Copyright 1996 databeast, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This document has information on (select and use "Find..." to go to the section):
Using the "Control Global" dialog
Using the "Configure Session" dialog
Using the "Control Session" dialog
Using the "Control Controls" dialog
Using the "Control Emulator" dialog (ASCII)
Using the "Control Emulator" dialog (IBM 3278)
Using the "Control Keypad" dialog
Using the "Control Color" dialog
Using the "Control Printing" dialog
Using the "Define macros" dialog... see "4. Macros"
These modeless dialog windows allow you to control window settings and dataComet's global configuration. Settings are updated immediately as soon as an option is changed, except for text fields; use the "Set" button to update text fields in the dialogs (closing the dialog will also update the settings to correspond to the current text fields). The "Revert" button allows you to cause the settings to revert to those in effect prior to your changes.
In order to make changes to a session document permanent, you need to use the File menu command "Save configuration...". You will be prompted to save the settings when a window closes if the settings have been modified.
The global configuration is automatically saved in the "Comet Default" document when you quit dataComet. If you find that dataComet tends to crash on launching, try throwing out the "Comet Default" document in the System Folder.
"Enable fast drawing": Let the application try to use the direct-to-screen drawing mode, which is faster on older Macintoshes but may prove incompatible with some displays. If you have a color or greyscale display which you've configured to run normally with many colors or shades of gray, dataComet will automatically change the screen mode to black-and-white when fast drawing is enabled and the session does not have color drawing enabled in the "Control Color" dialog, and back to normal mode when you switch to another window, so that monochrome and color sessions can run on the same screen at maximum speed. (Note: PCI PowerMacs no longer support 1-bit black-and-white mode, so dataComet cannot perform the switch on these systems).
"Restrict to topmost window": Prevents dataComet from using the direct to screen drawing mode with multiple windows simultaneously; note that the fast-drawing mode does work with multiple emulator screens which are completely visible (if an emulator screen is partially obscured standard QuickDraw calls are used).
"Open "Comet Default" on launch": Opens the "Comet Default" document without presenting the "Configure Session" dialog.
"Splash Delay": When a registered copy of dataComet is launched it defaults to a 3-second minimum splash display; turning off this item will clear the splash screen ASAP (rather than waiting to better display the support contact information which may be included in the splash screen).
"Show "New session" dialog on launch": Automatically display a "New..." (Configure Session) dialog when dataComet is launched.
NOTE: Registered versions of dataComet can have a graphic displayed rather than the standard splash screen (this graphic is stored as the 'PICT' 128 resource in the application; it will be displayed in the window 'WIND' 128 if it is defined, in 'WIND' 0 if it is not).
"Quit automatically when all windows closed": Quit the application when there are no open windows.
"Reset emulator selection range after Copy": When this option is on, a Copy, Save, or Append command will reset the selection range to no selection, so the whole screen becomes the default selection range for the next Copy, Save, or Append. If you want the selection to remain fixed on the screen so you can the same selection on successive screens, turn this off.
"Use text cursor only": Prior to 4.43B, dataComet used a double underscore to show the position of the mouse in the emulator screen. dataComet now displays a standard text cursor instead, which many people find easier to use. If you wish you can disable this item to use the double underscore cursor within the active emulator window.
"Remap Option key-combinations": Changes the keyboard layout to the "dataComet keyboard" keyboard layout, which disables the standard mapping of Option-E, I, N, and U (or other keys in non-US keyboard layouts) to characters with diacritical marks so that Option works properly as a Control key and macros are triggered immediately by these key-combinations. The "dataComet keyboard" keyboard layout must be installed in the System for this to work.
"Copy screen": If this option is on, a "Copy" command copies the whole emulator screen when there is no selection. You can turn this off if you find you have a problem with inadvertently copying and pasting the screen when you try to make a selection first but fail to select anything. (Note that this will affect the execution of dataComet Copy commands used in an AppleScript.)
"Zero Scrap": dataComet uses the TextEdit Scrap to contain the results of a Copy or Cut command, and updates the Application Scrap in parallel to ensure that extensions which rely on the Application Scrap will work correctly (e.g., QuickKeys & CopyPaste). This option allows you to conserve memory by updating the Application Scrap only when leaving dataComet.
"Clear scrollback buffers automatically": This option allows you to free memory when it runs short by automatically clearing the scrollback buffers for emulator sessions which are currently in the background and not currently processing output; thus, if you alternate between several sessions configured with "unlimited" scrollback buffering, you won't need to repeatedly clear background buffers manually to allow fresh lines to scroll in the topmost window.
"MacTCP/OT Options"
"Use Asynchronous sends": This option causes MacTCP to send multiple packets rather than send only one at a time (and wait "synchronously" for the packet to be ACKed before proceeding, so that the Macintosh performs no other normal processing while the network and remote host pass the data packet over the network). This is the default, but NOTE MacTCP may prove unreliable on LocalTalk when this mode is enabled using versions of MacTCP prior to 1.1.1.
"Send only one packet at a time": This option causes MacTCP to send only one packet at a time on a connection rather than multiple packets. (Multiple packets are sent by default, but NOTE that MacTCP may prove unreliable on LocalTalk when more than one packet is sent asynchronously on a connection, especially on 3270 connections. If your connection hangs, try disabling this option.)
"Use MacTCP Status calls": This option is now selected automatically; it must be enabled to get statistics and/or push the MacTCP timers. (Open Transport's MacTCP interface does not support MacTCP status calls.)
"Push MacTCP timers": MacTCP has traditionally set the TCP re-transmit time-out to unreasonably large values. Enabling this option resets the timers to more reasonable values, which provides much more responsive performance over connections with high packet loss rates (which are usually caused by a lossy physical connection or an overloaded gateway).
"Poll": dataComet's MacTCP/OT interface is configured to poll for new data to process it as promptly as possible rather than waiting for it to notify dataComet that data has arrived using an asynchronous read routine. You can select asynchronous reads by disabling this item; this may give slightly better overall performance on high-speed links.
"File Transfer options"
"Always do dialog to rename files": Before transferring a file, dataComet will present a Standard File dialog allowing you to select (upload) or rename (download) the file. This is off by default.
"Archive overwritten files in ".back"": This option automatically appends the contents of a file to "filename.back" before the download commences and overwrites the file.
"TFTP Server On": dataComet offers a TFTP server for use in transferring files. TFTP is the Trivial File Transfer Protocol, which you can invoke on the host to which you are connected to start a file transfer. dataComet also offers a "download" command to transfer files.
"Request approval of TFTP transfers": If this is on, when the TFTP server receives a request to transfer a file, it will query you. Note that if the TFTP server is on and Server asking is off, someone could transfer files from your computer without your knowledge (although they would have to be able to specify the names of the files they wished to transfer).
"Internet Config File Mapping": (Z-Modem only): Use the Internet Config settings to set the file type and creator for downloads, and the file extension for uploads. IC mappings supersede information in MacBinary and BinHex headers on downloads, allowing you to use an application different from the original document's creator. IC file mappings are also used to determine whether a file should be uploaded as a text or binary file.
When you create a new connection using the File menu "New..." command or the Window menu "Reconfigure session..." command, you are presented with the "Configure Session" dialog, which allows you to configure the most fundamental parameters affecting a terminal session, including:
"Connection Type": The method of making a connection. Currently dataComet allows you to use MacTCP (and Open Transport's MacTCP interface) for Telnet network connections and Serial drivers for modem connections; Apple's Comm Toolbox will be supported in the future.
"Terminal Type": The preferred terminal type; the "Automatic" terminal type will default to a vt100 on a serial connection; on a Telnet connection "Automatic" will negotiate the "best" terminal type to use with the host. (Note that some hosts may not perform terminal type negotiations correctly, so "Automatic" mode may fail.)
"Host Name/Address": If you are making a Telnet Connection, this field must contain the IP address or domain name of the host to which you wish to connect. If you need to specify an IP socket other than the standard Telnet socket (23), you can enter the socket number after the IP address or domain name followed by a colon; e.g., "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu:300". Alternatively, you can use the IP address or domain name followed by two periods or spaces; e.g., "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu..300" or "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu 300". Note that MacTCP must be configured correctly in order to make a connection, and that the configuration may need to be updated if you use this copy of MacTCP on another machine. You should contact your network administrator for "advice and consent" if you change your configuration.
If you get a message stating "Can't open MacTCP DNR," replace the "MacTCP DNR" file in the System Folder with a good copy. Trashing the "MacTCP DNR" file and restarting with virus programs off will allow MacTCP to create a good copy automatically when it starts up.
"SOCKS proxy": This controls whether the following Host Name/Address is to be used as a proxy so connections can traverse network firewalls.
"Global": By default, this control is on; it allows you to select a global SOCKS default for all Telnet sessions. If you turn it off, you can enter a SOCKS proxy to be used for this session alone.
"Username": The SOCKS username (in case this is required).
This dialog allows you to control the configuration of the session which is currently on top.
"Shrink on MultiFinder Switch": When you switch from dataComet to another application under MultiFinder the screen will automatically shrink to a small icon and expand after returning. This feature helps make the TrashCan more accessible under MultiFinder.
"Close window when session closes": Will close the window and its corresponding document automatically when your session is closed or aborted.
"Use block Cursor": Allows you to change the emulator cursor from an underline to a block.
"Blink cursor": Determines whether the cursor will blink or stay on continuously.
"Open session without terminal type negotiation": Some TCP/IP hosts (particularly terminal servers) may not negotiate terminal types correctly, or may not open a session by sending some data to dataComet; if this occurs, you cannot send keystrokes to the host, and the button bar is left grayed out. Setting this option will allow you to send characters to such a host.
"Only one session per document": Usually dataComet closes a dataComet document after getting the settings and macros from the document; you can then open another session with the same host by double-clicking on the same document. Setting this option causes dataComet to leave the document open, so that double-clicking on it will bring the old session to the foreground and re-open it if it has been closed, rather than opening a brand new session.
"Connect automatically": Open the connection automatically when the document is opened.
"Keep session open when Mandarin sleep event received": This allows the user to configure a dataComet session running under Cornell's Bear Access LaunchPad to keep a session open rather than closing it when a sleep event is received. This speeds up switching between the LaunchPad and dataComet sessions.
"____ lines max. scrollback buffer (zero = no limit)" allows you to set the maximum number of lines to save in the emulator screen scrollback buffer. Note that if this is not set appropriately, you may run into out of memory conditions where copy and paste fail.
"____ Tab threshold (zero = copy all spaces)" allows you to set the threshold for converting spaces into tabs when the Edit menu item "Table Mode for Copy and Save" is on.
.edit WINDOW ITEMS
"Delete Returns in session.edit automatically on download": If you download a file with the same name as the session with ".edit" appended, it will be added to the session's .edit window; this option allows you to have the Carriage Returns at the end of each line stripped out automatically.
"Add Returns to session.edit automatically on upload": Like the above, except that Carriage Returns will be added automatically to the end of the lines where the text was wrapped in the .edit window.
"Show status bar at top of window": Show button controls and session status indication at the top of an emulator window. You can set these the button controls by using Option-click to bring up the "Define Macros" dialog.
"Show packets sent counter": Show the packets sent to the host; the counter is inverted when packets are being resent, which indicates problems with the host or the connection. This option only works when using native MacTCP; the MacTCP emulation offered by Open Transport does not support the statistics calls used to get this information.
"Show packets received counter": Show packets received from the host. This option also is not supported under Open Transport's MacTCP emulation.
"Show session timer at top of window": Maintain a session timer. This timer can be reset to zero using the '!Cr' macro.
"Show cursor-buttons at left of window": Displays numbers corresponding to a macro (the list is displayed by holding down the '?'/'M' indicator at the top left of an emulator window; this is visible when "Show status bar at top of window" is enabled). Clicking when the number is displayed will execute that macro (or a default function key). You can set these macros by using Option-click to bring up the "Define Macros" dialog.
This dialog allows you to control the configuration of the emulator for the session which is currently on top when it is an ASCII connection.
"Return key sends [] CR followed by [] LF": If the box for CR is checked, return sends a CR; if the box for LF is checked, an LF will be sent. (You can always send a Line Feed by pressing Control-Return.)
"Map ` to Escape": Applies to ASCII terminal emulation. Maps the '`' key to the ESCAPE key. (You can still send a '`' by pressing Control-'`'.)
"Map delete to Delete (v. BS)": Applies to ASCII terminal emulation. Makes the key at the top right of the keyboard (variously labeled "Backspace" and "Delete") send a Delete character rather than a Backspace. (You can still send a Backspace by pressing Control-Backspace.)
"Send vi commands to position cursor": Applies to ASCII terminal emulation when using the UNIX vi editor. This mode allows the cursor to be positioned more accurately and also sends fewer characters.
"Do CR-LF when LF received (newline mode)": Interpret linefeed characters sent from the host as newlines (carriage return-linefeeds).
"Substitute Comet-font for characters > 127": By default, dataComet uses the dataComet fonts for all ASCII characters received which are greater than 127. This option allows you to use the whole font selected with the "Fonts" Control menu for compatibility with international and other specialized fonts. (Note that the VT100 graphics characters will not appear correctly if this option is chosen; also, this option is set automatically for PC-ANSI sessions.)
"Wrap text when line overflows": Causes characters past the right margin to wrap down to a new line rather than being ignored.
"BS wraps": Allows the cursor to wrap back to the end of the previous line when a BS is received. This is not standard VT100 behavior, but works well when entering long command lines in UNIX.
"Use VT100 jump scrolling mode": Configures the ASCII emulators so that they will not update the screen immediately when the cursor goes above or below the scrolling area, but will wait until all the data from the host has been processed. This can speed up the display with some applications, since scrolling takes a lot of time.
"Do Blink": You can use this for special cases in which you wish to disable the "Blink" attribute in a VT100 display.
"Update display promptly on clear": When this option is set, dataComet displays all data before it is cleared. Otherwise, it delays drawing until all processing of current host data is complete.
"Log Erase": Logs lines which are partially erased in the scrollback buffer and session log.
"Use IBM menus and key mapping": When you connect to an IBM EBCDIC host indirectly using an ASCII emulator, for example over a modem or Sytek, or through a UNIX machine running tn3270, you can select this option to get key mapping, menus, and controls which send IBM EBCDIC PF keys. You need to use the Heath-19 emulator and choose the TERMINAL TYPE "c19" when logging on over a Sytek or modem connection in order get the host to use the correct key mapping. Choosing this option may disable other ASCII emulation options below.
"Option is Meta Key": When the option key is down, metafy the character by sending an <ESCAPE> before sending the character. This is usually used with EMACS. The Control Global dialog item "Remap Option-key combinations" must be ON, and the dataComet-Keyboard must be installed in the System file for this to work for all characters (otherwise E, I, N, U, and ` will misbehave, see the document "A3. dataComet Keyboard").
"Answerback": The answerback message dataComet sends back to the host when it receives a Control-E from the host.
"Paste Pacing" options allow you to configure ASCII pastes to work reliably with your host in cases where the host is slow. If "Wait for character echo" is set, dataComet will wait for each character sent to be echoed before sending the next character. If you set "ticks/line," dataComet will pause for that number of ticks (1/60ths of a second) before sending the next line; "ticks/char" pauses for the given number of ticks for each character.
Size: Rows & Columns: You can use these fields to customize the size of the emulator. NOTE that you will have to configure your host to recognize any size other than 24 rows X 80 columns if the host does not accept Telnet window size negotiations. Only emulator sizes with less than 256 rows and total are less than 32000 characters are valid.
Flow Control: XOFF, XON, and KILL characters. dataComet will halt scrolling faster if you set the XOFF character to the character used by your host to temporarily suspend data transmission.
This dialog allows you to control the configuration of the session which is currently on top when the connection is made using the 3270 emulator.
"Typeahead: allow input when System Busy": The Typeahead option in the Control Menu allows you to set the emulator so it will discard all input when the SYS (system lock) light is on, as would a genuine IBM 3270 display. Thus, if typeahead is turned off, for a moment after the Enter key or a PF key is pressed, no input will be accepted from the keyboard, and all pending keyboard events will be discarded. If typeahead is on, keyboard input will be discarded only in the event of a "keyboard lock" condition, signified by the KBD light on the right of the screen, or if an error occurs in processing a command. (Note that when the Keyboard lock condition occurs, it can be cleared by either pushing the Reset button or executing the Reset menu command.)
The IBM 3270 video display terminal distinguishes between null characters and spaces, yet displays both as blank spaces. Because this distinction fails to deliver "what you see is what you get," we have two menu options for handling nulls.
"Send Imbedded 3278 Nulls as Blanks": Causes the emulator to substitute blanks for nulls which are in the middle of text within a field.
"Squeeze out blanks at end of field in Insert mode": Causes blanks to be treated like nulls so that blanks at the end of a field will be deleted as you insert text in the middle of the field.
"Shift whole field when deleting characters": Causes the whole field, rather than just the portion of the field on the current line, to shift to the left when a character is deleted.
"Use starting cursor position as margin when pasting": Causes pastes to move the cursor back to the original starting column on the next row rather than to the beginning of the next row.
IBM Terminal Type: Allows you to set screen sizes other than the standard 24 row by 80 column display. NOTE that not all applications will use the larger display area.
"Use Courier font when printing on a LaserWriter": This option allows you to configure dataComet so that it will use the resident LaserWriter Courier font when printing; this saves the time it takes to build the dataComet fonts and get better justification of columns; with the Courier font, however, the NOTIS library foreign character set will no longer print as you see it on the screen.
"Add page numbers at bottom of page": Page numbers will be added.
"Print lines scrolled off top": All lines scrolled off the top or cleared will be printed (this duplicates the Menu item "Print lines off top").
"Show "Print..." Dialog when printing host print streams" allows you to disable print dialogs when printing VT100 print streams.
"Print scrolling region only" is a VT100 print option, usually selected by the host.
"QuickDraw Margins": These items allow you to set the margins (in 72/inch) when printing using QuickDraw.
"Serial Printing Mode:"
These items control global configuration for using serial printers directly, bypassing QuickDraw bit-map printing, in order to save time and paper.
"Use serial port for printing as global default (not QuickDraw)" and
"Use serial port for this session only" directs printed text directly to a serial port for maximum printing speed. The port configuration defaults to 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity. The "Modem Port" and "Printer Port" radio buttons allow you to select the port to which the serial printer is connected.
"Add Linefeed after Carriage Return" is used when a serial port printer requires a Linefeed control character to advance one line.
"Add Form Feed at end of page" allows you to skip printing page headers, page footers (and page numbers), and the Form Feed at the end of the page so you can produce a continuous printout.
"Lines/page": Controls how many lines dataComet's serial routines print before ejecting to the top of the next page.
"Top Line": Sets the number of lines to skip at the top of each page when serial printing is used.
"# Line": The line number on which the page number will be printed, if page numbering is enabled.
"Left Margin": Sets the number of spaces skipped at the left margin of each page when serial printing is used.
"Automatic": The VT100 keypad configuration is controlled by the host application. Host application control sequences to change the keypad functions are ignored if the following options are used:
"Calculator": The keypad sends the characters associated with the labels in the "Set Keypad..." drawing, allowing you to exit PF key modes and send numeric keys.
"PF-Application": The keypad sends the VT100 codes associated with the Keypad Application mode.
"PF-Alternate": The keypad sends the VT100 codes associated with the Keypad Alternate Application mode.
"Switch Standard keyboard +/- keys to match picture": The Macintosh Standard and Extended keyboards have the '+' and '-' keys swapped. This setting allows you to remap the two keys so they're swapped back, producing the PF and other keys as they appear in the "Set Keypad..." pictures.
"VT220 named FKeys sent without Shift key down": Usually the six function keys in the middle of the keyboard perform local Macintosh functions, and you need to hold down the Shift key to send the VT220 FKeys which are associated with these keys. This option swaps these functions, so that Shift is required instead to perform the local Macintosh functions.
"F1 -> F6, F2 -> F7, etc. (NCSA FKey mapping)": Many emulators map the VT220 PF keys at the top of the keyboard, rather than sending the exact equivalent (this helps fit the 24 PF keys on a Macintosh keyboard which has only 20 PF keys!); this option allows you to select this behavior. dataComet's default sends F1 -> F1, etc., because the alternative "+5" remapping truly confuses naive users.
The "Function 1", "Function 2", and "Function 3" keyboards provide convenient alternative keymappings for the keypad for interacting with IBM hosts.
The "Control Color" dialog allows you to turn color mapping on and off and set the color map for a session. The VT100 and 3270 emulators allow you to associate character attributes with different foreground and background colors; you can also select the button "Host Selects Colors" with VT220 and PC-ANSI mode to use host ANSI color sequences to set the color independently of other character attributes and map bold characters to the Intense color to display 16-color PC-ANSI screens.
Clicking on a color brings up the standard Macintosh "Choose Color" dialog. Note that dataComet does not modify the Macintosh Color Palette, so the appearance of a color on the display may differ from the field displayed in the "Choose Color" dialog if you are only displaying 16 colors on your monitor. This is set in the Monitors Control Panel; this provides few colors into which to map your color choice in the Color Dialog into the existing 16 color Pallette. (Not modifying the Palette avoids nasty changes in the appearance of other applications when the Palette is changed.)
To simplify copying color settings from one session to another, you can Copy the settings from one Color dialog and Paste them into another Color dialog.
"Extended": Displays and allows you to modify the extended color range for PC-ANSI highlighted characters.
"Color mapping on": Use colors rather than black and white when displaying an emulator screen.
"Host selects colors": Let color control sequences received from the host determine the color set for fields in the emulator screen rather than setting them automatically according to the type of the field.
