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TAZ TAZ _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 1994 Neat and Nifty Software Users Manual Users Manual TAZ TAZ _________________________________________________________________ Version 1.00 Copyright Notice Copyright Notice TAZ is Copyright 1994 by Neat and Nifty Software This document is Copyright 1994 by Neat and Nifty Neither this document or associated software may be copied in whole or in part without the expressed permission of Neat and Nifty, unless distributed in its entire form along with all associated files. Release 1.x of TAZ is released under the Shareware concept and may be distributed on diskette or in archival form provided that the following files are included: TAZ.PRG TAZ program file UPDTAZ.TOS An updater for those who somehow got older versions of TAZ DOCFORM.TTP A simple document splitter / formatter TAZ.DOC This document VT52.KEY VT52 Terminal Macros ANSI.KEY ANSI Terminal Macros FULLANSI.KEY More complete ANSI Terminal Macros READ.ME Notes about the document formatter HISTORY The revision history TAZ.ICN A desktop icon for TAZ TAZ.MSK The desktop icon mask As a Shareware item, if you appreciate and continue to use TAZ, a contribution to Neat and Nifty would be appreciated. At this time we are not sure if we will have 'Registered Users' versions and privileges, but all contributors names will be kept on file should we choose to go this route. Disclaimer Disclaimer Neat and Nifty makes no warranty of any kind, either stated or implied to the appropriateness of this product for any particular purpose. Continued use of this product is done entirely at the users own risk. Under no circumstances shall Neat and Nifty be liable for any damages (including loss of data, business time or information, or any other form of loss) incurred through use of this product, even if Neat and Nifty has been advised in advance of the pos- sibility of such damages. i Acknowledgements Acknowledgements Terminal emulations and transfer protocols by Daryl Richards. Screen and menu systems by Kevin Tessner. All other code by Daryl Richards and Kevin Tessner. All code in this program was originally written and optimized with ST MicroEMACS and Atari's Madmac Assembler. It is now developed with Pure Assembler and the Pure C integrated environ- ment. Any similarities between our routines and somebody else's are purely coincidental. Special thanks to the beta testers, Don Mahoney, George Kirkaldie, Scott Wilkins, Fran Domingues and Chris Herborth. Special thanks to Craig Shore in New Zealand for his early advice, and for giving TAZ some exposure there long before it was ever intended for public release. You can't imagine how surpris- ed we were! ii Contents Contents Copyright Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i Disclaimer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . i Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii 1 Introduction 1 1 Introduction ____________ What is TAZ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Associated Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The TAZ Home Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Memory Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Why We Didn't Use GEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2 Getting Started 5 2 Getting Started _______________ Loading TAZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 How to Get Anywhere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 The Status Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Communications Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Entering Strings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 String Translation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Exiting TAZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 3 Program Features 9 3 Program Features ________________ Hanging Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Terminal Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Inactivity Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Capture File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Scroll Back . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 System Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Running the Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Launching Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Screen Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Clear Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Local Echo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Line Feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Information Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Modem Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 View System Screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Doorway Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Chat Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 4 The Dialing Directory 17 4 The Dialing Directory _____________________ The Directory Display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Entry Information Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Adding an Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Editing an Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Inserting Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Clearing Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Deleting Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Marking an Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 iii Clearing all Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Dialing Marked Entries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Dialing a Single Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Manually Dialing an Entry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Quick Dialing from Terminal Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Saving The Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Loading a Dialing Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Exiting the Dialing Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Quick Mouse Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 The Autodialer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 5 File Transfers 23 5 File Transfers ______________ Ascii Transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Xmodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Xmodem CRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Xmodem 1K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Ymodem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Ymodem/G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Transfers Buffer Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 High Speed Transfer Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 External Protocols . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 6 Configuring Taz 27 6 Configuring Taz _______________ Terminal Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 General Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Modem and Dialing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 File Names and Paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Ascii Transfers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Protocol Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Screen and Colour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 7 Taz Graphic Modes 37 7 Taz Graphic Modes _________________ Minimum Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Medium Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Maximum Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Standard Text Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 8 Modem Setup 39 8 Modem Setup ___________ Required Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Convenience Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Using the Modem Initialization String . . . . . . . . . 40 Appendix A Embedded Key Translations 41 Appendix A Embedded Key Translations _________________________ Appendix B Doorway Mode Key Mapping 43 Appendix B Doorway Mode Key Mapping ________________________ Appendix C Trademarks 45 Appendix C Trademarks __________ Neat and Nifty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Trademarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Index 47 Index _____ iv TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 1 _________________________________________________________________ 1 Introduction 1 Introduction ____________ What is TAZ? What is TAZ? TAZ is a full featured terminal program for the Atari ST based loosely off of Telix for the IBM PC. Daryl and I looked at the world of ST term programs one day and said to ourselves, "This sucks rocks." There were quite a few terms out there, but none that combined good emulation, broad protocol support, ease of use, and a decent running speed into a single package. So we sat down and decided to write one. Even more, we decided to do it 100% in assembly so that we could add high speed text and protocol support, and if we could swing it, a 640x200 16 colour text mode for calling up the more artistic ANSI boards. We never did get it to do everything we wanted it to do (scripts, true VT100, and a screen system that's more intelligent from our point of view) but we're still working on it and it'll get there "Real soon now." In the meantime, its complete enough that we can release it without making fools of ourselves, and if we're really lucky, we may even get some support. Features Features o Most commonly encountered transfer protocols, with Zmodem, Kermit and CIS-B coming in the near future. o Internal RS232 routines, providing reliable high speed operation and flow control on any TOS. o 38400 and beyond speed support. When combined with TurboRS, TAZ provides reliable text and file transfer rates up 38400 bps. TAZ also provides reliable 57600 bps on accelerated machines, and 115200 on the Atari TT. o VT-52 and IBM ANSI compatible emulations. TAZ also has special screen modes allowing for 16 colour 80x25 text in stock ST video modes. o A selection of ATARI and IBM character sets. TAZ supports definable ST and PC character sets, which may also be linked to the dialing directory. o A 200 entry dialing directory, with multiple directory files, queue redialing and intuitive mouse support. o Walk away inactivity protection, individually customized by each directory entry. o A shell function so you can do useful things while waiting for CRS to scan for new mail in its billions of conferences. o External editor support, for editing the contents of the scroll back buffer, or any other file you wish. o A painless chat mode giving you BBS style chatting without fiddling around with echo and duplex toggles. Page 2 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ o IBM compatible Doorway mode for running IBM doors that use Alt and Function keys. Associated Files Associated Files The release version of TAZ comes with the following files: TAZ.PRG TAZ program file UPDTAZ.TOS An updater for those who somehow got older versions of TAZ DOCFORM.TTP A simple document splitter / formatter TAZ.DOC This document VT52.KEY VT52 Terminal Macros ANSI.KEY ANSI Terminal Macros FULLANSI.KEY More complete ANSI Terminal Macros READ.ME Notes about the document formatter HISTORY The revision history TAZ.ICN A desktop icon for TAZ TAZ.MSK The desktop icon mask In addition to these, TAZ will create several files for itself: TAZ.CFG The config file TAZ.DIL The default dialing directory TAZ.CAP The default capture file TAZ.SBK The scroll back image for editing TAZ.BUF A buffer swap file used during shells *.KEY Various Macro Files TAZ opens only one file at a time, so it shouldn't cause many problems with weird things running in the background. You may also notice TAZ accessing the disk drive as it quits, this is normal as TAZ updates the dialing directory, scroll back and other files. The TAZ Home Path The TAZ Home Path TAZ keeps all of its files in a home directory. This is normally the startup directory, but it can be overridden by including a TAZ=pathname entry in your environment. TAZ=pathname can also be passed as a command line argument which overrides both the environment and startup paths. TAZ will switch back to the startup drive and directory if any of the override paths are invalid. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 3 _________________________________________________________________ Memory Requirements Memory Requirements Although the program file is only 75k, TAZ does require a fair amount of memory to run in. Specifically, it needs 140k just to boot up, 64k for screen (minimum), and 80k for general overhead. Scroll back, capture and file transfer buffers are allocated on top of this. A good rule of thumb is to have 300k available before loading TAZ. If you're a single floppy user on a 512k machine, it is best to run TAZ with minimum graphics and scroll back disabled. Why We Didn't Use GEM Why We Didn't Use GEM You will notice that TAZ does not use the ST's GEM system. Though we feel its a decent system, it is limited in scope, tough to interface with assembly, and above all painfully slow. TAZ was written with high speed, high performance terminal emulation in mind, and it won't happen on a stock ST with GEM. TAZ may one day be entirely rewritten in C with good GEM and Multi-TOS links, but this would be a release for the Falcon/TT only. This all depends on the sort of demand we get for it, and if we have the time to completely rewrite a program that has already taken two years to produce. (What can we say, its a hobby.) We will admit, using GEM would be nice, if only to get at desk accessories and a file selector. After reading through the GEM Programmers Reference though, it's safe to say its not going to happen without going to C, which would mean abandoning many of the optimizations we set out to incorporate. Life sucks, then you die. Page 4 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 5 _________________________________________________________________ 2 Getting Started 2 Getting Started _______________ Loading TAZ Loading TAZ When TAZ starts up it loads the config, dial directory, and default macros. It will create them if they aren't found, so you may notice a slight delay before the term screen comes up. If you're expecting a title screen forget it -- we're not artists and we hate crippleware. If you experience an overwhelming need for this sort of pointless frivolity, feel free to write one and load it before running TAZ. If its really nice, send it to us. If you are online (carrier detect is high) when starting TAZ, it will use the current baud rate settings, rather than those set in the config file. (1) TAZ will also bypass the modem initialization in this case. This behaviour can be forced by starting TAZ with a -o command line parameter. How to Get Anywhere How to Get Anywhere Pressing HELP or the right mouse button will call the main menu, or hit Alt-O to go straight to the Configuration menu. In any menu, hitting the hotkey associated with an option (an indexed or underlined character) or clicking on the option with the mouse will select it. Main menu functions may also be accessed direct- ly from terminal mode by pressing alt and the associated key. Those familiar with Telix should note that most of the commands are the same. The Status Line The Status Line The status line in TAZ is optional (hit Insert to get rid of it in a hurry) and is set up under the Config : General Options Config : General Options menu. Though most of the info on it is self explanatory, some of it is less obvious. The first section of the status line tells you that you are running TAZ. It also gives you the version number, something nice to have on hand when you phone us at 3:00 am to complain about bugs. (2) ____________________ 1 Reading the current RS232 settings cannot be done on TOS versions lower than 1.4. If TurboRS is installed, TAZ will read its current physical rate. 2 This practise is strongly discouraged Page 6 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Following that are the communications parameters and the modem status, FDX or HDX for full and half duplex respectively, or CHT to indicate 'Chat Mode'. The next window tells you what emulation you are using, and the level of graphics capability. Note that graphic capabilities apply only to ANSI emulation, for a full explanation of the various modes, see Chapter 7 : TAZ Graphics Modes. Chapter 7 : TAZ Graphics Modes Following that is the gadgets window, which contains the follow- ing symbols which track the active terminal features: (1) Left Arrow: Auto wrap on. The cursor will feed to the next line after the 80th character has been reached. Down Arrow: Smart line feeds active. When a single carriage return or line feed is received, it will be converted to a return / line feed pair automatically. Musical Note: Sound is on. You will hear all internal sound effects and stupid pinging noises sent by remote systems. Clock: Inactivity protection is on. If you have not sent a charac- ter for the specified inactivity time, the inactivity string will be sent to the remote system to prevent time out log- offs. CAP: Indicates that capture is on. If capture is turned on but temporarily paused, PAS will appear instead. Last is the line status window, which displays Online or Offline based on the carrier detect status. The timer beside this tells you how long you've been online, or how long you were online the last time. (2) ____________________ 1 These symbols are not hard-coded in TAZ, but come from the Atari font set. Some versions of this font may not appear with the appropriate graphics. 2 Sorry Don, there is not, nor will there ever be, seconds on the timer display. We like to think we're catering to high speed users, and it would take too much time to parse and redraw this thing once every second. ;-) TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 7 _________________________________________________________________ Communications Parameters Communications Parameters To change the baud rate, parity, etc press P from the main menu. This menu is fairly straight forward, and we broke Telix style conventions here for the sake of ease -- If you want an E72 connection, you can hit the keys E,7,2. For the moment the only ports supported by TAZ are Modem1 (the stock ST port) and Serial2 (on the TT). We hope to support Modem2 (Falcon anybody?) and Serial1 in the future, but we lack the hardware specs to do it at the moment. (1) Note the baud rates above 19200 -- These will work only if you are using Neat 'n Nifty's "TurboRS" upgrade, and have run the software patch. Though these rates may be selected without the upgrade, you will really only be running at 19200 baud. Entering Strings Entering Strings TAZ provides full editing when entering strings in menus and prompts. Right, Left, BackSpace and Delete all perform the usual edit functions, with Up and Down acting as Home and End. The mouse may also be used to position the cursor by clicking on the desired location with the left button. All typed characters will be inserted at the current cursor position. If you are editing an existing string, TAZ has a 'new or edit' strategy. A new string is started automatically if you start typing, or the existing string can be edited by using the edit or cursor keys first. The original string can be restored using Undo, while pressing Escape abandons the edit. To accept the edit, press Enter or the right mouse button. ____________________ 1 If you have good specs on these ports, especially the Falcon / TT hardware implementation of Modem2, please send them to us at the address on page 45. Page 8 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ String Translation String Translation Modem strings and a few others (such as inactivity and macro definitions) use the following characters to imbed special functions: ^ This character is used to embed control characters. It works with the characters @ through [ to produce the ASCII values 0 through 27. Common ones are: ^M : Carriage Return ^J : Line Feed ^[ : Escape ^H : Backspace ^I : Tab ^G : Bell (annoying ping) Use two ^ characters if you wish to output an actual ^. ~ This character is used to indicate a half second pause. It is useful for things like the hang up string, where modems typically require a 1 second guard time around the +++ sequence. ie: "~~~+++~~~ATH^M" For an actual ~ character, use ^~. | This is used exclusively in macro definitions to embed Alt keys. Lower case characters imbed the corresponding alt- key, the upper case characters are used for special keys. See Appendix A: EMBEDDED KEY TRANSLATIONS on page 41 for specifics. Once again, ^| gives an actual |. Exiting TAZ Exiting TAZ Pressing Undo or Alt-X from terminal mode allows you to exit TAZ. If you are still online at this point, TAZ will ask if you wish to hang up, or simply exit. If you choose not to hang up (or the hang up fails) TAZ will not lower DTR or send the modem exit string. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 9 _________________________________________________________________ 3 Program Features 3 Program Features ________________ Hanging Up Hanging Up Pressing Alt-H from terminal mode (or H from the main menu) will cause TAZ to attempt a hang up. There are two ways that TAZ can do this, either by sending a 'hang up string' to the modem, or by dropping the DTR. Dropping DTR is the preferred method, mainly because it's quicker. If this fails (carrier detect remains high) TAZ will try using the hang up string. If that too fails, TAZ will let you know with a 'Hang up Failed' message. If you prefer to use the hang up string directly, set Drop DTR to Hang Up to 'No' in Drop DTR to Hang Up the Config : Modem and Dialing menu. Config : Modem and Dialing Terminal Settings Terminal Settings Pressing Alt-T from terminal mode brings up this menu. All terminal related settings can be changed from here. Character Set: This selects the Atari or PC character set. The Atari set may be changed externally via programs such as Warp9. Terminal Emulation: The terminal to emulate. TAZ supports TTY (glass teletype), VT-52 with colour extensions (the Atari standard) and ANSI (a stripped down VT-100, conforming to IBM PC quirks). To switch emulations quickly, press T, V or A for TTY, VT-52 or ANSI respectively. Auto Wrap: When the cursor reaches the right hand side of the screen it will move to the beginning of the next line if this setting is on. Backspace Destructive: When turned on, characters will be erased as they are back- spaced over. Backspace Key Sends: TAZ can transmit one of two ASCII codes for backspace, 08 (the standard BS) or 127 (known as DEL) which is commonly used with unix hosts. Page 10 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Strip High Bit: This forces TAZ to limit the received characters to a seven bit format by ignoring the most significant bit of each character. Sound: This controls the use of alert bells from TAZ and the host connection. When Off these sounds will not be heard. Graphics Mode: This sets the graphics mode used for ANSI displays. The highest displayable mode is set in the Config : General Config : General Options menu -- selecting a higher mode from here will have Options no effect. Inactivity Event: This translated string will be sent to the remote site when the inactive time expires. Inactivity Time: The length of time (in seconds) that TAZ will wait for a key before sending the inactivity event to the remote site. This is used to prevent time out logoffs. Inactivity Protection Inactivity Protection TAZ provides a customizable inactivity protection system. Every time a key is transmitted in terminal mode, an internal timer is reset. Should this timer reach the specified time, the inactiv- ity string will be sent out. This allows you to ignore your terminal for a while without fear of being logged off. To setup this feature, enter the terminal settings menu (described above) and press I or S to change the timer or string respectively. A timer value of zero or a blank string deactivates the protection feature. Protection settings are also linked to the entries in the dialing directory. When you connect to a system from the directory, the timer and string are set from the system's entry. When you disconnect, protection will be deactivated automatically. See The Dialing Directory on page 17 for more information on linking The Dialing Directory protection to specific entries. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 11 _________________________________________________________________ Capture File Capture File TAZ allows you to capture all incoming data to a file on the disk. This feature is controlled on the Alt-C hotkey (C from the main menu). When you first invoke capture, you will be prompted for the [path] file name to capture to, just hit return to use the default. CAP will appear in the gadget window of the status line to let you know it is on. To close capture, hit Alt-C again and you will be prompted to close or pause the capture file. When paused, Alt-C prompts you to close or unpause the capture. Emulation codes, backspaces, clear-screens and bells will not be written to the capture file. Disk access is not as fast as it could be here as TAZ opens the file, writes to it, then closes it again on every update. This method is slower, but there is less data loss in event of a crash. The size of the capture buffer can be set up under the Config : Config : General Options menu. If set to zero, TAZ will use all available General Options free RAM as a capture buffer. Scroll Back Scroll Back Missed that 3 page message that whizzed by without a prompt? No problem, just hit Alt-B and you can scroll back to look at it again. By default this buffer is 32k in size, but it can be changed under Config : General Options. Selecting a scroll back Config : General Options size of zero completely disables the scroll back feature. Scroll back always displays the last screenful received, but you may return to the last viewed position by pressing 'L'. If the buffer has filled beyond that point, pressing 'L' takes you to the top of the buffer, the same as selecting Home. The arrow keys are used to move around in the scroll back buffer with Help and Undo used for Home and End. If you are looking for a particular spot in the scroll back buffer, you can search forwards or reverse using the F and R keys, with S selecting the search string. The current screenful can be saved to disk using the 'I' key. You will be prompted for the file name to use, hit enter to use the default. The current screen will be appended to the spec- ified file. To save the entire contents of the scroll back buffer, press 'W'. Page 12 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ The contents of the buffer may be edited by selecting E. The editor program defined in Config : File Names and Paths will be Config : File Names and Paths run with the name of the buffer file passed as an additional argument. When the editor returns, the buffer will reload with the edited file. System Shell System Shell If you have launched TAZ from a command line shell, you can shell out by pressing Alt-J. If TAZ is unable to locate the proper shell parameters it will attempt to run the program specified under Config : File Names and Paths. If no shell program has Config : File Names and Paths been specified, TAZ will come up with a 'Nowhere to Shell' message and return to terminal mode. TAZ links into the system timer and Bios services during the shell and continues to provide inactivity protection. Upon return TAZ copies the contents of TOS' RS232 buffers into its own, so that no characters will be lost. There are a number of things that TAZ can do with its buffers to manage RAM when shelling. They can be kept in memory, swapped to disk, or simply dumped. This is setup under the Config: General Config: General Options menu. Options Running the Editor Running the Editor The editor is defined under Config : File Names and Paths and can Config : File Names and Paths be launched from terminal mode by pressing Alt-N. Buffer manage- ment and inactivity protection are handled in the same manner as they are during a system shell. Launching Programs Launching Programs If you wish to launch a programs other than the shell and editor, it can be done from the Launch option on the main menu, Alt-L. You will be prompted for the name of the program, which may include a full path name and arguments. Buffer management and inactivity protection are applied here as well. Screen Image Screen Image The current contents of the terminal screen can be appended to an image file by pressing Alt-I. The image is taken from the scroll back buffer, which is updated on an 'as it comes in' basis. Screens drawn by terminal position sequences, such as full screen editor displays, will not produce intelligible images. The default file is defined in Config : File Names and Paths, or Config : File Names and Paths which ever file name was used last. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 13 _________________________________________________________________ Clear Screen Clear Screen Clearing the terminal screen is a simple matter of hitting the ClrHome key. This clears the terminal screen only, and will not send any codes out the RS232 port. Local Echo Local Echo Also known as half duplex operation, local echo can be toggled on and off by pressing Alt-E. HDX/FDX is displayed in the communi- cations parameters window of the status line to let you know the current setting. It can also be set up under the Config : Config : Terminal Options menu. Terminal Options Line Feeds Line Feeds TAZ can detect orphaned carriage returns and line feeds, and handle them as if they were proper return / line feed pairs. This feature can be left on at all times, but you may encounter systems which take advantage of single returns or line feeds for overprinting and vertical tabbing. Pressing Alt-A allows you to toggle 'smart' line feeds on and off. The default can be set up in Config : Terminal Options as well as in individual dialing Config : Terminal Options directory entries. Information Screen Information Screen Alt-I brings up this screen, which displays general information about TAZ. Here you will find the exact version number and assembly date of the program, as well as memory allocation information. Please use this information when reporting bugs. Modem Functions Modem Functions Pressing Alt-M brings up the modem functions menu. From here you can press I to initialize the modem via the 'Init String', R to reset it with the 'Exit string' or B to send a break signal. Some host systems require a break to perform functions such as aborting a transfer or ending transmissions. View System Screen View System Screen The GEM system screen can be viewed by pressing Alt-V from terminal mode. This allows you to look at the last screen of output from the shell, editor or other launched program. Page 14 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Macros Macros Pressing Alt-K accesses the macro functions. TAZ tracks 3 sets of macros, regular (the user macros) and two terminal sets which will be used under the appropriate emulation. In this manner you can customize the terminal keys to add uncommon definitions, or adapt to systems which use slight variations. On pressing Alt-K you will be asked which of the 3 macro sets to work on before proceeding to the macro edit screen. Any key can be a macro in TAZ, including those normally used to Any key access program functions. Macros can also contain Control and Alt key combinations, and remain active while in menus. New macros will not be activated once within the menu system, and macros cannot chain to other macros. See String Translation on String Translation page 8 for more information about embedded combinations. Regular macros will always be searched first, and outweigh duplicate keys defined as Terminal macros. This can be used to your advantage to override a terminal key while on specific systems. For example, a BBS editor may use Control-V to toggle insert mode, yet ignore a proper insert key sequence. This could be defined in a set of Regular macros and linked with the dialing directory, leaving the Terminal definition intact for other systems. Each set of macros can have a maximum of 40 keys defined. As the edit screen can only display 10 at a time, use the keys 1-4 to selectively view all of them. To add a new key or edit an existing one, select Edit from the menu on the bottom of the display. When prompted for the key to edit, press the combination to which you will assign the macro and press enter to accept it. If you pressed the wrong combina- tion you may press backspace to change it, or escape / undo to abort. The contents of a macro may be up to 74 characters long and may use imbedded pauses, control characters or alt keys. Delete is used to remove a macro, with the key prompt handled the same way as for editing. To delete all keys in the set select Clear. You will be prompted for confirmation to prevent acciden- tal erasures. To save the current macro set, select Save and enter the file name at the prompt. There is no auto save of macro sets, so you must save your changes from the editing screen. Use load to use an alternate macro set. These macros replace the previous ones, so be sure to save your changes before loading another set. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 15 _________________________________________________________________ You can switch between sets when editing by pressing R, V or A to switch to the Regular, VT-52 or ANSI sets respectively. The display will return to Page 1 when switching, loading or saving sets. A note about the Ansi macro sets. ANSI.KEY defines the cursor keys only. If you require a more complete set of key defini- tions, load the file FULLANSI.KEY. This contains definitions for the standard cursor keys, and maps the numeric keypad to the application mode sequences for cursor, page up/dn, home and end. Doorway Mode Doorway Mode Pressing Alt-= (1) toggles Doorway mode, for use with the IBM Doorway utility. This mode removes the status line, forces ANSI emulation, disables auto-wrap and remaps the keyboard to return IBM PC bios codes. Since most keys can be sent in this manner, hot keys and macros (other than Alt-=) are disabled while in Doorway mode. Doorway Mode Key Mapping on page 43 contains a Doorway Mode Key Mapping complete listing of the available PC keys. TAZ functions can still be accessed via the mouse buttons or the Help key. Sequences sent by TAZ functions (the hang up string for instance) are not translated by Doorway Mode. Chat Mode Chat Mode If you wish to make a person to person connection TAZ can provide full duplex and line feeds to both sides of the connection. Alt-Y places TAZ into chat mode from the terminal screen. An infinite loop situation will occur if the other end is also a full duplex connection, as characters will be bounced back and forth. If this occurs, hit Alt-Y again to disable chat mode. As most modems provide full duplex, chat mode is disabled while offline, and is not stored in the config file. ____________________ 1 Yeah we know it's stupid, but its probably the key sequence least likely to show up when using Doorway mode with a remote. Besides that, we got it from Telix. Page 16 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 17 _________________________________________________________________ 4 The Dialing Directory 4 The Dialing Directory _____________________ TAZ keeps track of phone numbers for you in the dialing direc- tory. To enter the directory from terminal mode press Alt-D or the left mouse button. If you wish to dial from a predetermined list of numbers, you may press Alt-Q (this will be explained in further detail later on). TAZ can handle multiple directories with a maximum of 200 entries each. When starting a new di- rectory, you will have to add entries. This is accomplished by pressing 'A'. The default directory is called TAZ.DIL, but you may have as many directories as you wish. Changes are automatically saved when TAZ exits, and before loading another directory. You will be prompted in the case of loading another directory, allowing you to reload the current one if you decide to discard your changes. An '*' character will appear in the top corner of the directory menu if any changes have been made. The Directory Display The Directory Display The top line is a quick index of the columns in the listing, followed by up to 20 entries of the directory. Not all of info associated with an entry is displayed in this listing. The lower section is the directory menu, some 'convenience features' are not displayed here either for space reasons. One of the entries in the list is highlighted, this is known as the active entry. To move the highlight bar use the up and down arrows. Help and Undo act as Home and End, with the right and left arrows acting as Page Up and Page Down. The listing will scroll through all entries in either direction as the highlight bar is moved. Entry Information Fields Entry Information Fields Entry Name: The name of directory entry, typically that of the remote site, ie: "Gilligan's Island" or "Canada Remote Systems" Phone number: Up to 15 characters in length, the phone number may contain embedded codes as needed. Maximum Rings: When dialing out, some modems can tell that the other end is ringing. TAZ counts the number of rings and will abort dialing if the maximum is reached. To leave this feature off, select zero rings. Page 18 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Com Parameters: These are the RS232 port settings for the entry. They will be set before dialing the entry to ensure that the modem makes the appropriate connection. Dial Prefix: TAZ has three dialing prefixes (setup under Config : Modem Config : Modem and Dialing). These codes are sent to the modem before the and Dialing phone number, to inform the modem that you wish it to dial. Typical strings are ATDT, ATDP and ATDT*70W (for users of call waiting). This field tells TAZ which of the three you wish to use when calling a particular entry. Character Set: This selects the appropriate character set for use with the remote site, either the Atari's native set, or the PC char- acter set (mainly for use with ANSI). Local Echo: This controls full or half duplex communications with this entry. Emulation: The terminal emulation to use once a connection has been established. Auto Wrap: When the cursor reaches the right hand side of the screen it will move to the beginning of the next line if this setting is on. Line Feeds: This controls TAZ' use of smart line feeds when connected with the entry. They can either be on or off. BS Destructive: This controls wether or not characters will be erased when they are backspaced over. BS Key Sends: TAZ can transmit one of two ASCII codes for backspace, 08 (the standard BS character) or 127, also known as the DELete character and used with some unix hosts. Strip High Bit: This forces TAZ to limit the received characters to a seven bit format by ignoring the most significant bit of each character. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 19 _________________________________________________________________ Sound: This controls the use of alert bells from TAZ and the host connection. When Off these sounds will not be heard. Inactivity Event: This translated string will be sent to the remote site when the inactive time expires. Inactivity Time: The length of time (in seconds) that TAZ will wait for you to press a key before sending the inactivity event to the remote site. Used to prevent time out logoffs. Linked Macros: This file will be loaded once a connection has been estab- lished, and replaces the Regular macros currently in use. The default macros will be reloaded if this field is left blank. Adding an Entry Adding an Entry When starting a new directory, the first thing you'll need to do is add entries to it by pressing A. You will be asked the number of entries to add, use Escape or Undo to abort. Entries added to an existing directory will appear at the bottom. Editing an Entry Editing an Entry The highlighted entry is edited by pressing E or by clicking on it's Options section with the mouse. This will pop up the Edit Menu, from which each field can be edited. To accept the edits, exit the menu by pressing enter or the right mouse button. To abandon them, use Escape or Undo. Inserting Entries Inserting Entries Blank entries can be inserted into the middle of the directory by pressing I or Insert. You will be prompted for the number of entries to insert in the same manner as for Adding. The new entry(s) will be added at the highlighted position, with the rest being moved down to accommodate. To insert an entry at the bottom of the list, use Add. Page 20 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Clearing Entries Clearing Entries Press C and you will be prompted for the number of entries to clear. Cleared entries contain no name, phone number or inactiv- ity info, with all other fields initialized to the settings currently in use. Entries will be cleared starting at the active entry. Deleting Entries Deleting Entries To get rid of unwanted entries, select Delete. The number of entries you choose will be deleted from the active entry down. Marking an Entry Marking an Entry TAZ can auto dial from a list of marked entries. These entries will appear with a small arrow just to the left of the name field. Hitting the spacebar toggles the mark on the highlighted entry. You may also click on the name portion of any entry to toggle its mark. Blank entries will not be marked. Clearing all Marks Clearing all Marks The ClrHome key will erase all of the marks in the dialing directory. This feature does not appear on the menu, so be glad that you're taking the time to read this manual. Dialing Marked Entries Dialing Marked Entries Enter, Right Mouse, or selecting Marked from the menu dials marked entries, starting at the active entry. If it is not marked, dialing continues from the next entry that is. TAZ rotates through the marked entries until it connects or dialing is aborted. When an entry connects it will unmark, so remaining entries can be dialed by selected Marked again. When no entries are marked, TAZ single dials the active entry. Dialing a Single Entry Dialing a Single Entry The active entry can be dialed, regardless of other marks, by selecting Dial from the menu. If this entry was marked, the mark will be removed upon reaching a connection. Manually Dialing an Entry Manually Dialing an Entry To dial a number which is not in the directory, select Manual from the menu and enter the number at the prompt. TAZ will auto dial this number as it would any other. Dialing Prefix 1 will be used for a manual dial. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 21 _________________________________________________________________ Quick Dialing from Terminal Mode Quick Dialing from Terminal Mode As mentioned earlier, Alt-Q can be hit from terminal mode to commence quick dialing. This is a short cut for entering the dialing directory and Dialing Marked Entries. TAZ saves the entry marks in its dialing directories, so you can keep frequent- ly called numbers marked automatically. By hitting Alt-Q when you start TAZ, your regular numbers can be immediately dialed. Saving The Directory Saving The Directory To save a directory, select Save from the directory menu. You will be prompted for the name of the directory, the default being the currently loaded directory. Hit enter to accept it, or edit the name if you wish save to an alternate directory. All dialing directories will be stored in the home path. You do not have to save the directory every time you make a change. TAZ will automatically save changes for you when it exits. An '*' will appear at the top of the directory menu once changes have been made. Loading a Dialing Directory Loading a Dialing Directory Select Load from the menu to switch to an alternate directory. If the current directory has been edited, you will be prompted to save it before loading another. You will then prompted for the name of the alternate directory. All directories must reside in the home path. Exiting the Dialing Menu Exiting the Dialing Menu To return to terminal mode from the directory, press Escape or select Exit on the menu. Quick Mouse Functions Quick Mouse Functions A number of functions may be performed by left clicking on sections of the directory entries. Clicking an entry's name field toggles its mark. Clicking the phone number of an entry single dials it, the same as highlighting the entry and selecting Dial. To edit an entry, click anywhere on it's Options portion. Selecting the Com portion of an entry makes it the active entry. If you wish to start a Marked Dial from a specific entry, click its Com portion, then press the right mouse button. Page 22 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ The Autodialer The Autodialer When TAZ dials a number, it does so through the auto dialer. A window will appear overtop of the terminal screen which will display the attempt number (always reset to 1), the result of the last attempt, the time left for this attempt, and the name and number of the entry being dialed. If the dialer fails to connect (either by the modem returning one of the 4 'no connect' strings, or by running out of time) it will pause and proceed with the next marked number, or retry the current number if in single dial. The times and 'no connect' strings are all specified under Config : Modem and Dialing. Config : Modem and Dialing There are a number of options that the user has while auto dialing. Pressing Escape or Undo will abort the auto dialer, while pressing Enter 'forces' a connection, with all the settings in the dialing directory taking effect. You may also press U to 'unmark' the current number, or Space to cycle to the next one. When only one entry is marked, or if single dialing, pressing U aborts the dialer. T or P may be pressed to change the Dial or Pause times respect- ively. The current countdown freezes while editing these set- tings, and will continue when the edit is finished. The mouse may also be used within the auto dialer. Pressing the left mouse button will skip to the next number (or repeat if single dialing), while pressing the right mouse button will abort the dialer. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 23 _________________________________________________________________ 5 File Transfers 5 File Transfers ______________ TAZ internally supports Ascii, Xmodem and Ymodem transfers. A user defined external protocol is also supported. To send files, press Alt-S from terminal mode. You will be prompted for the protocol and asked to specify the file(s) to upload. For receiv- ing, press Alt-R and again pick the protocol. If you select a non-batch protocol, you will have to give the name of the received file. When single file names are given, TAZ looks for them in the upload / download paths depending on the direction of transfer. These can be overridden by including a path with the file name. Paths with a lead '\' will be set from the root, otherwise they will be treated as subdirs of the directory in use. Path names may also include a drive specification. Ymodem can send path names along with file names, but for most transfers this is not required. This option can be set under the Config: Protocol Config: Protocol Options menu. Options Ymodem can also send multiple files at a time, to do so enter each file name separated by a space. Once again, any file name may contain a path. If a path name is given followed by a space, this becomes the new path for any remaining files. You must include the trailing '\' so TAZ will know it is a path and not a file name. For example, typing "\terms\taz\ taz.prg taz.txt" will send both files from the \terms\taz directory, regardless of the default path. Ascii Transfers Ascii Transfers Ascii is not really a transfer protocol -- it offers no error detection or correction, and works with text files only. An Ascii transfer behaves as if the sender is typing the characters of the file, while the receiver records them. The speed of the 'typing' can be controlled, as well as the way in which end of lines are sent and recorded. This allows adaptation to systems which use single returns or line feeds as an end of line marker. Ascii's main use is in sending prepared text files to a remote editor. Page 24 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Xmodem Xmodem Xmodem was the first real file transfer protocol, and is the basis for many others. Xmodem sends files in blocks of 128 characters, using a mathematical checksum for error detection / correction. Xmodem has many limitations -- all files written will be a multiple of 128 bytes rather than their true size, and the file name must be specified to both sender and receiver. Only single files can be sent at a time, and it's slowed down by the small block size coupled with the turnaround delay of waiting for a response to each block. Xmodem CRC Xmodem CRC This is a small variation on the original Xmodem, the only difference being that a more sophisticated 16 bit CRC is used for error detection instead of the crude checksum. This increases reliability in the face of noise, but does little to solve Xmodem's other problems. Xmodem 1K Xmodem 1K To speed up Xmodem and accommodate faster modems, this flavour of Xmodem uses a 16 bit CRC and a 1k block size, opposed to the 128 bytes of the original. Once again, other Xmodem problems are retained. Ymodem Ymodem Ymodem is a small step above Xmodem 1k. It sends a block 0 containing the name, size and creation date of a file. Binary files retain their full information, and the receiver does not have to know the name of the file being received. Multiple files can also be sent in a single transfer, commonly referred to as Ymodem Batch. TAZ treats all Ymodem transfers as batch mode, so you will have to manually abort a download from Ymodem only hosts, after the single file has been received. Ymodem/G Ymodem/G This is a simple kludge to get rid of the turn around delays of standard Ymodem. In this mode, the sender dumps block after block of data without waiting for an answer from the receiver. The practical upshot is that its the fastest way to send a file over standard RS232. Should the receiver detect an error, it will abort instead of requesting a re-transmit. For this reason, Ymodem/G should only be used with error correcting modems, or a null modem link between machines. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 25 _________________________________________________________________ Transfers Buffer Size Transfers Buffer Size The transfer buffer size can be set in the Config : Protocol Config : Protocol Options menu. For hard disk users it is best to set it to zero, Options which tells TAZ to use all available memory as a buffer. This speeds things up by keeping disk writes to a minimum. For floppy users, it is better to keep this buffer size around 10k so that TAZ writes to the disk more often. During a long disk write, the other end of the transfer could time out and abort. By keeping the write time short, this problem is avoided. High Speed Transfer Problems High Speed Transfer Problems When receiving with Ymodem/G and TurboRS, it's best to use all available memory as a buffer. If a cache is in use, data will not physically be written to the disk until a few seconds after TAZ makes the request. Some caches disable interrupts while updating, and may cause TAZ to lose characters at 38400 baud and above transfers. The larger the buffer in use, the less chance of the problem showing up. If you cannot setup a large enough buffer, you can set the RTS delay function in the Config : Protocol Options menu. RTS is a Config : Protocol Options hardware signal telling the other end that it's okay to send data, which is dropped by TAZ when writing to disk. By adding an extra delay, you can give a problem cache time to finish empty- ing. This should solve most conflicts between high baud rates and caches software. External Protocols External Protocols To use an external protocol driver (such as XYZ.TTP for Zmodem support) it must be defined under the Config : Protocol Options Config : Protocol Options menu. It is selected for up or down loading on the same menus as the internal protocols. When selecting the external protocol, TAZ will prompt for the file names as necessary. What you type at the file prompt will be passed to the driver as as is. Any wild carding or path specifications must be given is according to the drivers own rules; so please consult its docu- mentation. Page 26 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 27 _________________________________________________________________ 6 Configuring Taz 6 Configuring Taz _______________ There are many settings which control the operation of TAZ, most of which can be customized from the System Config menu. This menu is reached by pressing Alt-O from terminal mode or O from the main menu. These settings are stored in TAZ.CFG, which is be created for you automatically the first time you load TAZ. You may exit this menu by pressing Escape, Return or UNDO. To exit the menu and save the current settings, select S. Unlike the dialing directory, this is the only way that TAZ will save changes to the configuration. Terminal Options Terminal Options This sub-menu controls all terminal related options in TAZ. With the exception of 'Drop DTR on Exit' and 'Answerback String', these settings are defaults only, and will be set when TAZ is loaded. Changes made to these settings from other menus will not show up here, or save to the configuration file. Changes made from this menu will not affect settings currently in use. Communications Parameters: These are the com settings used when TAZ loads. (1) Selecting this option calls up the same menu as pressing Alt-P from terminal mode. Wrap at End of Line: The default setting of the auto wrap feature. Destructive Backspace: When destructive backspaces are on, a character that has been backspaced over will also be erased from the display. When off, only the cursor will move when a backspace occurs. Back Space Key Sends: Controls the backspace character that TAZ will use. For most applications BS (ascii 8) is the norm, but occasionally DELete (ascii 127) is used as the standard backspace. Local Echo: This toggles TAZ between Full and Half duplex operation. ____________________ 1 If TAZ is loaded with a -o parameter, or while carrier detect is high, the current settings will be read and used instead. These settings can not be read on TOS versions lower than 1.4. Page 28 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Line Feeds Toggle: TAZ can automatically detect single carriage returns and line feeds, and turn them into proper CR/LF pairs for dis- play. For hosts that deliberately orphan these characters for overprinting and vertical tab effects, this feature must be turned off. Status Line: The status line on the terminal screen is optional, This controls wether or not it will be displayed when TAZ loads. Strip High Bit: For some systems you may wish to limit characters to the values 0-127, turn this feature ON if that is the case. Drop DTR on exit: DTR is a signal that lets the modem know that you are ready and able to receive characters from it. When you're not communicating with your modem this signal should be off, and that's just what TAZ does with it when it exits. Unfortunately the makers of the ST chose to leave it on by default -- some programs assume this and never bother to check before doing whatever they do. Under these circum- stances the modem may appear unresponsive. If you experi- ence this sort of problem after quitting TAZ, setting this option to No should clear it up. Answerback String: Some systems require that the terminal identify itself with an ID string when an ENQ (ascii 5) character is received. This string will be sent by TAZ in response; by default it is blank. Terminal Emulation: The terminal emulation used when TAZ loads. General Options General Options This catch-all sub menu is used for options that don't neatly fall under other headings: Sound: When off, no sounds (1) will be generated by TAZ, be it system warnings or BELs received from a remote site. ____________________ 1 Other than key click, which we'll let you set yourself with the Control Panel. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 29 _________________________________________________________________ Character Set: This selects which of two character sets TAZ will use for display, either the ST or IBM PC character sets. The ST set may be changed externally via programs like Warp9. Extended Graphics Modes: This controls the amount of memory allocated for graphics display modes. It sets the highest allowable mode, and is also the default. For a detailed description see Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Taz Graphics Modes. Taz Graphics Buffers on Shell: This controls what TAZ will do with its internal buffers during a system shell. See System Shell on page 12 for more information. Preserve Scroll Back: When you exit TAZ, the contents of the scroll back buffer are normally dumped. By turning this option on, the scroll back is written to the file TAZ.SBK, which will be reloaded on the next terminal session. Scroll Back Size: Any size can be specified here, TAZ will clip this number to the size of the largest available memory block when it initializes. Selecting a size of zero completely disables scroll back. Allocation is performed at bootup and on return from a shell when buffers were not kept. If you wish the new size to take effect immediately, you must exit and re-enter TAZ or shell with the buffer options set to Dump or Swap. Disk Buffer Size: The amount of memory allocated when capture is turned on. Capture is written to disk when this buffer is filled. When the given size is zero, TAZ uses all available RAM for disk capture. Mouse Lag: The time TAZ waits (in 200ths of a second) before acknowl- edging a repeat mouse button press. Zero is ideal for fast scrolling, but it makes it tough to click on toggled options. We figure we'll let you pick the ideal rate. Page 30 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Modem and Dialing Modem and Dialing This menu handles all options related to modem control, the dialing directory and the auto dialer. Note that all strings in this menu are translated. See String Translation on page 8 for String Translation more information. Dial Time: The amount of time that TAZ allows for a connection to be established, before pausing and attempting another dial operation. Pause Time: The amount of time that TAZ will wait between each dialing attempt. Confirm Hang Ups: When the user requests a hang up, TAZ can do it immediately, or prompt to make sure that the user really intended to hang up. Drop DTR to Hang Up: Most modems allow the use of the DTR signal to control the connection. Momentarily turning this signal off is a quick way to get most modems to hang up. If your modem does not allow this, selecting No causes TAZ to hang up solely via the hang up string. Hang Up String: TAZ sends this to the modem to attempt a hang up when dropping the DTR fails. It can be sent to the modem direct- ly by turning the above option off. Initialization: TAZ sends this string to the modem when it starts up, to place the modem into the optimum operating mode. Exit String: This string is used to return the modem to a state more suitable to offline time. It will be sent when TAZ exits in the Offline (no carrier) condition. Dialing Prefixes: A dialing prefix is sent before a phone number, to alert the modem that you want to dial. It can also be used to config- ure the modem for different connections, which is why TAZ offers three prefixes. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 31 _________________________________________________________________ Connect Msg: This is what the modem will return to alert the auto dialer when a connection has been established. We could have looked for the carrier directly, but not all modems handle the carrier detect signal properly. No Connect: These are what the modem returns to the auto dialer when a connection could not be established. It's a good idea to keep these accurate, because it's quicker for TAZ to recog- nize these than it is to wait for dial time to expire. When picking No Connect, all four strings must updated. Selec- tive updates of a single string can be performed by clicking on the desired one with the mouse. Ring Message: When dialing out, some modems send back a message when the other end rings. TAZ can count the number of rings and abort dialing when there are too many, usually an indication that a remote service is down. See Maximum Rings on page 17 for related information. File Names and Paths File Names and Paths Here you tell TAZ where to find certain files that it needs or may create. Home Path: This is where TAZ will look for all dial and macro files, also the place where buffers will be saved. Upload Path: If you do not type a drive or pathname when specifying files for upload, this is where TAZ will look to find them. Download Path: All downloaded files will be placed here, provided that a pathname was not specified by you or the sending program. Capture File: This is the default name of the capture file written by TAZ. If you do not specify a path, the file will be placed in the Home Path. Image File: This is the name of the default image file written by TAZ. Once again, if no path is specified, the file will be writ- ten to the Home Path. Page 32 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Shell Program: This is the program to run when there is no system shell in place. You can include a drive and path of the program, and any arguments it may need. Editor Program: This is the name of your favourite editor. It can be called from terminal mode or within the scroll back menu. Once again this field can include a drive, path and arguments. When called from scroll back, the buffer file TAZ.SBK will be passed as a final argument with its full pathname. Ascii Transfers Ascii Transfers Here you control TAZ' handling of ascii transfers. Three of the options on this menu have two forms, the ascii value of a charac- ter, or the character itself. If selected via the hotkey, the user types the desired character. If a required character cannot be typed, you can click on its ascii value with the mouse and enter it numerically. Remote Abort Char: If this character is received during an ascii upload, TAZ will abort it. Alternately, TAZ sends this character to the remote site when you abort an ascii download. Character Pacing: Not all systems can handle data coming to them at full speed, especially with higher baud rates. This value tells TAZ how long to pause between characters when ascii upload- ing. The value is measured in 200ths of a second. Line Pace Character: TAZ can wait for the remote site to signify that it's ready for the next line of an Ascii upload. This is the character that TAZ will wait for; leaving it zero disables the fea- ture. Line Pacing: If the Line Pace Character is zero, TAZ waits for this amount of time before sending the next line of an upload. Once again the value is measured in 200ths of a second. Local Echo: During an ascii upload, TAZ automatically displays data it receives from a remote site. If the remote does not perform any echo of the upload, you can turn this on to keep an eye on the transfer progress. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 33 _________________________________________________________________ End of Line Sends: TAZ automatically detects the end of lines in a file regard- less of them being CR/LFs, LF/CRs or single LFs. This tells TAZ what to transmit as the end of line, to avoid incom- patibility with the remote's end of line format. End of Line Writes: When receiving a file as ascii, TAZ again recognizes end of lines regardless of format. This option specifies how they should be written into a file. The most common end of line on the ST is a carriage return followed by a line feed, the default option for TAZ. End of File Char: When TAZ is receiving an ascii file, it needs to have some way of knowing when to stop. TAZ will halt the transfer when this character is received. Alternately, the user can hit Escape or UNDO. Protocol Options Protocol Options Buffer Size: The size of buffer used for uploading and downloading. To use all free RAM as a transfer buffer select a size of zero. Buffer memory is only allocated during the transfer itself, and has no effect on the terminal session or external proto- cols. Delay on RTS: This delay allows a disk cache time to empty before resuming data transfer. If TAZ encounters errors just after writing to disk, try setting this delay. The time is specified in 200ths of a second. Keep Aborted Downloads: When on, TAZ will keep what part of a file it has from an aborted download. When turned off, TAZ deletes a partial download. This setting will be over ridden in Zmodem, de- pending on the use of receive crash recovery. Overwrite Files: When a downloaded file has the same name as a file already on disk, a new name will be created for it. If you'd prefer to overwrite the duplicate file with the new one, turn this option On. Page 34 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Send Full Path Names: The path of a file can be sent along with it's name when using Ymodem and Zmodem. Turning this option on enables this feature. Drive letters will not be sent as part of a path name. Make Received Paths: Path names received with a file are usually ignored. Turn- ing this option on causes TAZ to use the path names it receives, creating them when necessary. Entire directory trees can be sent from machine to machine when send and receive paths are enabled. External Send Utility: TAZ can shell out to run protocols which are not supported internally. This field is for the name of an external program for sending, including any arguments it requires. If the utility needs file names passed to it as well, check the files prompt option. The utility will be run from the upload directory, not the directory in which it resides. Zmodem Receive Utility: Once again specify the name of an external program along with any of its required arguments. If the utility needs to know the names of the files it will be receiving, check the files prompt option. The utility will be run from within the download directory. Screen and Colour Screen and Colour There's no way to pick the colours everybody likes, so they're customizable in TAZ. Palette values are edited with horizontal RGB sliders, which can be cycled with the R,G,B keys or dragged with the mouse. Select OK when you're done, or Cancel to abandon your changes. The VT-52 Colours: The four VT-52 colours can be edited by pressing the keys 0-3, editing being done with the slider arrangement men- tioned above. Menu Foreground: This selects which of the 4 colours (0-3) will be used for menu text and borders. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 35 _________________________________________________________________ Menu Background: This colour will be used as the background for menus. TAZ will not sanity check to insure that the foreground and background colours are different. If you're insane its your own fault, and we refuse to compensate for it. (1) Monochrome Inverted: Text will appear as white on black if this option is checked. Press I or select it with the mouse to toggle this setting. ____________________ 1 If you do get stuck with the foreground and background colours being the same, you can edit the configuration file with any text editor. Look for the options Foregrnd and Backgrnd Foregrnd Backgrnd under the Screen and Colour heading. Page 36 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 37 _________________________________________________________________ 7 Taz Graphic Modes 7 Taz Graphic Modes _________________ In the ST's 640x200 colour mode, where 80 column text can be readably displayed, there are only 4 colours available. This makes it tough to display the 16 colour screens received with ANSI. To work around this TAZ flips between 2 screens of text on every VBL. With careful choice of the palettes this gives a fair approximation of the 16 IBM text colours. It can also flip through 2 sets of screens to add blinking text. TAZ forces 60hz refresh in these modes because the illusion really suffers at 50hz. We considered the Spectrum 512 trick, changing the palette several times per scan line, but this took so much processor time that output beyond 2400 baud was practically impossible. We also tried stacking the palette to the most used 4 colours per text line and changing them on HBL events. A quick call to an IBM board proved there is often more than 4 colours per text line, so we abandoned this method too. The quickest thing we could do is use 320x200 mode with a 4x8 font but we didn't really like the readability. The 16 colour ANSI mode is not for everyone. Updating 2 or even 4 screens of text slows things down, especially when scrolling. On top of that it takes 32k of RAM per screen, so a fair sized chunk of memory can disappear. Above all, the flickering screen is annoying, gives some people headaches and in extreme cases could trigger fits of epilepsy. For this reason TAZ can be limited in its use of additional screens, which is where Min, Med and Max graphics come in. Minimum Graphics Minimum Graphics In this mode, TAZ uses the standard 32k of screen RAM. There are no colours in this ANSI mode, just standard text types and blink support. How did we do the blinking text? Simple, we had two extra colours to play with, so one of them has its value cycled between foreground and background. This mode has the fastest update speed, so it should be of particular interest to high speed users. Page 38 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Medium Graphics Medium Graphics This mode uses the 2 page method to display full 16 colour ANSI. There is no blinking text in this mode, but it is rarely used and adds little visual impact, so its not much of a loss. This is the recommended mode for viewing ANSI, as its still okay at speed. This mode also has an effect on monochrome displays, by flipping through 2 screens, blinking text is supported. Maximum Graphics Maximum Graphics With maximum graphics enabled, you get full ANSI support, includ- ing blinking text. At 2400 baud there is little speed differ- ence, though scrolling appears jumpy with slight after images. At high speeds output will noticeably suffer. This mode is recommended for true ANSI freaks only. There is no benefit to using maximum graphics with monochrome. Though we could have got fancy with shading techniques, we just aren't going to bother. Standard Text Types Standard Text Types Without the use of any funky graphics handling, TAZ supports bold text, underlining, and reverse video, or any simultaneous combi- nation of the three. What TAZ doesn't have is a VT-100 compatible emulation, which would allow it to support double height, double width and double sized text; with italics, superscripting and subscripting to boot. Any deviation from byte aligned 80 column text sacrifices a lot of optimizing, and we tried to make TAZ as fast as poss- a lot ible. We may try to add this in the future, but it depends how much time we have on our hands, and how much optimizing we would lose. If you really require VT-100 support, Uniterm has the best 'nixland emulations we've seen on the ST. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 39 _________________________________________________________________ 8 Modem Setup 8 Modem Setup ___________ TAZ works well with most modems, but there are some models that could give it trouble. Before running TAZ (or after having problems if you don't believe us now) you should try to have your modem conform to the specifications in this chapter. Most modems let you store settings in non-volatile RAM, so your modem can power up with the proper configuration. When you get your settings comfortable, sending AT&W to your modem will save them to its power up default. Older modems without NV-RAM will often have DIP switches to control these defaults. If this is your situation, consult your modem's manual for info on how to best configure it to the following preferences. Required Settings Required Settings Result codes: Modems communicate through result codes, which can be sent as words or numbers. By default TAZ expects words, which can be set on a Hayes compatible modem by typing AT V1. To enable extended results like connection speed, BUSY, NO DIALTONE and VOICE, use the AT X4 command. If your modem cannot be configured this way, change the 'Connect' and 'No Connect' strings in Config : Modem and Config : Modem and Dialing to match those returned by your modem. Dialing True carrier detect: TAZ uses the carrier detect signal to determine if you are on or off line. Most modems are capable of returning the true carrier status on this line, but are sometimes shipped with it disabled. If your modem is Hayes compatible, type AT &C1 to set it for true carrier tracking. DTR recognition: DTR is a signal sent to the modem to let it know the com- puter is capable of talking to it. This signal is useful in preventing the modem from answering the phone line outside of a terminal program or BBS, and also as a quick and reli- able means of hanging up. To enable this recognition on a Hayes modem, type AT &D2. If your modem will not pay attention to the DTR, set Drop DTR to Hang Up off in the Config : Modem and Dialing menu. Config : Modem and Dialing This is not required, but it does speed things up. Page 40 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Convenience Settings Convenience Settings The following options aren't required by TAZ, but they will make your life with a term program a little bit easier. Tone Dialing: There are two way to dial a number. Pulse dialing is the slow method used by rotary phones, tone dialing is faster push button standard. If your phone line allows tone dialing, use the ATDT dialing prefix. Tone Speed: Hayes modems can send the tones out the line at different speeds. For faster auto dialing, set your modem to the highest speed your line will allow. This is controlled by the S11 register of a Hayes modem. AT S11=50 is the average 'fast' value, but some lines will take as quick as a 30. Call Waiting: Call waiting is an option from the phone company allowing you to receive calls while you're already on the phone. It does this by sending you a tone when a second call arrives. This causes line noise with non error correcting modems and can even hang them up. The phone company allows you to temporarily disable this feature. In North America this is done by dialing *70 and waiting for a new dial tone, then dialing the number you want. To do this on a Hayes modem, use ATDT*70W as a dialing prefix. For pulse dial use ATDT1170W. Using the Modem Initialization String Using the Modem Initialization String If your modem supports commands to set these options but cannot save them as defaults, you can toss all the setup commands into the modem initialization string. The ultimate Hayes initial- ization string would look something like this: ATZ V1 X4 &C1 &D2 S11=1^M ATZ V1 X4 &C1 &D2 S11=1^M For some reason the phone company ignores dialing tones that last a mere 1 millisecond, so more practical values for the S11 register must be determined empirically. TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 41 _________________________________________________________________ Appendix A Embedded Key Translations Appendix A Embedded Key Translations _________________________ ^@ NULL ^A 01 ^B 02 ^C 03 ^D 04 ^E 05 ^F 06 ^G Bell ^H BkSpc ^I Tab ^J LF ^K 11 ^L FF ^M CR ^N 14 ^O 15 ^P 16 ^Q 17 ^R 18 ^S 19 ^T 20 ^U 21 ^V 22 ^W 23 ^X 24 ^Y 25 ^Z 26 ^[ Esc |a Alt-A |b Alt-B |c Alt-C |d Alt-D |e Alt-E |f Alt-F |g Alt-G |h Alt-H |i Alt-I |j Alt-J |k Alt-K |l Alt-L |m Alt-M |n Alt-N |o Alt-O |p Alt-P |q Alt-Q |r Alt-R |s Alt-S |t Alt-T |u Alt-U |v Alt-V |w Alt-W |x Alt-X |y Alt-Y |z Alt-Z |1 Alt-1 |2 Alt-2 |3 Alt-3 |4 Alt-4 |5 Alt-5 |6 Alt-6 |7 Alt-7 |8 Alt-8 |9 Alt-9 |0 Alt-0 |- Alt-- |B BkSpc |D Delete |I Insert |C ClrHome |H Help |U Undo |^ Up |_ Down |< Left |> Right Page 42 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 43 _________________________________________________________________ Appendix B Doorway Mode Key Mapping Appendix B Doorway Mode Key Mapping ________________________ All regular keys and the functions keys F1-F12 are supported in doorway mode. Shift, Control and Alt versions of these keys also work, but these modifiers cannot be used in combination with each other. The ST cursor keys map to PC equivalents, with the Help, Undo and ClrHome keys retaining their normal TAZ functions. In addition, TAZ supports the special combinations: Ctrl-Left, Ctrl-Right, Ctrl-Home, Ctrl-End, Ctrl-PgUp, Ctrl-PgDn and Shift- Tab. When using doorway mode, the ST's numeric keypad maps to the following IBM keys: -------- -------- -------- -------- | | | | | | F11 | F12 | / | * | | | | | | -------- -------- -------- -------- | | | Page | | | Home | Up | Up | - | | | | | | -------- -------- -------- -------- | | | | | | Left | 5 | Right | + | | | | | | -------- -------- -------- -------- | | | Page | | | End | Down | Down | E | | | | | N | -------- -------- --------| T | | | | E | | Insert | Del | R | | | | | ----------------- -------- -------- Page 44 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 45 _________________________________________________________________ Appendix C Trademarks Appendix C Trademarks __________ Neat and Nifty Neat and Nifty Neat and Nifty is a registered trademark of Daryl Richards and Kevin Tessner. All products released under Neat and Nifty are copyrighted products of same and carry no warranties, stated or implied against misuse, damage, loss of data or any other loss, as a result of using said products. For bug reports, suggestions, or criticism, we can be reached by writing: Snail Mail: Unix: Neat and Nifty ktessner@isle.waterloo-rdp.on.ca 43 Carwood Crescent drichard@isle.waterloo-rdp.on.ca Kitchener Ontario N2G 3C6 Canada When reporting bugs, please include the information from the info screen, reached by pressing Alt-I from terminal mode. Trademarks Trademarks Atari and the ST logo are copyright 1985-1994 by Atari Corp IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Madmac is copyright 1987 by Atari Corp Pure Assembler is copyright 1991 by Pure Software GmbH (1) Warp9 is copyright 1992 by Codehead Technologies Word Perfect is copyright 1982,1989 Word Perfect Corporation Telix is copyright 1986-1992 by Exis Inc Flash is copyright 1987 by Antic Software Ltd Uniterm is copyright 1986 by Simon Poole Doorway is copyright 1987-1991 by Marshall Dudley XYZ is copyright 1991 by Alan Hamilton Any other references stated or implied are considered to be trademarks and / or copyrights of their appropriate companies. ____________________ 1 Distributed under license of Borland (Germany) GmbH. Copyright 1988-1990 by Borland International Inc. Page 46 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty Page 47 _________________________________________________________________ Index Index _____ Acknowledgements (ii) Doorway Mode (15) Answerback (28) DTR Associated Files (2) Drop on Exit (28) Autodialer Hanging Up (30) Connect Strings (22) Recognition (39) Control Options (22) Editor Program Using the Mouse (22) Defining (32) Backspaces Launching (12) Default (27) Scroll Back (12) Directory Link (18) ENQ Response (28) From Terminal (9) Exiting Taz (8) Break Signal (13) Features (1) Buffer Management (12) File Transfers (23) Bug Reports (45) Batch Transfers (23) Call Waiting (40) Buffer Size (25) Capture File Path Options (23) Buffer Size (29) RTS Delay (25) Control (11) Selecting Files (23) Default (31) Graphics Modes Carrier Detect (39) Default (29) Character Set Maximum (38) Default (29) Medium (38) Directory Link (18) Minimum (37) From Terminal (9) Selecting (10) Chat Mode (15) Hanging Up (9) Clear Screen (13) Home Path (2) Comm Parameters (7) Inactivity Protection Command Line Arguments Description (10) -o Start Online (5) Directory Link (19) TAZ=pathname (2) During Shell (12) Configuring (27) Setting (10) Dialing Init String Manually (20) Defining (30) Marked Entries (20) Using (40) Single Entry (20) Launching Dialing Directory Editor (12) Accessing (17) Program (12) Adding Entries (19) Shell (12) Display (17) Line Feeds (13) Editing (19) Local Echo (13) Info Fields (17) Macros (14) Linked Macros (19) Directory Link (19) Marking Entries (20) Editing (14) Mouse Functions (21) Functionality (14) Save and Load (21) Regular (14) Disclaimer (i) Terminal (14) Page 48 TAZ (C) 1994 Neat and Nifty _________________________________________________________________ Main Menu (5) Tone Speed (40) Memory Requirements (3) Transfer Protocols Menu System (5) Ascii (23) Modem Functions Xmodem (24) Break Signal (13) Xmodem 1K (24) Initializing (13) Xmodem CRC (24) Resetting (13) Ymodem (24) Modem Settings Ymodem/G (24) Dip Switches (39) TurboRS (7) Nonvolatile Ram (39) Mouse Lag (29) Online Start (5) Pointless Frivolity (5) Program Launch (12) Pulse Dialing (40) Quick Dialing (21) Result Codes (39) Screen Image Default File (31) Scroll Back (11) Terminal (12) Scroll Back (11) Buffer Size (29) Editing (12) Preserving (29) Write to file (11) Status Line (5) Gadgets Window (6) Online Time (6) String Editing (7) String Translation (8) System Screen (13) System Shell Buffers and (12) Entering (12) Shell Program (32) Terminal Emulation Default (28) Directory Link (18) From Terminal (9) Terminal Settings Auto Wrap (9) Backspace Key (9) Character Set (9) Destructive BS (9) Emulation (9) Sound (10) Strip High Bit (10) Tone Dialing (40)