"New╔": Creates a new session (or, if you hold down the Shift key, a new text-only document with no connection). If you are creating a session, the "Configure Session..." dialog comes up, which allows you to choose the connection type you wish to use, the terminal type you wish to use, and the host address (for TCP/IP Telnet connections). The "Comet Default" document is used as a template for the new session, so that the new session's connection type, terminal type, window positions, font size, etc., will be the same as your "Comet Default" document.
"Open╔": Calls up the Standard File Dialog to open a dataComet session document (or, if you hold down the Shift key, a text-only document). When a connection is made, the session's Connection Macro (see "Set Connection Macro" in the Macro Menu) will be executed.
"Close": Close the session document associated with the top window and release all storage associated with the session.
"Save Configuration╔": Saves information about your session's configuration in a document file which you can use to lauch dataComet. If you change the name of a session, the new session will use the current session's configuration as a template; key macros are copied to the new document.
"Transfer": This submenu allows you to control serial file transfers. More options are available in the "Control File Transfer" dialog.
"Set download directory╔": Bring up a Macintosh Standard File dialog which allows you to choose a default download directory. (You need to select a file in the directory to get it to select a directory, otherwise the Standard File dialog opens the directory selected in the list╔ a "Set Directory" button will eventually be added to this dialog by dataComet to address this Standard File defect.)
"Set default file type╔": Brings up a Macintosh Standard File dialog which allows you to choose a default file creator by selecting an appplication or document. E.g., if you select WriteNow, or a WriteNow document, any files download or created by dataComet will by displayed by the Finder as a WriteNow document. (Note that the document is still a 'TEXT' document, and will be converted to WriteNow format only when it is opened by WriteNow.)
"Save screen as╔", "Save selection as╔", "Save text as╔": Presents a Standard File Dialog so you can select a file in which to save either the current emulator selection (or the whole screen if no selection has been made), or the contents of the text window. Saving will delete any text already in the file.
"Append screen to╔", "Append selection╔", "Append text to╔": Works like the command above, except it will append data to the file you select rather than deleting existing text.
"Save screen╔", "Save selection╔", "Save text╔ [as filename]": Saves the data in the file which has been opened by the "Save as" or "Append to" commands. This will delete any text already in this file. If no file has been selected, you will be presented with the Standard File Dialog so you can choose one.
"Append screen to", "Append selection", "Append text [filename]": Works like the command above, except it will append data to the file you have selected.
"Open Log╔": Presents the Standard File dialog so you can choose a file in which to log your session.
"Log session in ": Allows you to turn session logging to the file selected with "Open Log" on and off .
"Page Setup╔": Allows you to set up the printer when you are printing using the standard Print Dialogs.
"Print screen╔", "Print selection╔": By default, this item presents the standard Print Dialog so you can print the emulator screen, a selection from the screen and scrollback buffer, or the .edit text. This delivers a rendering of the screen using the entire dataComet character set which is reasonably faithful. (Note that you need to install the dataComet fonts in your Fonts Folder--or the System File for System 6--to get accurate font reproduction if you are using Background Printing.) If serial printing is enabled in the "Control Printing" dialog, there is no dialog, and the text is sent directly out the selected serial port.
"Print lines off top": All lines which scroll off the top or are cleared from the emulator screen will be printed.
"Print page now": Prints a page if text has accumulated in the print buffer. This command also performs a Form Feed if the serial printing is selected. Pressing the Shift key resets the page number without performing a page feed.
"Quit": Quits dataComet. You will be prompted to close any open connections which are currently open, and will be prompted to save changes that you have made to session configuration settings.
"Undo": Undo applies to the latest Cut command in an edit window.
"Cut": If the .edit window is in front, this command cuts the selection range and copies it into the Clipboard.
"Copy": Makes a copy of the screen or the selection (if one exists) or the text selection and copies it into the Clipboard. "Option-Copy" prompts the user for a string to be placed in the Clipboard and used for Replace operations. "Shift-Copy" copies an emulator window as wrapped text (to handle wrapped lines without adding spurious returns).
"Paste": Pastes the contents of the Clipboard into the screen or text at the current cursor location. In edit windows, "Option-Paste" performs a "Repeat Paste" operation (i.e., "Find selection" followed by "Paste"); "Shift-Option-Paste" performs a "Replace all". (Note that ASCII pastes are handled as a macro; to interrupt an ASCII paste to the host you need to abort the macro by pressing "Command-.", and then send an interrupt to the host.)
"Clear", "Clear buffer": If the .edit window is in front, the "Clear" command clears the selection range. If "Clear buffer" appears, then the whole emulator scrollback buffer is cleared.
"Select All": Selects the whole emulator scrollback buffer or .edit window text.
"Table Mode for Copy and Save": If the beginning of the selection range is less than the end of the selection range when you do a Copy or Save, only the text in between the beginning column and ending column of the range will be copied, so that you can exclude portions of the table. When this mode is on, the "Control Session" dialog item "Tab threshold" controls whether runs of blanks will be converted into Tab character to assist in copying tables from the terminal screen and pasting them into programs such as spreadsheets.
"Append file to .edit window╔": Presents the Standard Get File Dialog and appends the TEXT format file you select to the session's .edit window.
"Append screen to .edit window", "Append selection to .edit window": Appends the screen or selection to the end of the session's .edit window.
"Record session": When this mode is on, the contents of the emulator screen will be automatically appended to its .edit window when the emulator screen is cleared or lines scroll off the top. (Note that when this feature is used with sessions on IBM mainframes, screens are saved when the user enters a PF key; thus, if the user allows screens to automatically page on the IBM host, they will NOT be saved.) This setting is saved in the session's configuration.
"Page up": Move up one page in the scrollback buffer or the .edit window.
"Page down": Move down one page in scrollback buffer or the the .edit window.
"Go to line╔": Offers a dialog to jump to a line number in a window. A return will cause the cursor to move to the end of scrollback buffer or the the .edit window.
"Find╔": Offers a dialog to enter a text string you want to find in the scrollback buffer or the .edit window. The current selection is automatically placed in the dialog. You can hold down the Shift key to search backwards.
"Find same": dataComet will try to find the last string for which you searched. You can hold down the Shift key to search backwards.
"Add Returns": Adds a Carriage Return at the end of each line in the .edit window selection so the text can be pasted into a host document without lines overflowing.
"Remove Returns": Removes any Return from the .edit window selection which does not have adjacent Return or spaces.
"Set": Set the cursor position to be in the current screen.
"Show": Display the current selection.
"Delete ->": Delete the character to the right of the cursor, or the selection and the character to the right of the selection.
"Shift left": Shift the lines in the selection left and delete any spaces found in the first columns.
"Shift right": Shift the lines in the selection right and insert a space in the first column.
"Match brackets": Sets the selection to the text inside the next pair of brackets, which include quotes and brackets. Holding down the Shift key searches backwards. (You can modify the behavior of bracket matching by modifying the 'BRCK' resource in dataComet, which specifies the bracket pairs).
"Left": Moves the cursor left one character.
"Word": Moves the cursor left one word.
"Down": Moves the cursor down one line.
"Sentence": Moves the cursor right one sentence.
"Up": Moves the cursor up one line.
"Sentence": Moves the cursor left one sentence.
"Right": Moves the cursor right one character.
"Word": Moves the cursor right one word.
"Execute": Send the selection range or paragraph to the next frontmost host window as text. "Shift-Execute" executes the text as a macro in the context of the frontmost host.
"Abort session": Closes a session with a host without going through the closing negotiations with the host; if you know you've lost your modem connection, you should use this command to save some time; ordinarily you should use "Close session".
"Re-open session": Allows you to attempt to re-open a session which has failed to open or has been closed. If a connection is made, the session's Connection Macro will be executed.
"Reconfigure session╔": Lets you use the "Configure Session" dialog to reconfigure a session after you have created or opened it. You can change to name to create a "clone" of the current session with the same settings and macros as the current session.
"Scrollback buffering": Lets you turn scrollback buffering in the emulator window on and off.
"Toggle .edit window": Bring the .edit window associated with the topmost emulator session to the front. Holding down the Option key will allow you to direct macro execution, including key macros, into the .edit window, and will change the appearance of the mouse cursor and place a '>' in front of the menu item to indicate that an alternate macro mode is enabled.
Note that usually macro output in an emulator session is directed into the emulator window, so that key macros will be sent into the emulator window even when the .edit window is frontmost; in this respect there is a significant difference between .edit windows associated with sessions and other text windows. This option allows you to redirect macros into the .edit window, so that it's possible to use global key macros in the .edit window context also.
"Zoom": Zooms the window in the same way as clicking the zoom box.
If the Option key is held down, Zoom shrinks the front window down to an icon. The icon will be highlighted if data arrives while the session is iconified. The position of the icon on the screen is saved automatically when the window is closed.
"Window List": A list of session/window names follows; the first 9 are associated with the Command keys 1-9. Selecting the item brings the window to the front.
Items in the list of sessions may have marks to indicate special conditions. Active Telnet sessions have a bullet; Telnet sessions which have terminated abnormally are marked with a cross. A Serial session which has the Modem Port open is marked with a 'M', while a Serial session using the Printer Port is marked with a 'P'.
"Global╔": The "Control Global Configuration" dialog allows you to control several important features of dataComet. All the other items in the Control Menu affect only the topmost window.
"Session╔": The "Control Session Configuration dialog allows you to control various features associated with each window, such as whether it will shrink when you switch applications in MultiFinder and the keymapping for the emulator being used.
"Controls╔": Allows you to show or hide the controls around the emulator screen.
"Emulator╔": Allows you to configure items specific to the emulator you're using.
"Printing╔": Allows you to configure printing parameters which aren't included in the "Page Setup" dialog.
"Keypad╔": Allows the user to choose which of several keypad configurations will be used. If you are using a Macintosh Standard ADB keyboard, you can use the "Switch Standard keyboard +/- keys to match picture" control to switch the + and - keys to fix the keymapping so it will be the same as in the keypad picture (and in the same position as the + and - keys on other Macintosh keypads).
"Color╔": The Color dialog allows you to assign different colors to different field types on the emulator screen, using the standard Color Picker dialog. You can use Copy and Paste to copy the 16 colors from one dataComet "Control Color" dialog panel to another.
""File Transfer╔": This dialog allows you to control serial file transfer options. See "6. File Transfer" for more information.
"Internet Config╔": Launches Internet Config so you can conveniently modify the File Mappings used by dataComet's ZMODEM implementation.
"Record Beep╔": The Record Beep dialog allows you to record a sound which will be used in place of the system beep when a host sends a Bell to a dataComet emulator window which is not the frontmost window. If you have copied a sound resource into the Scrap and Paste it into a dataComet window, the sound will be saved and used as the session's Beep sound.
"Delete Beep": Deletes the beep you've recorded to supplant the system beep.
"Font": Allows you to set the font used in the emulator screen. You can indpendently select the font used for the window by holding down the Shift key, or printing by holding down the Option key (the selected print font is marked with a '>' if it differs from the screen font). Selecting a Font will automatically set the translation for Comet-Fonts and standard Macintosh fonts; for other, non-standard fonts (e.g., an alternate "ISO-Latin-1" font) you will need to set the translation manually. If a font with the same name ending in "Bold" will be selected automatically for the Bold font; if none exists, dataComet draws bold characters using QuickDraw bolding with the selected font; you can still select an alternate Bold font manually.
If you're using a font which uses characters > 127 to display foreign character sets, the "Control Session" dialog item "Don't use Comet-font for characters > 127" should be disabled.
"Size": Allows you to change the font size used on the emulator screen, the edit window, and for printing. You can indpendently select the size used for the window by holding down the Shift key, or for printing by holding down the Option key (the selected size is marked with a '>' if it differs from the screen font).
"Leading": Allows you to change the font leading (adds pixels between lines). Using this option will slow down display speed if you're using a mono-spaced font.
"Width": Allows you to change the font width used on the emulator screen. This can help make proportional fonts more readable.
"Bold Font": Allows you to set the font used for bold attributes in the emulator screen. "Use Normal Font" lets you disable font bolding.
"Control Font": Allows you to set the font used in the control area around the emulator screen.
"Translation": Allows you to select character translation tables for remapping input and output from the host character set (e.g., ISO Latin-1/8859-1) to the "standard" Macintosh character set and back. When used with a native Macintosh font such as Monaco, this allows you to use the standard keyboard layout supplied with your system, and eases pasting text into your Macintosh at some loss of exactitude. If you want to correctly display all the characters in a font such as ISO Latin-1 or PC-ANSI (PC-850) you can use a dataComet font and select "Shift-Translation".
"National": Allows you to select a National Replacement Character Set, which translates some ASCII characters into "foreign" characters. For the VT100, these characters are #, @, [, \, ], ^, _, `, {, |, }, and ~.
"Record actions for macro": Starts recording of keystrokes, selections, and menu item choices as a macro. This option tries to generate correct !Z "waitfor" strings (and for ASCII sessions a 2-second delay after the match) so that host interactions can be easily automated. While recording, there is an automatic delay when characters are typed to obtain the the best results with ASCII hosts, where there is a delay before the host echoes the character back. WARNING: File menu items will change positions in future versions, so recording of File menu choices is not guaranteed work reliably if you upgrade dataComet.
NOTE that when recording IBM 3270 sessions the '!Z\255' macro wait commands which are automatically generated may fail when using full-screen oriented applications where the data changes in different records but the screen format and prompt remain the same. In such cases performance is greatly enhanced by cutting out the macro wait commands. (You can hold down the Shift key when selecting the menu item or use the '!Ra' macro command to turn macro wait generation off when recording macros.)
"Record end--ready to Paste": Ends macro recording and places a copy of the macro into the Scrap so it can be pasted into a macro dialog text box or the .edit window.
"Dump macros into .edit": Dumps the keys which have had key macros defined. If the macro is only a single character, a three digit decimal number is also printed to make it easier to copy and paste the key into the Key macro dialog. If you hold down the Shift key, a table displaying the character set will be dumped instead.
"Key macros on": Switches the use of key macros on and off, so that the standard keyboard interpretation can be easily restored.
"Define macros╔": Brings up a dialog which allows the user to remap the keyboard and keypad by associating a key with a macro command. (In general, key macros are sequences of characters and commands executed when a key associated with a macro is pressed.) This dialog is also used to control the titles and macros associated with Macro menu user macros and emulator buttons. See "4. Macros" for more information on key macros.
"Set dataComet Launch macro╔": Presents the "Define macros" dialog and allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when dataComet is launched. This is used primarily to configure dataComet to run as a secure kiosk terminal. ***Please note*** that this macro cannot execute some macro commands, especially File "New", since it is executed very early in dataComet's configuration process. (See the document "A4. Public Terminal Kiosk Configuration" for more information on this configuration option.)
"Set Single-click macro╔": Presents a macro entry dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when you click the mouse in the emulator screen. If no Single-click macro is set, dataComet will try to move the emulator cursor to the location of the mouse. You can use this to disable cursor tracking by setting up a macro which contains no text or commands.
"Set Double-click macro╔": Presents a macro entry dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when you double-click the mouse in the emulator screen. E.g., on a UNIX machine, you could set the double click macro to "!EW!ECvi !EV" to allow you to edit a file name listed in the emulator window by double-clicking on it (this is another variation on the useful Click/Copy/Paste function performed by Control-Click). If no Double-click macro is set, dataComet will select the current word at the cursor by default ('!EW').
"Set Connection macro╔": Presents a macro entry dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when a connection is made. This is useful for partially automating logins, but PLEASE╔ don't put your passwords in Connection macros! Use the "!QS" macro to prompt the user for the password instead.
"Set Close macro╔": Presents a macro entry dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when a connection is closed. In order to ensure that the screen is properly displayed, you may need to add a delay at the end of the macro; dataComet will close the connection if it is not already closed by host actions initiated by your macro.
"Add Menu Macro╔": Brings up the "Define Macro..." dialog and prompts you for the name of a new user-defined macro to add to the Macro menu. You can modify existing user-defined macros in the Macro menu by selecting them using "Option-Menu Select". Note that menu macros are always global.
"Type my address at cursor": Enters your Internet address at the cursor position. This is useful with file transfer programs such as TFTP.
"Send": A hierarchical menu which allows you to send Telnet commands, which give a standard way of performing some common operations with diverse hosts.
"Erase character": Delete the character to the left of the cursor.
"Erase line": Erase the current line of input.
"Are you there": Send a request to the host to confirm that a
connection still exists; useful to confirm that a sluggish host
is still there.
"Interrupt process": Abort the current job on the host.
"Abort output": Abort the output from the current job on the host.
"Break": Send a Telnet Break to the host.
"Dump statistics into .edit": Gives information about the state of the connection to your host. (See "Use MacTCP Status calls" below.)
"7-bit characters", "8-bit characters": This setting allows you to set the character size for host communications.
"Send after return", "Send characters promptly": Wait to send command lines to the host until the Return key is pressed (not applicable to 3270 emulation).
"Local echo", "Remote echo": Echo characters locally and have the host stop "echoing," or sending each character received back to the emulator (not applicable to 3270 emulation).
"My Address -- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx": Displays your Internet address
"Host Address -- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:pp": Displays the Internet address of your host, and the port to which you are connected.
"Host Name -- HostName": The name of the host to which you are connected, which is the same as your window title.
"Send Sytek Escape": This command offers a convenient method for sending the standard <Ctl-A><Ctl-B> character sequence used to escape to the Sytek command level when you are connected to a host over Sytek.
"XON-XOFF", "Hardware handshake": You can configure the serial port to use two different kinds of handshaking to help guarantee that no data is lost when it is transmitted between the modem and your Macintosh.
Hardware handshake is the preferred option. A special cable is required to use hardware handshake, which uses two of the RS-232 lines (CTS and DTR, for output and input flow control respectively) to signal that the modem or Macintosh can't handle more data immediately. Your modem must also be properly configured for hardware handshake to work: for USR modems, configuring it with "AT&F&B1&H1&I0&R2&W" should work. Selecting hardware handshake disables the menu items "Hang up phone" and "Hang up on close," which use the DTR line to signal the modem to hang up.
If you lack a cable which can support hardware flow control, you will use XON-XOFF to help control data transfer. You can configure a USR Courier to do this correctly using "AT&F&B1&H2&I1&R1&W".
"Reset 8th bit": Clears the high bit of a data byte, which may contain garbage when connections 8 data bits are used with hosts which leave garbage in the high bit (e.g., UNIX). This allows transparent ZMODEM functionality.
"Baud": The items under this heading set the speed at which the port will communicate.
"Parity": The items under this heading set parity checking.
"Data Bits": The items under this heading set the number of data bits.
"Stop Bits": The items under this heading set the number of stop bits.
"Hang up phone": Drops the DTR line on the serial connection to the modem. This should cause your modem to hang up; if it does not, check your modem and cable configuration.
"Reset Parameter RAM": The Modem port may be locked up when you try to use it, for (apparently) no reason. In this case, use this command to fix the Parameter RAM settings, which should free up the Modem port.
Notes on using the Printer port: To use the Printer port, you must first turn off AppleTalk (which is done using the Chooser). Some versions of AppleShare will lock out access to the Printer Port even if AppleTalk is turned off; if this occurs, you need to remove the AppleShare INIT from your System Folder.
The "ASCII" menu comes up when you are connected to a host as an ASCII terminal. These show the keyboard mapping for ASCII control keys and key shortcuts. The interpretation of these Control Characters depends on the host and application being used.
The "IBM" and "Action" menus come up when an IBM terminal session is being performed. These menus show the keyboard mapping and key shortcuts.
"IBM": This menu contains Local keys which move the cursor and modify the screen without notifying the host of any changes.
"Action": This menu contains Program Function (PF), Program Attention (PA), and other keys will send the current screen to the host and signal the host to interpret the screen. The interpretation of these "PF keys" varies depending on the application.
