home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Almathera Ten Pack 3: CDPD 3
/
Almathera Ten on Ten - Disc 3: CDPD3.iso
/
scope
/
101-125
/
scopedisk113
/
empire
/
doc
/
seremp
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1995-03-19
|
9KB
|
189 lines
Amiga Empire by Chris Gray - SEREmp
SEREmp is the Amiga Empire client program which communicates with a remote
player over a serial port. By default, it will use the standard Amiga
serial port and will "autobaud" between 2400, 1200 and 300 baud, allowing
connections with either 8 data bits and no parity, or with 7 data bits and
even parity. Parameters specified on the shell command line, or via
WorkBench Tool Type entries, can override these defaults. SEREmp should be
compatible with Matt Dillon's 'Getty' program, and with startup by BBS
programs. Note that SEREmp does not automatically start up EmpServ, the
Amiga Empire server program, so in Getty or BBS applications, EmpServ must
have been previously started. When SEREmp is started from the WorkBench, it
can be started directly by double clicking on the SEREmp icon, or
indirectly by double clicking on a project icon whose Default Tool entry
indicates SEREmp. In the former case, the Tool Type entries for SEREmp
itself are used. In the latter case, the Tool Type entries for the project
are used. When started from a shell, the '-' in front of flags can be
omitted. In the following descriptions, the shell flag is given, followed
by the Tool Type name that has the same function, if any. Flag values which
are on-off switches can be specified in Tool Types with any of 'ON', 'OFF',
'YES' or 'NO'. The various parameters that can be specified are:
-d [DEVICE=] [default serial.device] - specify which serial device is
to be used. There must be a corresponding driver file in your DEVS:
directory. The default name, 'serial.device' corresponds to the
standard serial port built in to all Amigas. Other valid names
include 'siosbx.device', which would refer to ASDG's dual port
board. There must be no spaces between the 'd' and the device name.
-u [UNIT=] [default 0] - specify which unit of the device to use. The
standard 'serial.device' only supports one unit, so '0' should be
used. 'siosbx.device' supports two units per board installed. CBM's
seven-port board presumeably supports units 0 through 6. At the
programming level, this unit number is given as the 'unit'
parameter on the 'OpenDevice' call. There must be no spaces between
the 'u' and the unit number.
-b [BAUD=] [default 0] - specify the baud rate to use for the
connection. Any value can be given here, and some serial devices
will support them, but you will normally use a standard value like
1200, 2400, 9600, etc. Value 0 is special, in that it indicates
that autobaud selection is desired. This is the most common value
to use with modems. The modem will come up first in 2400 baud, and
SEREmp will try to read a carriage return. If it fails, it will
switch to 1200 baud and try again. A second failure will result in
a try at 300 baud. If that fails, it will switch back to 2400 baud
and repeat the cycle. The tests are done with 8 data bits and no
parity bit, and if a carriage return with the high bit set is
received, SEREmp will assume even parity with 7 data bits. Thus,
with a baud selection of 0, connecting players must enter 1, 2 or
3 carriage returns before they get the initial connection message.
With other values, the connection message is sent a couple of
seconds after the connection is established, without waiting for
any input characters. There must be no spaces between the 'b' and
the baud rate.
-s [SHARED=] [default not shared] - specify whether the serial port is
to be opened in shared mode or not. In shared mode, the open will
succeed even if some other program already has the port open, so
long as they have opened it in shared mode also. Similarly, in
shared mode, subsequent programs can open the same port. In non-
shared mode, there must be no other programs with the port open,
and no future requests, shared or otherwise, will be allowed until
SEREmp exits.
-x [XONOFF=] [default disabled] - specify whether or not XON/XOFF
handshaking is to be enabled. This handshaking allows the remote
user to suspend output by typing a control-S, and resume it by
typing a control-Q. There is a timeout on all serial port
activities, but this may not work correctly with all devices, thus
it may be possible for a user to suspend a SEREmp indefinitely if
this is enabled. The timeout does work correctly with the built-in
serial port.
-i [IGNORECD=] [default disabled] - if this flag is specified, then
SEREmp will ignore the presence or absence of the CD (carrier
detect) signal on the serial port. Normally, this signal is used to
indicate when a connection is made via a modem. If the modem or
terminal you are using does not generate this signal, then you can
specify this flag to force SEREmp to connect, without waiting for
the CD signal.
-7 [7WIRE=] [default disabled] - specify whether the serial device is
to use 7-wire hardware handshaking or not. The default is to ignore
all wires on the serial port except the transmit and receive data
lines. This hardware protocol is mostly useful for programs which
transfer data at high rates to other programs. Various serial
devices will support it with varying degrees of success. How well
it works will also depend on the serial cable you are using, and on
the support of the device on the other end of the cable.
-p[neo] [PARITY=] [default no parity] - specify the parity setting for
the serial port. On WorkBench, the choices are 'NONE', 'EVEN' and
'ODD'. From a shell they are 'n', 'e' and 'o'. There must be no
space between the 'p' and the parity letter.
-tr [RETRY=] [default 60] - number of seconds to wait between attempts
to open the specified serial port. This retrying allows SEREmp to
wait for non-shared access to the port when another program
currently has the port open. As usual, there must be no spaces
between the 'tr' and the value.
-tp [PROBE=] [default 1] - number of seconds to wait between probes of
the serial port to see if there is a call incoming. One second is
fairly short, but going to much more than 10 seconds could result
in callers thinking the system is not running.
-td [DISCONNECT=] [default 3] - number of seconds to pause after an
incoming call has terminated before looking for another call.
Normally, during the wait period, the DTR line to the modem will be
inactive. This delay is often needed to fully disconnect two
modems.
-tt [TIMEOUT=] [default 15 * 60] - number of seconds (the default is 15
minutes) of inactivity on the serial port before a timer goes off
and attempts to terminate the session. This timeout is applied to
all reads and writes to the port. Its purpose is to clear a call
that is hung due to a user using control-S and then disconnecting.
The previous release of Amiga Empire had a problem with this.
A few special-purpose shell command line flags have no WorkBench
equivalent. They were included for compatibility with Matt Dillon's 'Getty'
program, but are of use to any BBS program wishing to start up SEREmp as
well. They are:
-Getty - specify that a Getty connection is being made. This forces the
port to be opened in shared mode, and disables any parameter
setting by SEREmp - the port is used in whatever state it is left
by the calling program. Any baud rate, parity, 7wire, or xon/xoff
switches specified will be ignored.
-DEVICE device-name - specifies which serial device to use. This is
equivalent to the '-d' or 'DEVICE=' flags. Note that in this case
there must be at least one space between the '-DEVICE' and the
device name.
-UNIT unit-number - specifies which unit of the serial device to use.
This is equivalent to the '-u' or 'UNIT=' flags. In this case also,
there must be at lease one space between the '-UNIT' and the unit
number.
Shell Examples
Run SEREmp
Use 'serial.device' unit 0, with autobaud/parity selection, no XON/XOFF
protocol, no 7-wire protocol, exclusive access, expect CD to be active, use
an open retry time of 1 minute, a call probe time of 1 second, a disconnect
interval of 3 seconds and a port timeout of 15 minutes.
Run SEREmp -dsiosbx.device -u1 -b2400 -po -7 -s -tt60
Use the ASDG 'siosbx.device', unit 1, at a fixed baud rate of 2400 with
odd parity. Enable the 7-wire protocol, pay attention to CD, open the
device for shared use, use an open retry time of 1 minute, a call probe
time of 1 second, a disconnect interval of 3 seconds and a port timeout of
1 minute.
Run SEREmp -b9600 -pe -i
Use 'serial.device', unit 0, with a fixed baud rate of 9600 with even
parity. Open the device for exclusive use, and ignore the CD signal.
Everything else is the default. I use this setting to connect to the ADDS
Viewpoint terminal I have connected to my standard serial port.
WorkBench Examples
The same examples as above, done with WorkBench Tool Types are:
1)
<no Tool Type entries needed for the first example>
2)
DEVICE=siosbx.device
UNIT=1
BAUD=2400
PARITY=ODD
7WIRE=ON
SHARED=YES
TIMEOUT=60
3)
BAUD=9600
PARITY=EVEN
IGNORECD=YES