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ITERM.DOC
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1985-09-08
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ITERM.COM by Scott Murphy
77 So. Adams St. #301
Denver, CO 80209
Compuserve 70156,263
ITERM.COM is a terminal emulator for the IBMPC and close
compatibles. It supports a telephone directory and auto-dial
for a Hayes external modem. ASCII files can be transmitted and
received with X/ON-X/OFF flow control, or files of any kind may
be sent and received using the XMODEM-CRC protocol. Because it
is written in Turbo Pascal, and because it does not include
every concievable feature, it is relatively small (25K), and
loads and executes quickly. Its only known bug that I have been
unable to root out is a frequent failure to initialize the modem
correctly when first executed. Exiting and re-running the
program invariably solves the problem.
ITERM is essentially "modeless." Everything you type at the
keyboard, with the exception of the alt-shifted command keys
described below, is sent to the modem and on to the machine you
are communicating with. I find this simplicity attractive
compared to older CP/M programs, or the implementation of
KERMIT that I have used.
Status Line
ITERM maintains a dispaly of its current status on the top
line of the screen. If you wonder what's going on, look there-
it probably says.
Auto-Dialing
ITERM maintains a directory of 20 telephone numbers. Each
directory entry has room for the name of the system, your
usercode and password, the communication parameters needed by
the remote system, and a list of characters to be filtered from
the incoming stream. ITERM will look for its directory file on
the currently logged disk. If none is present, a new, blank
directory is created. It is up to you to fill in the directory
as you use the program.
Command Keys
F1 ------ Send the current usercode string.
F2 ------ Send the current password string.
F3 ------ Recall the last line typed at the keyboard.
F7 ------ Send an ASCII file with X/ON - X/OFF flow control.
F9 ------ Toggle ASCII text capture on/off. The first time you
use F9, you will be prompted for a filename to open and
use for text capture. If the file exists, text will be
added to the end of the file. X/ON - X/OFF flow control
is used.
F10 ----- Close the current text capture file, and turn text capture off.
Alt-B --- Break. Sends a break signal to the remote system.
Alt-C --- Clear the screen.
Alt-D --- Dial the modem. A numbered list of system names will
appear in a window on the screen. To dial a system,
enter its line number (1-20), and a carriage return.
To add, or change an entry, enter the letter 'C' and
a carriage return. You will be prompted for a line
number to add or change. You will be prompted for
the contents of the directory entry interactively. If
you don't wish to change an item of the directory entry,
just type a carriage return. Some mainframes _will_
persist in adding junk characters to their output stream.
You may filter these out by providing their decimal ASCII
codes at the appropriate prompt. (127, the little house-
shaped pictograph on IBM is a common one.) Some machines cannot
accept the strings sent by the F1, F2, and F3 keys at the
full speed of your modem. By default, ITERM waits for an
echo from the remote system before sending each new character.
You may defeat this by answering no at the 'Use pacing' prompt.
If you decide not to dial a number or change an entry,
answer the first prompt with a single carriage
return. If you wish to abort a call in progress,
(perhaps because of a busy signal) type a control-X.
Alt-H --- Hang-up the modem. This command tells the modem that
the terminal (your computer) is no longer ready to
talk to a remote system. The modem responds by
hanging up. In its default configuration, the Hayes
modem maintains the Terminal-Ready state regardless
of what ITERM tells it. To enable the Alt-H command,
you must disable this feature of the modem. (Switch 1
inside the front panel of the Smartmodem 300 must be
UP to enable Alt-H. Settings for other models and
compatible brands will vary. Consult your manual.)
Alt-P --- Parameters. Alter or examine the current
communication parameters. Allows you to see or set
the baud-rate, number of stop-bits and data bits, and
the parity setting. The program will gladly accept
any baud rate up to 9600. It's up to you to enter the
desired rate without typos.
Alt-R --- Recieve a file in XMODEM-CRC protocol. You will be
prompted for a filename. If the file exists, you have
the option of overwriting it or entering a new file
name.
Alt-S --- Send a file in XMODEM-CRC protocol. You will be
prompted for a file name to send. If it cannot be
found, you may retype the name, or abort the send.
Once the transmission process has begun, you may
abort it at any time by typing a control-X.
Alt-X --- eXit ITERM. You can back out of the exit if you
issue this command by mistake. (Note: ITERM will not
automatically hang up the modem on exit. This can be
useful if you wish to run other software and then
return to your session.)
Home ---- Help. Displays a menu of commands.
Up
Arrow --- Saves the contents of the current screen for later
review.
Down
Arrow --- Restores the contents of the screen saved with Up
Arrow.
Right
Arrow --- Recalls characters from the last line typed at the
keyboard, one at a time.
Notes on the source code.
ITERM is composed of code I have written in Turbo-Pascal,
and of code others have written and released to the public
domain. I hereby release the portions I wrote into the
public domain as well. You may do anything with it except
put your name on it and attempt to sell it for profit.
Remember, there is no creature more despicable than a
plagiarer!
ITERM is composed of a "root" file, ITERM.PAS, and a set of
".INC" files that implement various sections of the program.
Turbo Pascal permits the type definitions, and constant and
variable declarations of a program to be scattered through-
out a source file, so long as they appear outside the block
where they are used. I have taken advantage of this feature
to keep the Type, Const, and Var sections of the various
include files near the code that uses them.
The include files are as follows:
ITRMDIAL.INC -- implements auto-dialing and the phone
directory.
ITRMSAVE.INC -- the code to capture the ASCII text of
your terminal section.
ITRMXFER.INC -- implements XMODEM protocol and ASCII
text-file transmission.
ITRMMISC.INC -- miscellaneous service routines used by
other program segments.
ITRMPORT.INC -- the routines that drive the serial
port, including the interrupt service routine that
permits interrupt driven input from your modem. Most
of these routines were written by Alan Bishop.
ITRMWIND.INC -- the routines that handle the windows
that come and go as the program runs, and allow you
to save a screen for later reference. Thes were
written mostly by Bela Lubkin of Borland Int'l.
Your comments or complaints, and especially your improvements,
are of course, invited.
Unsolicited Advertisement: Turbo Pascal, and Borland International,
its publishers, are a joy to work with. Seek them out.