SEYON

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

Seyon is a complete full-featured telecommunications package for the X Window System. Some of its features are:

* Dialing directory that supports an unlimited number of entries. The directory is fully mouse-driven and features call progress monitoring, dial timeout, automatic redial, multi-number dialing, and circular redial queue. Each item in the dialing directory can be configured with its own baud rate, bit mask, and script file. The dialing directory uses a plain-text phone book that can be edited from withen Seyon. Seyon also supports manual dialing.

* Terminal emulation window supporting DEC VT02, Tektronix 4014, and ANSI. Seyon delegates its terminal emulation to xterm, so all the familiar xterm functions such as the scroll-back buffer, cut-and-paste utility, and visual bell are availabe through Seyon's terminal emulation window. Using xterm also means that Seyon has a more complete emulation of VT102 than other any Unix or DOS telecommunications program. Other terminal emulation programs can also be used with Seyon to suit the user's need; for example, color xterm can be used to provide emulation for color ANSI (popular on many BBS systems), and xvt can be used if memory is a bit tight.

* Script language to automate tedious tasks such as logging into remote hosts. Seyon's script interpreter uses plain-text files and has a syntax similar to that of sh, with a few extra addtions. It supports many familiar statements such as conditional branching by if-else and looping by goto. Scripts may be assigned to items in the dialing directory for automatic execution after a connection is made.

* Unlimited number of slots for external file transfer protocols. Protocols are activated from a mouse-driven transfer console that uses a plain-text file, editable from withen Seyon, for protocol configuration. Seyon prompts the user for filenames only if the chosen protocol requires filenames or if the transfer operation is an upload, for which Seyon also accepts wildcards. Multiple download directories can be specified for the different transfer slots.

* Support for Zmodem auto-download. Seyon detects incoming Zmodem signature and automatically activates a user-specified zmodem protocol to receive incoming files. Zmodem transfers can thus be completely automatic and require no user intervention.

* Translation modes. Seyon can perfrom useful trasnlations on the user's input. From example, Seyon can translate backspace to delete (useful on may Unix systems), newline to carriage return (useful on many BBS hosts), and my favorite, meta key tranlation: to send keys pressed while the meta (ALT) key is held down as an escape (ESC) followed by the key press. The latter mode simulates the meta key on hosts that do not support 8-bit-clean connections and makes possible the use of the meta key in programs like Emacs on such hosts.

* Other features: interactive setting of program parameters, on-line help, software (XONN/XOFF) and hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control, session capture to a file, and temporary running of a local shell in the terminal emulation window.

Seyon is intended to be both simple and extensively configurable. Almost every aspect of Seyon can be configured via the resources to suit the user's taste.

OPTIONS

Besides the toolkit options, Seyon recognizes the following command-line switches:

-modem <device>

Overrides the resource modem. Refer to the description of that resource below.

-script <script file>

Causes Seyon to automatically executes the specified script after the startup script is run. The specified script file will be looked for according to the rule mentioned under the description of the resource scriptDirectory below.

-entries <entries list>

Overrides the resource defaultPhoneEntries. Refer to the description of that resource below. Unlike the resource, however, the list here has to be quoted if it consists of more than one entry.

-dial, -nodial

Overrides the resource dialAutoStart and sets it to 'on' and If both -dial and -nodial are specified on the command-line, the override value will be set according to the last of the two on the command-line.

RESOURCES

Besides the toolkit resources, Seyon defines the following proprietry resources:

modem (string)

The modem device Seyon should use by default. No default value.

defaultBPS (string)

The default baud rate. Seyon will set the baud rate to this value on startup and will use it for items in the dialing directory for which no baud rate is given. Default value: 9600

defaultBits (int)

The default number of bits (character size). Seyon will set the number of bits to this value on startup and will use it for items in the dialing directory for which no such parameter is given. Valid values are 5, 6, 7, and 8. Default value: 8

defaultParity (int)

The default parity. Seyon will set the parity to this value on startup and will use it for items in the dialing directory for which no such parameter is given. Valid values are 0 (no parity), 1 (odd parity), and 2 (even parity). Default value: 0

defaultStopBits (int)

The default number of stop bits. Seyon will set the number of stop bits to this value on startup and will use it for items in the dialing directory for which no such parameter is given. Valid values are 1 and 2. Default value: 1

stripHighBit (boolean)

Whether to strip the high (eights) bit from incoming characters. If set to on, the high bit of all incoming characters will be stripped, which will make an 8-N-1 setting behave like 7-N-1, even though eight bits are used for each character. Default value: off

newlineTranslation (string)

When the Enter key is pressed, newline character (\n) is generated. This resource determines what to translate this character to. Three modes are possible: no translation (newline), carriage return (\r), and carriage return / line feed. Unix systems usually expect newline or carrage return, DOS systems expect carraige return or carriage return / line feed. The three keywords corresponding to the above modes are nl, cr, and cr/lf. Default value: cr

backspaceTranslation (boolean)

Whether to translate user's backspace to delete. When the remote host is a Unix system, it's better to set this to on, since many Unix systems are not happy with backspace. Default value: off

metaKeyTranslation (boolean)

Whether to transmit keys pressed while the meta (ALT) key is held down as an escape (ESC) followed by the key press. Most hosts do not support 8-bit sessions, and hence do not recognize the meta key. Therefore, this translation mode has to be enabled when connected to such hosts to take advantage of the meta key in programs that make use of it like Emacs. Default value: on

xonxoffFlowControl (boolean)

Whether Seyon should turn on XON/XOFF software flow control. Default value: off

rtsctsFlowControl (boolean)

Whether Seyon should turn on RTS/CTS hardware flow control. Make sure the modem is set to use this as well. Default value: off

dialPrefix (string)

The string Seyon sends to the modem before the phone number. To use pulse dialing, set this resource to .IR ATDP . Default value: ATDT

dialSuffix (string)

The string Seyon sends to the modem after the phone number. This string has to contain a carraige return or the number will never get sent to the mode. Default value: ^M

dialCancel (string)

The string Seyon sends to the modem to cancel dialing while in progress. Default value: ^M

dialTimeOut (int)

How long in seconds Seyon should wait for a connection to made after dialing is complete. Seyon will cancel the dialing if no connection is made withen this period. Default value: 45

dialDelay (int)

How long in seconds Seyon should wait after no connection is made withen dialTimeOut before ciculating to the next number. Default value: 10

dialRepeat (int)

How many times Seyon should try dialing a number. Seyon will give up on dialing a number if no connection is made after this many tries. Default value: 5

connectString (string)

The modem connect string. This the string response the modem gives when a connection is made after dialing. Default value: CONNECT

noConnectString[1|2|3|4] (string)

The response strings given by the modem when connection fails. Default values: NO CARRIER, NO DIALTONE, BUSY, VOICE (respectively)

hangupBeforeDial (boolean)

When set to on, Seyon will hangup the line (if connected) before dialing the phone number. Otherwise, the number will be dialed without hanging up, and it is the user's responsibility to ensure that the line is clear (no connection) when dialing. Default value: on

dialDirAutoOpen (boolean)

If set to on, Seyon will automatically pup up the dialing directory on startup. Otherwise, the dialing directory has to opened manually from the command center. Default value: off

dialAutoStart (boolean)

This resource specifies that Seyon should start dialing the entries specified by the resource defaultPhoneEntries (or its override command-line switch) on startup. Seyon will commence dialing those entries after executing the startup script and any script specified at the command line. If set to 'on', this resource overrides the resource DialDirAutoOpen and forces it to be 'on'. A more convenient way of automatic dialing on startup is to use the override command-line switch -dial, which overrides this resource and sets it to 'on'. If the resource is set to 'on', it can set to 'off' at the command line by the override switch -nodial. Refer to the description of these switches above. Default value: off

dialDirAutoClose (boolean)

If set to on, Seyon will automatically close the dialing directory window when a successful connection is made. Otherwise the dialing directory will remain up until closed by the user. It is common practice to leave the dialing directory up all the time as it does not interfere with other functions of Seyon (it can also be iconized). Default value: off

dialDirFormat (string)

This is a format string that specifies the layout of the dialing direcotry. The default is '%-15s %-15s %6s %1c%1c%1c %1c%1c %s' (no quotes). Briefly: the fields represent the host name, number, the baud rate, bits, parity, stop bits, whether there is a custom prefix, suffix, and the script name. You can understand more what each field refers to by comparing with dialing directory, fields that use the current setting (via the keyword CURRENT) are designated by a question mark. Notice that you cannot change the order the items in the dialing directory appear at, only the format. For example, if the numbers you call are all 7-digits, your host names are short, you never use baud rates above 9600, and you like dashes between the baud rate, bits, parity, and stop bits fields, then you may prefer to use the format string '%-10s %-8s %5s-%1c-%1c-%1c %1c%1c %s', which would be narrower than the default format. Default value: %-15s %-15s %6s %1c%1c%1c %1c%1c %s

defaultPhoneEntries (int array)

This resource specifies a list of numbers corresponding to the order the entries in the dialing directory appear at. Seyon will highlight (select) those entries on startup and whenever you click 'Reread' from the dialing directory. This is useful if there is a set of entries that you most frequesntly dial that want to be highlghted automatically instead of doing that every time by hand. You can override this resource by the -entries command-line switch. Unlike the command-line switch, however, the list here should not be quoted. Phonebook entries numbering starts at one. Default value: no default value

modemVMin (int)

This resource specifies the minimum number of characters that should be in the buffer before the read process is satified. The read process will wait until that number of incoming characters is in the buffer or 0.1 second has elapsed between the receiption of two characters before displaying the data in the buffer. This results in the data being displayed in chunks and speeds up the terminal display. The speedup would be most noticeable on slow machnes with fast modems.

Leave this resource at its default (1) or set it at a low value (6) if you have a slow modem (e.g. 2400bps). Otherwise you might set it to the maximum value, which is platform-dependent but generally 255. If you set it to any number greater than the maximum value, it will be truncated to the maximum value. Default value: 1

ignoreModemDCD (boolean)

If this resource is set to 'on', the modem DCD (Data Carrier Detect) status will be ignored. Some of the consequences of setting this to 'on' is that Seyon will always prompt for hangup (if the resource exitConfirm is set to 'on') even if the modem DCD status indicates that it is off-line, and dialing will be attempted even if the modem DCD status indicates that it is on-line. It is highly recommended that you keep this set to 'off' unless your modem does not honor the DCD line. Consult your modem's manual for more details. Default value: off

hayesHangup (boolean)

When set to on, Seyon will use the Hayes hangup command sequesnce. Otherwise, hangup is done by dropping DTR. Should normally be set to off, unless your modem doesn't hangup when DTR is dropped. Consult your modem manual for more details. Default value: off

hangupConfirm (boolean)

Whether Seyon should ask for confirmation before hanging up the phone Default value: on

exitConfirm (boolean)

Whether Seyon should prompt for hanguping up before exiting. If off-line and the resource ignoreModemDCD is set to 'off', Seyon will not prompt for hanging up upon exiting even if this resource is set to Default value: on

zmodemAutoDownload (boolean)

Whether to enable ZMODEM auto-download. If set to on, Seyon will start ZMODEM downloads whenever it recieves the auto-download string from the remote host. Default value: on

zmodemAutoDownloadCommand (string)

The shell command Seyon is to execute for ZMODEM auto-downloads. Default value: $rz

modemStatusInterval (int)

This resource controls the amount of time (in seconds) between updates to the modem status toggles (including the clock). The default is five seconds, but you can set it to one second (or any other number) if you want the toggles to be updated more frequently. Even if you set this to a large number, Seyon is intellegent enough to update the toggles after each connect or hangup. Default value: 5

idleGuard (boolean)

If set to on, Seyon will send a string to the remote host whenever the terminal session is idle (no keyboard input) for a given amount of time. The resources idleGuardInterval and idleGuardString specify the above time interval and the string to be sent to the remote host when idle. It is useful to enable this features to keep the session alive when one is away from the computer for a while (e.g. to prevent auto-logout). Default value: off

idleGuardInterval (int)

The amount of time in seconds Seyon is to consider the session idle when there is no keyboard activity at the terminal for that long. Seyon will send a string to the remote host every such interval as long as the session is idle. Default value: 300

idleGuardString (string)

The string to be sent to the remote host when the session is idle. This string will be sent at a regular interval as long as the sesiion remains idle. Note that the current translations will be used in sending this string; for example, if backspaceTranslation is enabled, then the default string <Space><BS> will be sent as <Space><DEL>. Default value: \^H (space then backspace)

showFunMessages (boolean)

Whether to display funny messages when Seyon has no other important information to show. Seyon will display those messages at an interval specified by the funMessagesInterval resource when there is no other important information to convey to the user. To disable the display of fun messages, this resource has be set to off. Default value: on

funMessages (string array)

The fun messages to be displayed when Seyon has no other important information to show. This should be a list of double-quoted [funny] sentences. Default value: varies, version-dependent

funMessagesInterval (int)

The temporal interval in seconds between successive fun messages. Default value: 15

defaultDirectory (string)

Seyon's default directory. When looking for its files, Seyon will first try the current directory, then this default directory, and finally the user's home directory. Seyon will also put the capture file in this directory. Default value: ~/.seyon

scriptDirectory (string)

Seyon's script directory. When looking for scripts, Seyon will first try the current directory, then this script directory, and finally the user's home directory. Default value: defaultDirectory

startupFile (string)

Seyon's startup file. Seyon will execute all commands in this file upon startup. This file can have any commands acceptable as script commands. The most useful command to put here is the set command, to set the various communications parameters. Default value: startup

phonelistFile (string)

The name of the phone list (dialing directory) file. See the included example to learn how this file should be formatted. Default value: phonelist

protocolsFile (string)

The name of the protocols file. This file tells Seyon what file transfer protocols are available. The user will be promted with a list based on this file when file transfer is to be initiated. Default value: protocols

captureFile (string)

The name of capture file. Seyon will write session captures to this file when capture is enabled. This file will be placed in Seyon's default directory. The capture file will not be overwritten by successive capture sessions. Seyon will merely apped new capture to its end. Default value: capture

SCRIPT LANGUAGE

Script files can automate some tedious tasks such as logging into a system. A script file is an ascii text file and may be entered or edited using any standard text editor.

The script file is read line by line. Empty lines (consisting of white space only) are ignored. Comments are lines whose first non-space character is a pound sign (#).

The script processor reads each script line, ignoring leading white space, into words. A word is defined as either:

* a sequence of characters delimited by white space, or

* a sequence of characters enclosed in single or double quotes.

The first word of a script file is considered the command word. If the last character of the command word is a colon (:), the line is considered to be a label (the object of a goto statement). Otherwise, it is assumed to be a script command and is interpreted as such. Command words are case insensative.

Some commands take one or more arguments. Each argument is parsed as a single word as defined above. If blanks are required in an argument, the argument must be quoted using single or double quotes.

Script Command List

Below is the description of all commands that may be used in the Seyon script language:

capture on|off (currently may not work)

The command capture on will enable capture. All characters received during waitfor processing will be appended to the capture file. The command capture off will close the capture file. This setting does not currently extend to terminal mode. This may be offered in a later release.

debug on|off

If the argument is on, all subsequent command lines processed will be displayed on the local screen. The exception to this is lines containing a transmit command. These lines will just print TRANSMIT..., so that passwords, etc. can be protected. If the argument is off, scripts will execute quietly (this is the default setting).

dial <number>

Dial the specified number. Seyon supports generic "Hayes" compatible modems for dialing. Note that this command requires an actual phone number. The phonebook is not used for this function.

echo <string>

Echos the given string to the terminal. Does not send it to the modem (use transmit for that). If the string contains spaces, it must be quoted. Note that unlike the shell command of the same name, this command does not accepts the switch -n but always appends newline to the string.

exit

Terminates the script file prior to the end of file. Returns to terminal mode.

flush

Flushes the modem, i.e. discards data written to the modem but not transmitted and data received but not read.

goto <label>

Goes to the specified label in the script file and continues execution from that point. The label may either precede or follow the actual goto statement. A label is any command word whose last character is a colon (:).

hanup

Hangups up the line and disconnects from the remote host.

if, else, endif

Syntax:

if <condition>
        <statements>
[else
        <statements>]
endif

Conditionally executes statements based on specified condition. Seyon supports the following conditions:

waitfor: true if the last waitfor command was successful.

linked: true if this script was executed from the dialing directory.

Conditions may be negated using the prefix not or the character !:

!waitfor: true If the last waitfor command timed out.

not waitfor: same as !waitfor above

The else and endif keywords must appear on their own lines. If statements may not be nested.

pause <time>

Suspends execution of the script for the specified number of seconds. This is usually used for timing considerations; for example, waiting a couple of seconds after receiving the connect message and typing ^C to CompuServe.

purge

Reads and discards all data coming from the modem for the duration of one second.

quit

Terminates the script and exits the whole program (returns to the shell).

redial

Redials the last number dialed using the dial command.

send_break

Sends a BREAK signal to te remote host.

set <parameter> <value>

Sets the specified parameter to the given value. Can be used to set the various communications parameters for each host. The follwoing is a list of the set keywords that Seyon recognizes. Keywords marked with an asterisk set the current parameter only, not the default one. Refer to the corresponig resource (in parentheses below) for details of the function of each keyword.

port (modem)

baud* (defaultBPS)

bits* (defaultBits)

parity* (defaultParity)

stopBits* (defaultStopBits)

stripHighBit (stripHighBit)

newlineTranslation (newlineTranslation)

del (backspaceTranslation)

meta_tr (metaKeyTranslation)

xoff (xonxoffFlowControl)

rtscts (rtsctsFlowControl)

autozm (zmodemAutoDownload)

idleGuard (idleGuard)

Boolean keywords accept on or off as their argument, other keywords accept the same arguments as the corresponding resources.

transmit <text>

Transmits the specified text to the remote host. The text argument should be quoted (using single or double quotes) if there are spaces to be transmitted. The text is transmitted as is (no case conversions are performed).

Prefix characters:

^ is the Control character prefix: the next character is made into a control character. For example, ^M is carriage return (0x0D) and ^J is newline (0x0A).

\ is quote prefix: the next character is transmitted verbatim. For example, \^ would transmit a literal ^.

tty on|off

This command specifies whether or not characters received from the modem will be displayed on the local terminal. Since the only time that the script processor looks at the receive queue is during waitfor processing, the displays may look a bit erratic. Use the tty off command to disable local display of received characters during script processing.

waitfor <text> [timeout]

Waits for the specified text to appear from the modem. The text argument should be quoted (using single or double quotes) if there are spaces to be transmitted.

Special characters are interpreted the same as for transmit. If the timeout argument is specified, Seyon will wait that number of seconds for the string to appear. If no timeout is given, Seyon defaults to 30 seconds.

During waitfor processing, characters received (up to and including the last character found in the text or in the timeout) can be captured to a disk file (if capture on is specified), and/or displayed to the screen (if tty on is specified).

when [<string-to-expect> <string-to-send>]

Sends string-to-send whenever it encounters string-to-expect while waiting in a waitfor command, whatever the number if times string-to-expect is encountered.

This is is useful if the order of prompts expected is not known before hand. For example, some BBS systems (notably PCBoard) change the prompts depeding on the time of call, and a complete script for such boards cannot be written using waitfor only.

As many number of when commands as desired can be specified. A when command with no arguments clears all outstanding when commands. waitfor commands take precedence over when commands if they expect the same string.

A typical use of this command would be:

        when "Continue?"    "y^M"
        when "More?"         "n^M"
        waitfor "BBS Command?"
        when

The above script keeps sending "y^M" to every Continue?" prompt and "n^M" to every "More?" prompt until the the string "BBS Command?" is encountered. The lasy when clears all outstanding when commands.

FILES

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT

Seyon is Copyright (c) 1992-1993 of Muhammad M. Saggaf. Seyon is not public domain. Permission is granted to use and distribute Seyon freely for any use and to sell it at any price without reference to the copyright owner provided that in all above cases Seyon is intact and is not made part of any program either in whole or in part and that this copyright notice is included with Seyon. Permission is also granted to modify the source as long as the modified source is not distributed.

AUTHOR

Muhammad M. Saggaf, alsaggaf@mit.edu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

David Boyce for helpuful suggestions, the Imake file, and patches for clean build under gcc -Wall; and the many people who sent me patches for various platforms: Fred Appleman (SVR4), atae@spva.dnet.nasa.gov (Ultrix), Alain Hebert (SVR3.2), Peter Davies (Sun Sparc), Eric Schmidt (Apollo), David Sanderson (AIX), Jonathan Bayer (Sun), Jeff Johnson (SVR4), Glenn Geers (SVR4-Esix), Tony Vincent-Sun-Vienna (Solaris). (pardon me if I forgot any to you, I 'm terribly disorganized). I'm also thankful to all the nice people who sent me suggestions or bug reports.

The MultiList widget used in the dialing directory is written by the Free Widget Foundation. You can get it and other FWF widgets by ftp from a.cs.uiuc.edu.

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

RESOURCES

SCRIPT LANGUAGE

Script Command List

FILES

SEE ALSO

COPYRIGHT

AUTHOR

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT