home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
-
- ___________________________________________________
-
-
- dataComet 4.5.1 README (5/2/98)
-
- ___________________________________________________
-
-
- The dataComet application, resources, and on-line documentation are
- Copyright 1995,1996 databeast, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Reverse
- compilation or disassembly of dataComet is expressly forbidden.
-
- dataComet is a shareware product. Registering dataComet costs $20
- US ($10 US educational) for a single copy, with substantial discounts
- available for site licenses. Users should obtain a license for this
- product; check the information in the "About dataComet..." Apple Menu
- item and databeast's home page.
-
- You can register dataComet on-line with a charge card through Kagi
- at <http://order.kagi.com/?2S9>. Users outside the US who wish to pay
- with cash are encouraged to mail it in to Kagi, including the printout
- from the "Register dataComet" program. Checks and POs should be sent
- directly to databeast.
-
- databeast's home page: <http://www.databeast.com/>
- databeast's FTP server: <ftp://ftp.databeast.com/pub/datacomet/>
- Send email to: <mailto:datacomet@databeast.com>
-
- To get started using dataComet, read the document "0. Overview of
- dataComet", which is included in the "Documents" folder of the
- dataComet distribution (these documents can be conveniently opened
- within dataComet from the "Documents" menu item in the Apple menu).
- This document contains information on installing dataComet and
- configuring web browsers and Internet Config to use dataComet as
- the default Telnet and TN3270 applications.
-
- This distribution includes dataComet 4.5.1-68K along with versions
- 4.45 of dataComet-Brown and dataComet-NCSA. The distribution contains
- the following files and folders:
-
- dataComet 4.5.1-68K: A final release version of dataComet, which
- works well with both Open Transport and MacTCP. See the Document "A1.
- dataComet Release Notes" for detailed information on changes in the
- latest version.
-
- NOTE that once again, some fonts have been improved and some font
- names have changed in this distribution, so you should dispose of
- old copies of the fonts in the System "Fonts" folder and install the
- new ones.
-
- Register-dataComet: This folder contains the program used to
- send dataComet registrations in to Kagi via mail or fax.
-
- dataComet-Brown: This folder contains dataComet-Brown, an
- application which converts Brown TN3270 documents into dataComet
- documents and launches them. This application will supplant Brown
- TN3270 as the Finder's default application for launching Brown
- documents. You can still use Brown by dropping documents onto it; you
- can cause the Finder to reselect Brown as the default by dragging it
- to a new location or removing dataComet-Brown.*
-
- dataComet-NCSA: This folder contains dataComet-NCSA, an
- application which converts NCSA Telnet documents into dataComet
- documents and launches them. This application will supplant NCSA
- Telnet as the Finder's default application for launching NCSA Telnet
- documents. You can still use NCSA by dropping documents onto it; you
- can cause the Finder to reselect NCSA as the default by dragging it to
- a new location or removing dataComet-NCSA.*
-
- Documents: This folder contains dataComet documentation and sample
- session documents. dataComet expects to find the "Documents" folder
- in its home directory, so that its Control-Click help feature can work
- automatically.
-
- Fonts: This folder contains fonts, which should be dropped into the
- "Fonts" Folder in the System Folder to ensure correct results when
- printing. dataComet will display fonts in this folder even if they
- are not installed in the Fonts Folder. The "CharcoalMenus" resource
- for MacOS 8 and national customization resources may also be placed
- in this folder so they will be opened and used by dataComet.
-
- dataComet Keyboard: A Keyboard Layout resource which changes the
- mapping of some Option-key combinations which the standard keyboard
- layout maps into foreign characters. This resource should be
- drag-and-dropped onto the System. Installation is optional; users of
- non-English languages should not install this resource.
-
- NOTE: This version of dataComet should be very reliable... but if
- you do find a bug in dataComet, please send a bug report (using the
- form from the Apple Menu item "About dataComet...").
-
- * dataComet-Brown and dataComet-NCSA are provided so that
- dataComet will work as a Telnet helper application with applications
- (such as Netscape) which use documents rather than GURL AppleEvents to
- create new host sessions.
-
-
- ___________________________________________________
-
- dataComet Feature Summary
- ___________________________________________________
-
- dataComet emulator window configurations and text window contents are
- saved as individual documents which can be launched directly from the
- Finder. Modeless dialogs make it easy to tailor session configurations
- for different hosts. dataComet supports AppleEvents, including Internet
- Config 'GURL' AppleEvents. "Command-click" resolves URLs in dataComet
- windows through Internet Config. Two supporting applications,
- dataComet-Brown and dataComet-NCSA, are provided to allow Telnet URL
- launches from Netscape, which does not support Internet Config.
-
- Emulators: dataComet offers multiple VT220, PC-ANSI, and IBM 3278
- color terminal emulator windows with searchable scrollback buffers.
- dataComet is unique in automatically drawing variable-width fonts as
- mono-spaced fonts; users can set the character height and width of all
- fonts for maximum legibility. Sessions can be configured so they are
- automatically logged to a file.
-
- Text Editing: dataComet also offers text editing windows whose
- contents can be sent to a host by making a selection and pressing the
- Enter key (or Command-Return to break a line and send it to a host,
- easing use of host-based Chat programs). Users can use keyed commands
- to search, move the cursor by characters, words, or lines, and
- reformat text by adding or removing line breaks.
-
- Printing: dataComet offers both QuickDraw and direct serial
- printing, so that both WYSIWYG and fast printing are available.
-
- Macros: dataComet includes powerful macro commands which can be
- invoked through mouse clicks, configurable on-screen buttons, menu
- items, and key-remapping, and also on host open and close. Macros can
- be recorded automatically as the user interacts with the host to ease
- macro creation. An AppleScript interface allows other applications to
- open dataComet documents, execute dataComet macros, and monitor
- session status.
-
- Interfaces: dataComet uses an Open-Transport compatible MacTCP
- interface to support TCP/IP Internet access to host computers,
- supporting both DEC VT220 Telnet and IBM 3278 TN3270 terminal
- emulations. Firewalls can be traversed using a SOCKS V4 proxy.
- Serial access is supported only for the DEC VT220 emulators (serial
- access to IBM mainframe hosts requires the use of an IBM 7171 or
- similar VT100 <-> 3278 channel translator).
-
- File Transfer: dataComet offers X/Y/ZMODEM transfers on both
- serial and Telnet connections with automatic file launching using
- Internet Config File Mappings. dataComet also includes a TFTP file
- server to support TCP/IP file transfer. The dataComet FT3270
- protocol is supported for IBM mainframes which have the FT3270
- program module installed on the host, allowing transparent downloads
- for both TCP/IP and serial access. Downloaded files can be printed
- automatically.
-
- Public Access Terminals: dataComet also supports special
- configurations for computers intended to be used as public-access
- terminals, which require enhanced security; a launch macro can be
- configured which disables commands which are inappropriate for your
- particular application.
-
- dataComet is fully internationalizable through customization of the
- on-line documentation and the 'MENU' and 'STR#' resources incorporated
- in the program. dataComet supports user-configurable international
- character translation for the Macintosh character set, with character
- translation tables provided for ISO-Latin-1, DEC Multinational,
- PC-ANSI, IBM ALA, and IBM 3270.
-
- ________________________________________________________________