Asc5250 General Help

So … where is the Local Help ?

Press the Option Key at any time to enter the On Line Help mode: your cursor becomes a ‘?’ (question mark) while in the active part of the window. Click on any item, and keep the mouse button pressed, to display the help message associated to the subject. Try it now!
System 7 Balloon Help is also supported.

In some cases Asc5250 will not let you change some of the settings. This happens when your System Administrator has decided to disable some configuring functions.

TERMINAL SETTINGS

Click on the Terminal Mode popup menu to select the type of terminal you wish to use.  
The popup displays all models of 5250 terminals that are supported. 

You may change the shape of the text cursor, using the Block and Underline radio buttons. The Blink check-box will let you control whether or not the cursor should blink. These feature may also be controlled through by pressing special keys in the emulation mode (see Keyboard Mapping); however, when resetting the terminal, the configuration settings determines the default state. The actual effect of these settings can be visualized on the left of the buttons.

The Font popup allows you to select another font. Please, note that some of the very special IBM characters (one-half, phi, etc…) are only available with the "ascIBM" font. Note also that Bold characters cannot be displayed with "monaco" since they don't have the same width than Normal characters. You can easily work-around this problem by configuring the High-Intensity attribute to be displayed under a particular color.

Use the Size popup to choose one of the available font sizes. Remember that IBM screens are larger than some Macintosh screens; a large font size may cause the display to overflow the actual screen.

The Reduce for 132 col check-box allows to select a smaller font size so that the window still fits in the screen when switching to the 132 columns mode.

KEYBOARD SETTINGS

This dialog will allow you to set different keyboard related parameters:

The Reset Insert Mode on Attention Keys checkbox enables a feature that may be convenient when you want to enter large amounts of text.

The Discard Trailing Blanks in Insert Mode checkbox enables a feature, which coupled with the usage of the mouse to set the insertion point, will allow better and easier editing of your text.

The Keyclick sound checkbox, when selected will control the emission of a "click" whenever a key is pressed. As some blind-typing keyboard operators  are accustomed to the "sound-and-feel" of their original keyboard, this can help them feel more comfortable.  This feature can also be turned on or off by pressing a single key (see Keyboard Mapping); however, when resetting the terminal, the check box determines the default state.

5250 data streams use EBCDIC character coding while the Macintosh uses ASCII.  Since EBCDIC-ASCII conversion tables vary depending on different countries, the EBCDIC-ASCII popup menu lets you select the adequate conversion table for your system.

 Keyboard Mapping

This is one of the major features of Asc5250: you can create as many keyboard mappings as desired, each one tailored to match specific needs. For instance, different mappings may be defined, one for your text editor, another for use with your accounting package, and so on.
 
 How to use keyboard mappings :

Use the New button to create a new configuration, or click on Duplicate to copy an existing one. Rename and Delete will help you keep a good organization of your keyboard mappings. The Configure button will let you customize the currently selected keyboard mapping :

What you see on the UPPER HALF of the window is the keyboard layout of a traditional IBM enhanced keyboard. Clicking on the Alt, Shift, or Shift Lock keys reveals the layout of the modified keys.  The Keyboard layout popup contains available keyboard layouts of various different countries which you may select according to your needs.

The LOWER HALF of the window displays the layout of your actual Macintosh keyboard with all your mappings. It reacts to the actual keyboard keys: press Shift, Control, ALT in any combination to see what kays are already mapped. When a Macintosh key has been mapped to an IBM key, it is displayed with a bold black frame, and shows the value of the IBM key that it will reproduce when pressed.

Some Macintosh keys are automatically mapped by Asc5250, so as to alleviate the configuration work: this is the case of the ENTER, RETURN, BACKSPACE, TAB and other general purpose keys, but you can map them again to suit your preferences.  Moreover, most alphabetic keys are mapped implicitely.

 How to map keys : 

- MAKE SURE the IBM keyboard displays the EXACT key you want to map, by using the radio buttons. (Remember that you can map the SHIFTED IBM KEY, for instance “D”, to another Macintosh key than the UNSHIFTED IBM KEY, which would be “d”.)
- CLICK on the IBM key AND DRAG to the lower keyboard map. 
- RELEASE the mouse button when you reach the key of your choice. The Macintosh key should now display the exact IBM key you selected.

To CLEAR a MacIntosh key: click on the key, drag to the Trash Icon and release  the mouse. The key should return to its original content.

You can change the mapping of a Macintosh key by mapping another key onto it, without need to clear the current mapping first.  You can also click-and-drag from one mapped Macintosh key to any other Macintosh key, so as to have several copies of the same key at different locations of the keyboard, if you really need it…

COLORS AND TEXT SETTINGS

Asc5250 can map the seven traditional IBM colors into any of the colors available on your Macintosh. If you have a color monitor and video card, just click on any color block. You will be able to select a color of your choice to use instead of the original IBM one, by simply clicking on Apple's famous Color Wheel.

You can also translate the IBM text attributes in any combination of the Macintosh text attributes : just click on any item within the box to select it and click on one or more items outside the box until the sample text looks the way you want for that attribute. 

REMARKS

An Asc5250 Prep file is used by Asc5250.  This file contains all the user defined mappings.  It may also contain additional EBCDIC-ASCII conversion tables, and also international 5250 keyboard layouts.  If this file is deleted, it will be automatically rebuild with one default keyboard mapping, EBCDIC-ASCII table, and 5250 keyboard layout.

Asc5250 must be used with either TCPack for Telnet connections or SNA•ck for SNA connections through SNA•ps gateways.

KNOWN PROBLEMS

TextAssist, the text editor of OfficeVision, is not supported through Telnet connections.

SDA, the AS400 screen generator, is not (yet) supported through Telnet connections.

Drawings in 16 greys and 4 colors is a bit slower than in all other modes.

HINTS

Don't forget you can map any screen attribute to the color you want. For example, you can display the editable fields in light blue (when using a black background) or in dark grey (when using a white background).

When using a 132 columns terminal mode with "Reduce for 132 col." checked, Asc5250 automatically selects the largest font which makes the terminal fits into the monitor. On a 13'' monitor, it uses the "ascIBM 6pt" font. However some users consider it too small, especially when they don't need all the 132 columns. In this case, just remove the "ascIBM 6pt" font and the terminal will select the "ascIBM 7pt" font which is much more readable. It can display up to128 columns on a 13'' monitor.