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1995-05-24
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The FreeTerm Terminal Emulator
(C) Tom Hughes 1995, (C) Tony Howat 1995
0. Copyright
The FreeTerm application is (C) Tom Hughes 1995, with modifications
and extensions (C) Tony Howat 1995, but is released as freeware.
This means that you may copy and distribute it, subject to certain
conditions.
Specifically, you may only charge to cover the cost of distributing
it, and you may not use it to make money directly or indirectly (by
using it as an incentive to buy something else for example).
Any magazine intending to distribute it should contact me first, so
that I can provide them with the most recent version. It is useful
if PD libraries also do this, for the same reasons.
FreeTerm should only be distributed with the whole contents
of the original archive, with all files unmodified.
This software is based in part upon VTLib Terminal Windows Library,
(C) Adam Goodfellow 1994, 1995.
None of the authors accept any responsibility for any loss/damage/whatever
resulting from the use of FreeTerm. It is supplied "as is".
1. Introduction
The FreeTerm application is a terminal emulator for use with any
TCP/IP stack that supports the Acorn sockets interface. Currently
that means either the Acorn TCP/IP stack or my FreeNet TCP/IP stack.
Currently the application provides support for straightforward
telnet, and displays the telnet session in a window which emulates
a VT1xx series terminal (it should support VT102, VT100 and VT52).
2. Using FreeTerm
Starting FreeTerm places an icon on the iconbar, and clicking on this
provides a dialogue box with two writeable icons. The first of these
takes the host name (or IP address), and the second the port number
(or service name). Leaving the port number blank will cause it to
default to the standard telnet port. Both the host and port writable
icons are accompanied by pop up menus, and there is also a hot list
on the icon bar menu. See the next section of this manual for details
on how to set up these menus.
Clicking on the connect button causes FreeTerm to establish a
connection to the specified address, and then open a terminal window
for the connection. For connections to the default telnet port, this
window will default to character mode (where each character you type
is transmitted straight away) if that is acceptable to the remote
host, otherwise line mode is used.
Clicking menu over a terminal window gives you a menu that allows
the control of various aspects of terminal behaviour, including
changing the size and spooling to disc. Some of the options (such as
echo mode) will cause FreeTerm to try an renegotiate with the remote
host, and if this fails you will find that the option returns to it's
original state again.
Closing a terminal window will result in the connection to the remote
host being dropped, whilst the remote host dropping an open connection
will result in an error being reported and the terminal window closed.
3. The host and port menus
The connection dialogue features two writeable icons for entering the
port name/number and the host you wish to connect to. Hostnames are
usually fairly long, and on a local network with only a few hosts typing
the same thing each time you wish to connect to a host soon becomes
tiresome. FreeTerm v0.12 and later solve this by way of pop up menus,
which are triggered by a button alongside each writeable icon. The host
menu lists entries in the format :
foo.bar.co.uk (Telnet)
moo.cow.com (Finger)
wibble.zonk.org
...
The port name in brackets is the default port, not all entries may
have a default port. Clicking on an entry in the menu fills in the
writable fields in the connection box with the hostname and portname
(if present), leaving you to press the "Connect" button.
The icon bar hot list is exactly the same as the host menu, except
that if you click on an entry with both a default port and host name
the connection starts immediately. If the entry has no default port
the connect dialogue box is displayed for you to enter a portname.
The port menu simply lists frequently used portnames, clicking on an
entry in the menu copies the portname to the writeable icon.
The contents of the host menu/hotlist and port menu are read from
configuration files in !FreeUser.Files.FreeTerm, namely HostList
and PortList. The format of these files is explained in their comments.
4. CLI options
-debug Traces flow negociation to terminals as per pre-release
-port <port>
-host <host> These two options can be used to auto start a session as
soon as !FreeTerm is loaded.
-nopop No pop-up resolving messages, all problems reported via
full errors.
Note these options are likely to be removed in future versions of
FreeTerm, programmers should _definately_ not use them for triggering
sessions!
6. Contacting the author(s)
Any on the subject of FreeNet in general should be sent to the original
author of FreeTerm, Tom Hughes, who can be contacted by email at
freenet@compton.demon.co.uk, or by snail mail at:
Tom Hughes
5 Lampits
Hoddesdon
Hertfordshire
EN11 8EH
Development of FreeTerm is being undertaken by Tony Howat, so
suggestions for enhancements and bug reports should be sent to him by
email at thowat@xargle.demon.co.uk, or by snail mail at:
Tony Howat
12 Dover Road
Birkdale
Southport
Merseyside
PR8 4SY