. The text cursor is underneath SERIAL on the screen. Any time the text cursor is in the same place on screen as SERIAL, SERIAL temporarily "hides" itself so that you can see what you're typing. When the text cursor moves out from underneath SERIAL, it "unhides" itself again. 5. The screen is in a "GRAPHICS" mode and you haven't told SERIAL to show itself during GRAPHICS screens (with a /G, page 8). SERIAL will only show itself on a TEXT mode screen unless you give it a /G. 6. The computer is running a GRAPHICS program (and you have enabled GRAPHICS with a /G, page 8), but the program won't let SERIAL be shown on the screen. Most programs don't have a problem with SERIAL, but some do. You will just have to try it and see. Sometimes the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S, page 12) doesn't do anything to SERIAL - SERIAL just sits there and ignores you. This happens when you are in the middle of a program that completely "takes over" the keyboard. Most programs allow you to use TSR's, like SERIAL, that have a HOTKEY (like SERIAL's Ctl-Alt-S). If you type a series of keystrokes that a program doesn't understand, the program should let a TSR like SERIAL interpret the keystrokes for it. Some programs, however, don't allow this to happen. They assume TSR's don't exist, so they completely "take over" the keyboard, and don't allow SERIAL (or any other TSR) to even know that you typed anything on the keyboard. Microsoft Windows is one of the programs that completely takes over the keyboard. If you're in Windows, and SERIAL is ENABLED (page 7) and set for GRAPHICS screen modes (page 8), you can see SERIAL on the screen (while Windows is running). But the HOTKEY (Ctl-Alt-S, pages 9 and 12) doesn't do anything. There is nothing I know that can be done about this (other than installing SERIAL after the other program has started, which is usually impossible). You need to either DISABLE SERIAL (with SERIAL /D or Ctl-Alt-S,Esc), or put SERIAL exactly where you want it to be on the screen BEFORE you start this kind of program. SERIAL 2.00 Page 13 of 19 Because SERIAL is continuously writing over the top of whatever the running program is trying to put on the screen, SERIAL needs to know what the program is trying to put on the screen. SERIAL needs to know this so that when SERIAL moves or becomes hidden (by DISABLING SERIAL, page 7, or by moving the text cursor under SERIAL), SERIAL can "restore" to the screen what is supposed to be there when SERIAL isn't. There are two ways programs can write things to the screen. The first is by writing directly to video memory (which is very fast, but has compatibility problems), and the second is to go through the Operating System (DOS) and the BIOS using the Video Interrupt (slower, but more compatible with other programs like SERIAL). When you see SERIAL flashing on and off, it is because SERIAL is temporarily "hiding" itself when it thinks another program is trying to do something to the screen. As soon as SERIAL thinks the other program is done with the screen, it turns itself back on. The reason SERIAL sometimes "messes up" the screen for other programs is because SERIAL can't always tell when another program is doing something to the screen. SERIAL does the best it can, but unfortunately isn't perfect. If a program writes to the screen using the Video Interrupt, SERIAL "intercepts" things, and is able to keep track of what is supposed to be on the screen. When SERIAL moves or becomes hidden, SERIAL is able to "restore" correctly what the program thinks should be on the screen. If a program writes directly to video memory, however, SERIAL cannot always tell if the program is doing anything to the screen. When SERIAL moves or becomes hidden in such a program, what SERIAL "restores" to the screen may not be what the program thinks is supposed to be there - it could be "garbage". You can't easily tell whether a program is writing directly to video memory or not, so the best thing I can tell you is to beware. Anything that appears on the screen where the SERIAL used to be should be suspected of being wrong. I have done the best I can to make SERIAL work correctly, but it doesn't work all of the time. If your screen is in a GRAPHICS mode, and you move SERIAL around the screen (assuming, of course, you have enabled GRAPHICS with /G, page 8), SERIAL does not even attempt to "restore" the screen to what the program thinks should be there. Instead, SERIAL just leaves the screen totally black - just like nothing was ever there. The main reason for this is to decrease the size and complexity of SERIAL. As it stands now, SERIAL uses about 3500 bytes of memory. Allowing SERIAL to save and restore GRAPHICS screens would probably at least double its size, and even then may not work correctly all of the time. I don't feel the extra size is warranted for what would be accomplished. SERIAL 2.00 Page 14 of 19 If your screen is in a GRAPHICS mode (rather than a TEXT mode), SERIAL does not normally even try to show itself on the screen. You can tell SERIAL to try and show itself on the screen all the time (including GRAPHICS modes) with the /G option (page 8). This was done for one very simple reason - SERIAL sometimes doesn't work very well when the screen is in a GRAPHICS mode. With some GRAPHICS programs, especially those that involve a lot of motion on the screen, SERIAL has a habit of putting "extra stuff" on the screen. This can be, at best, an annoyance or, at worst, a very serious problem. Not all GRAPHICS programs have problems with SERIAL, but some do. You just have to try SERIAL with your programs and see if it works. If "extra stuff" starts appearing on the screen (when you see it you'll know what I'm talking about), you need to DISABLE SERIAL with SERIAL /D (page 7) or Ctl-Alt-S,Esc (pages 9 and 12). If, in general, you want SERIAL to be on all the time (including most of your GRAPHICS programs), but want it DISABLEd for one program in particular (because SERIAL messes up the screen), you should set yourself up a Batch file to do it automatically (see page 3 for an example of how to do this). SERIAL 2.00 Page 15 of 19 A WORD FROM THE SPONSOR ═══════════════════════ SERIAL is a free program. If you like it and use it, do something nice for someone else in return. I will accept niceties to myself in the form of $, but that is not why I wrote SERIAL. I wrote it to learn more about computers and to get a program that I have wanted but never been able to find. I have never seen a program quite like SERIAL anywhere else. You can freely copy and distribute SERIAL.COM, as long as it is distributed along with this SERIAL.DOC, and neither file has been modified in any way. You cannot charge anyone in any way for SERIAL, except to recover your actual costs for disks and shipping (you cannot charge for "handling"). You do need my permission to distribute SERIAL as a "companion" to some other program. SERIAL 2.00 Page 16 of 19 OTHER PROGRAMS ══════════════ If you like SERIAL, I have written some other programs you may find useful: CLOCK Shows a clock on your screen all the time. Also has two alarms that beep at you when it's time for an appointment. JOYKEYS Lets you use your joystick(s) with any program. MOUSKEYS Lets you use your mouse with any program. PRTSCR Sends all of your PrintScreens to a file instead of a printer. A good way to transfer data between two programs, even if they won't normally "talk" to each other. PRTSCRFF Modifies your PrintScreen so that each new PrintScreen gets put on a new sheet of paper (especially useful if you have a Laser printer). SCANCODE Type keystrokes automatically in the middle of other programs. Helpful in getting past the "starting screens" of most programs, or to create macros. Can also be used to remap the keyboard. SLOWDOWN Slows down a fast computer so you can run older programs that require a PC/XT or PC/AT. SERIAL 2.00 Page 17 of 19 WARRANTY ════════ There is no warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, supplied with SERIAL. As with any software, especially TSR's, it may or may not work with other software that you may have. I have done my best to make sure SERIAL won't screw anything up, but, again, there is no guarantee. If you find any "bugs" in this program, or see something that you wish were different, please let me know. I can only improve SERIAL if I know what you think needs to improve. HAVE FUN! Bret Johnson 6775 South Logan Street Littleton, CO 80122-1249 (303) 795-5084 bretjohn@juno.com or bretjohn@aol.com I intend to always keep the latest versions of all of my programs on my own web page. The URL is: http://members.aol.com/bretjohn Keep looking there for updates to my programs. SERIAL 2.00 Page 18 of 19 REVISION HISTORY ════════════════ 11/10/94 v1.00 11/17/94 v1.01 * Fixed problem with SERIAL not always recognizing COM3 or COM4. I was assuming the BIOS always kept track of first 4 SERIAL ports, but, as it turns out, the BIOS only reliably keeps track of the first 2 SERIAL ports. 03/25/98 v2.00 * Removed TxRx from the status. Having SERIAL calculate this appeared to sometimes cause errors (loss of data). If anybody knows a GOOD way to check and see if bits are being sent or received on ANY UART (not just the new, fancy 16550's), let me know! * Added the /V (VERBOSE) & /T (TEXT-only) Options. * Added the /P (special User PORT) Option. * Added "longhand" forms for Options. * Started showing the status of SERIAL every time SERIAL [options] is typed at the command line (including the status of the SERIAL environment variable). * Improved the ability of SERIAL to sense when other programs are doing something with the screen. Works much better with some GRAPHICS programs. * Certain extended TEXT modes (such as those with 132 COLUMNs). sometimes would fool SERIAL into thinking they were GRAPHICS modes. SERIAL can now recognize these as TEXT modes. * Got rid of code that caused computers with 8086 or 8088 CPU's to crash (OOPS!!!). * Optimized (made smaller and/or faster and/or more reliable) much of the code. * Added ErrorLevel 5 (incorrect DOS version). * If another program was already using the speaker when SERIAL started beeping, the speaker could continue to beep even after SERIAL was done. SERIAL is now better able to tell if another program is already using the speaker. * Certain BIOS's do not update the BIOS data area in low memory properly. This could cause SERIAL to delay for an extraordinarily long time when installed (it appeared to lock up the computer). This could also cause the error beeps to last for an extraordinarily long time. This has been fixed. * Released the source code into the Public Domain (if you want the source code for SERIAL, just go to my home page, http://members.aol.com/bretjohn, and download it!). SERIAL 2.00 Page 19 of 19