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ReadMe
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1988-04-25
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ColorTerm/Amiga -- A Color Terminal Program For The Amiga
January 24, 1987
ColorTerm is actually a type of C64 emulator; that is, it accepts
and correctly responds to the C64 formatting and color codes and
graphics characters. I saw all the colors and effects on a C64
running the PC Worlds BBS right here in town (605-348-2357--and keep
trying), and was amazed. It seemed strange that the Amiga, with all
its mighty graphic power, couldn't do something like that. ColorTerm
was the result; if there is a demand for it, new versions may be
produced on machines like the Mac (in black and white, but with all
the cursor moves and graphics characters) and Atari ST. Writing
something like this to work on the less graphically powerful machines
like the Apple II series or any of the MS-DOS machines I leave up to
those who enjoy it; of course, it's already available for the C64/128.
What we have here, folks, is a sort of "micro" graphics standard.
Installation
To run ColorTerm, you must install two 8-point fonts into the
fonts directory on your bootup disk: c64upper and c64lower. To make
this process simpler, just Execute the included "execute.me" file.
By the way, the fonts may not be exactly like those on the 64. I
laboriously drew them in with Fed from the 1.2 Extras disk, and keep
finding little screw-ups. They are pretty close, though.
Note that this version of ColorTerm has almost no error checking.
If the program can't find its fonts, allocate enough memory, or some
run-time error occurs, it will very likely crash (some of the crashes
are rather impressive, too). If I get real motivated, the program
will be made more robust in the future. As things stand, it seems to
work ok most of the time.
Usage Notes
ColorTerm uses the Exec Wait routine to wait for characters from
the keyboard or serial port; that way, it doesn't eat processor time
that other programs might need. In other words, it is set up to
multitask, although the lack of error checking dictates that you save
your work often.
The function keys are implemented as the C64 color-control keys,
and they follow the same patterns. For example, F3 changes text to
red. You can use either CTRL or SHIFT to access the "upper" colors,
like orange (shift-F1). F9 and F10 are RVS on and off, while the ESC
key is used as the HOME/CLR key. The arrow keys act normally.
Key Defintions
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
Shifted |Orange | Brown |Lt Red |Dk Gray|Md Gray|
| | | | | |
Unshifted | Black | White | Red | Cyan |Purple |
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
F1 F2 F3 F4 F5
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ (Note: RVS On
Shifted |Lt Grn |Lt Blue|Lt Gray| | | and RVS Off
| | | |RVS On |RVS Off| perform the
Unshifted | Green | Blue |Yellow | | | same with and
+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+ without the
F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 Shift key.)
+------+
Shifted | CLR |
| |
Unshifted | HOME |
+------+
ESC
When you're ready to quit ColorTerm, either select Quit from the
menu, type right-Amiga-Q, or click in the invisible, secret, hidden,
close gadget in the upper left corner of the screen.
Design Credits
ColorTerm was written in Amiga Multi-Forth, from Creative
Solutions. If you like Forth, you'll love Multi-Forth, and it goes
for only $89. The serial communications and keymap conversion words
were based on ideas I got from looking (mostly) at ATerm1.3, an early
Amiga terminal program by Michael Mounier. The video and other stuff
(yecchhh) is all my own. Special thanks for lending me equipment and
books go to John Fassbender and Burt Landman, nice guys both.
If you get Multi-Forth, be sure to get ConMan to use with it. I
also reccommend Aedit for a general-purpose editor. ConMan is
shareware from Bill Hawes; Aedit is 57K of very tight 68000 assembler,
an industrial-strength editor by Joe Bostic. It is available from DRM
Programs, 1329 Arthur Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89101, (702) 457-9489.
Flaws (other than the lack of error checking)
Screen scrolling is slow, especially in 80-column mode. This is
because the Intuition routines MakeScreen and RethinkDisplay are used
to sync up the display (if you have a non-flickering alternative
method, please, please send it to me!). Using the simple ScrollRaster
routine caused all the odd-colored characters on the screen to flicker
to white during a scroll, and this caused severe eye strain. I decided
to live with the slow version.
Baud rates higher than 2400 are unsupported, not because they are
any tougher to implement, but because even 2400-baud C64-type BBSs are
exceedingly rare. If there is a demand for higher rates, I may put
them in. Whatever.
Receiving and "printing" a CTRL-G (bell) character only flashes
the screen. This is mainly due to laziness on my part, although I
also really hate it when somebody puts 400 CTRL-Gs in a message and it
beeps at me for ten minutes.
The source code is, well, ragged in some places. It's still not
too bad overall. Please send suggestions, mods, and questions to me
at the address below. Letters that include a SASE are more likely to
get a reply.
There are still some mysterious insects lurking in there. I'm
not sure whether they are the fault of Multi-Forth, AmigaDOS, or, more
likely, myself. If you think you've found one, try to find a way to
reproduce it, and let me know.
Yours Truly
My name is Warren Block. To make a living, I write articles and
reviews for magazines like INFO, Amazing Computing, and (back when
they still covered interesting machines) BYTE. (Note that, unlike
most, that's ALL I do--I don't work for a software company, nor do I
accept "free" software from manufacturers). If you like this program
or my writing, feel free to correspond with me at:
1921 Fifth, Apt. 3
Rapid City, SD 57701
(605) 342-1632
Better yet, send me a few bucks, or write to the magazine of your
choice and tell them I ought to get a big raise and a company car.
Status
ColorTerm is a "shareware" program; in other words, just like
public domain, freely redistributable and all, but I hope that people
will send me a little money for the effort I've put into it. (If
you're in a quandary over the amount, may I suggest $15 or $20?)
Please feel free to upload it all over the place. Both the program
and this file are Copyright 1988 by Warren Block, and I thank you for
your support.