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- XTerm2.COM - The next generation Terminal with XModem and
- Text File Transfer for the Atari/DIP Portfolio.
-
- by Jim Straus January 17, 1990
- (c) 1990 by Jim Straus All rights reserved
- Certain portions of the code are (c) 1989 by Atari and DIP.
- Program in public domain. Not for sale.
-
- No warranty is given or implied for this program.
- In no event shall the author of this work be liable for any
- direct, indirect, special, incidental, or consequential
- damages (including lost profit) whether based on warranty,
- contract, tort, or any other legal theory.
-
- This program will only work on the Atari/DIP Portfolio
- PalmTop computer. It is a simple terminal program for the
- Serial Interface. It allows files to be sent or received
- using the XModem protocol. It also allows files to be sent
- with no translation and files to be captured.
-
- To use the program, select serial port parameters from the
- built-in Setup program. The Initialize! command does not
- need to be given as the program will attempt to initialize
- the serial port itself. You may also want to set the External
- Display to Tracked (80x25). Then start the program by typing:
- XTerm2
- at the DIP-DOS prompt. You will see a greeting, and anything
- you type is sent out the serial port. F1 may be used to exit
- the program (Note that the Atari key also generates an F1 key
- code). If you can't see what you are typing on the Portfolio
- (most probably, when talking to another local computer), use
- F0 to enable Echo. If you need to turn Echo off, use F0 again,
- as it is a toggle.
-
- During the session, F2 may be used to start receiving a file
- using the XModem protocol. You will be prompted for a file
- name, and then the program will wait for the file to be
- transferred. Each block successfully received will cause a
- period to be displayed. When the file is done, "Done" will
- be displayed and you will be back in the terminal portion.
- While the program is transferring, the F1 key may be used to
- abort the transfer.
-
- Sending a file is started with the F3 key and proceeds in a
- similar fashion. If the file was not found, you will just see
- "Done" displayed.
-
- Note that XModem always transfers files in 128 byte blocks,
- so files will tend to be rounded up to the nearest 128 byte
- length. When receiving text files, you may also see extra
- space on the end, depending on whether or not the sending end
- put in a Control-Z terminating character. XTerm2 does not put
- in such characters and just pads with zeros.
-
- The XModem time out values in this program have not been
- tested with a packet network (such as that used by Compuserve),
- but have been adjusted to Compuserve's suggested values.
-
- Capturing text is controlled with the SHIFT-F2 key. The first
- time it is pressed, you will be prompted for a file name. From
- then on anything received is also saved in the file. To stop
- capturing, use the SHIFT-F1 key again. It will tell you it is
- "Done". Text may be captured through XModem transfers and text
- sending, but only received text that is displayed will be saved
- in the capture file.
-
- SHIFT-F3 is used to send a text file. It prompts for a file
- name and the file is sent. When the file is done, you will
- again see "Done".
-
- SHIFT-F1 will display the introduction again as help.
-
- Also, CTRL-F0 through CTRL-F9 will cause the files "0.XTM"
- through "9.XTM" to be sent. This can be used to easily send
- dialing commands, log on sequences and passwords. It does not
- handle complicated log on procedures, but should simplify
- your life some. As an added bonus, since these keys look for
- the files in the current directory, you could create different
- directories containing different sets of macro keys. Then a
- simple batch file could take you to the correct directory and
- start up XTerm2. As an example, say I had a set of macros for
- Compuserve and had these stored in a directory called CIS.
- Then a batch file like:
- c:
- cd CIS
- XTerm2
- would start up XTerm2 with my CIS macro keys available.
-
- As an experimental feature, XTerm2 will also take command line
- options. The three forms are:
- XTerm2 -r filename
- XTerm2 -s filename
- Xterm2 -h
- The -r option will enter the XModem receive state, and when it
- is done receiving the file, the program will exit. The -s
- option enters the XModem send state. The -h option will display
- a short summary as a help.
-
- The reason for putting these in, was to try and come up with
- a semi-automatic method to back up the Portfolio through the
- serial port. In my case, to a Macintosh running the Red
- Ryder (tm of FreeSoft Inc.) terminal program. On the Portfolio
- I have a BACKUP.BAT file that looks like:
- echo RECX filename.txt>aux
- XTerm2 -s filename.txt
- with the above lines repeated for each file to be backed up.
- Red Ryder is left in HOST mode, so the above sequence should
- automatically send FILENAME.TXT to the Macintosh. A similar
- process is used to restore the files:
- echo SENDX filename.txt>aux
- XTerm2 -r filename.txt
-
- The above sequences have not been thoroughly tested. There
- may still be some timing problems in them (I occasionally hang
- restoring. It can be alleviated by stopping the transfer on
- the Macintosh and sending two Control-Xs to cancel that file).
- This is not considered a final solution, but I thought people
- might be interested. Others might want to try build scripts
- to drive other host machine terminal programs too.
-
- The length of the file is 2897 bytes (if transfered with XModem
- it will be 2944 bytes) and the checksum (as determined by
- CHKSUM.COM) is 99F3.
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