17 Bit Software 3: The Continuation

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Preliminary documentation for JR-Comm 0.94 ------------------------------------------ COPYRIGHT NOTICE JR-Comm is Copyright (C) 1988, 1989 by John P. Radigan All Rights Reserved. This document is Copyright (C) 1989 by John P. Radigan All Rights Reserved. DISCLAIMER No warranty, either express or implied, is made with respect to the fitness or merchantability of JR-Comm. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Peter Boswell for his WXMODEM protocol document. Gary S. Brown for his CRC-32 data table. Chuck Forsberg for his X/YMODEM and ZMODEM protocol specifications and for his public domain rz.c, sz.c & zm.c source files, it took a bit of work figuring out what he did, but it was well worth it! Charlie Heath for getfile.c, didn't use it, but it did show me the anatomy of how a file requester works. Mark G. Mendel for his CRC-16 data table. Russ Ranshaw for his CompuServe B Plus protocol document. Paul Resch for his BPLUS.C source file, converted from the Pascal source BPLUS.PAS by Russ Ranshaw. Tony Sumrall & Dave Wecker for the VT100 sources, my basis for learning how a comm program functions. Steve Winokur for the internal IBM graphics/Topaz alphas fonts. And special thanks to the following beta testers. Jon Boulle, Jim Burwell, Henry Colonna, Wayne Hackney, Bruce Schoenberger, Greg Smith and Steve Winokur. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Overview. Welcome to the preliminary release of JR-Comm, a telecommunications tool for the Amiga series of personal computers. Present features available: - Full PAL, interlace and overscan support. - XMODEM, XMODEM-1k, WXMODEM, YMODEM, YMODEM-g, ZMODEM, CIS B+ and ASCII file transfer protocols are included. All file transfers adhere strictly to the appropriate specifications and provide throughput figures exceeding most other communications programs available for the Amiga. - A phonebook that can store an almost limitless number of directory entries(dependant on available memory). Each entry contains all the options available to completely re-configure JR-Comm, not just name, number and serial port parameters. - Optionaly generate a unique password for each directory entry. - An intelligent dialer that monitors the results of each attempt and is capable of multiple entry dialing. - A very powerful file requester that maintains several lists of files, devices and directories. During a batch protocol selection it enables you to select files from any number of directories in a simple manner. - An almost 100% complete IBM ANSI terminal emulation. - Chat mode with line editing and history. Review buffer, function key macros. Session capture with filters. Session log. Printer function. 1.2 System requirements. Worst case memory requirements would be 512k total free ram for a 16 color interlace display with 3 open requesters. 292k of this would be for the display itself which needs to be in chip ram. At the other end of the spectrum you can run in as little as 265k total, 65k chip when using a 2 color non-interlace screen (worst case condition also). Although any Hayes compatible modem will work with JR-Comm, some of the more advanced features of JR-Comm are available if your modem has a functional carrier detect signal. An optional method of hanging up the modem can be used if your modem will disconnect when the DTR signal is dropped. JR-Comm also supports high-speed modems via CTS/RTS handshaking so that the increased throughput they are capable of with MNP and fixed data link speeds between modem and computer can be obtained. Tests have been run with a MultiTech 224 EH and US Robotics HST modem to date. 1.3 Default files and paths. When JR-Comm is first started, it will determine the default path for certain files that JR-Comm uses for initial settings. It first trys to locate the logical directory JRCOMM:, if that is not present it will set the default path to the S: directory. JR-Comm will then try to locate the following files, if they exist in the current directory they will overide any that are found in the default path. jrcomm.def - User defined default parameters file. jrcomm.macros - Function key macros file. jrcomm.phones - Phonebook file. jrcomm.log - Session logfile. If the jrcomm.def file isn't located JR-Comm will use an internal set of default settings for initial operation. 1.3.1 Filename creation. JR-Comm adds one of six postfixes to a filename after it has been entered in a string gadget. These postfixes are: .def - Defaults file. .macros - Macros file. .phones - Phonebook. .log - Session log. .cap - Capture file. .font - User definable fonts. The appropriate string gadget will be immediately updated, except when using the file reqester which updates filename after it has been closed. JR-Comm determines if the filename already has the proper extension, if one is found then no postfix is appended. 1.4 The display. The default display used is a borderless Workbench window. Although not visible, there is the usual front/back gadget pair in the upper right corner of the window. Optional displays are borderless windows on a 2, 4, 8 or 16 color custom screen. A menu item is available which toggles the display of the screen title so that you can "drag down" the JR-Comm custom screen. The colors used are set to the normal IBM color palette of BLACK, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, MAGENTA, CYAN and WHITE. The reason a 16 color screen is available is because of the high-intensity attribute available for each of the eight colors. The colors are arranged in an order that is different from the IBM version, this was done so that an acceptable color scheme could be used for all of the screens available. The blinking character attribute of the IBM display is rendered as a bold character in this emulation. An option is provided for the user to select the text and background colors of the display from the current palette without changing the palette itself. Two internal fonts are provided, one for a normal display, the other for interlace screens. The proper font is selected automatically depending on the current screen in use. The blinking underline curor is implemented as a screen sprite. When the JR-Comm display is pushed to the back the cursor will still be visible until another window is activated. The cursor only is visible while the JR-Comm window is active and no menus are present on the screen. It is also turned off when a requester is displayed. 1.4.1 Program limitations. The 8 & 16 color displays require a substantial amount of the total DMA available to the Amiga CPU and special purpose chips. When using a baud rate higher than 2400 you will almost invariably experience a loss of data since the display DMA has a higher priority than the CPU and therefor cannot process the incomming serial data quick enough to prevent data and/or buffer overruns. GETTING STARTED 2.1 First time users. If you wish to assign JRCOMM: to a specific directory you should modify your Startup-sequence file located in the S: directory by adding the following command. If you do not wish to re-boot your machine before running JR-Comm you should also enter this command from the CLI at this time. assign JRCOMM: "pathname" Replace "pathname" with the directory name you are going to use. Floppy disk based users may wish to label a formatted disk with "JRCOMM" to achieve the same result. The command to do this would be. label drive df0: name "JRCOMM" DF0: was only used as an example, you may want to do this from a different drive. Also, notice that the ':' character was not used in the name "JRCOMM". 2.2 Initial startup meassages. After JR-Comm starts up it will display a copyright notice and some system information about what it is using for parameters. If no carrier detect signal was present it will also send a standard Hayes compatible initialization string to the modem. A blinking underline cursor will then indicate that JR-Comm is now ready for operation. 2.3 The status line. The 25th line of the display defaults as a status line. The status tells the following information: * X FN 8N1 2400 00:00:00 12:01 am | | || ||| | | | | | || ||| | | +------- 12/24 hour clock | | || ||| | +---------------- Online timer | | || ||| +------------------------ Baud rate | | || ||+--------------------------- Stop bits | | || |+---------------------------- Parity | | || +----------------------------- Data bits | | |+------------------------------- Handshake | | +-------------------------------- Duplex | +---------------------------------- Protocol +------------------------------------ Printer active The left portion of the status line is used to display the filename of where data is currently being captured to or, which file is being used for the ASCII send function. It is also used while the chat mode is active, please see the chat mode section for more detailed information. 2.4 Modem setup. If your modem has the carrier detect signal permanently asserted it will make the connect timer start counting immediately after JR-Comm is started. If it is possible to set your modem to make carrier detect function normally you should do so now. Most Hayes compatible 2400 bps modems can use the following command to set modem so that the carrier detect signal functions normally, it then writes the modem parameters to non-volatile ram so that it will remain that way. AT&C1&W Please check your user manual for the modem to insure that this command will work, you may find that a switch may have to be changed instead of, or in addition to, the above command. If you cannot turn off the carrier detect signal you should deactivate JR-Comm from sensing it by turning the ignore button on in the modem requester. 2.4.1 MNP modems. In order to use an MNP modem properly for maximizing the throughput they are capable of delivering, you need to set JR-Comm and the modem to a fixed baud rate that is usually 2 to 4 times greater than the connection rate between the two modems. Since the Amiga is sending data at a rate higher than the modem can send down the phone line some sort of handshaking must be used so that the internal buffer inside the modem does not overflow. Most often, the kind of handshaking used is hardware, or CTS/RTS handshaking. The serial device the Amiga uses has an oddity in that it requires the DSR signal to be active when it is first opened, or it won't set CTS/RTS handshaking active. the trouble is that most MNP modems default to have the DSR signal follow the carrier detect signal. Fortunately, they almost always have a command and/or switch to permanently set DSR active. Please set your MNP modem to keep DSR high if you intend to use CTS/RTS handshaking. THE JR-COMM FILE REQUESTER 3.1 YAFR... Yes, Another File Requester... Why? Well simply put, it was needed for one reason, selecting multiple files for batch transfers. But, the big difference here is that this requester gives you the ability to select files from multiple directories and/or volumes too! 3.2 Functional description. The file requester opens up in one of two modes as indicated in the title. One mode is a "SINGLE FILE REQUEST", which will allow you to select only one file at a time. The other mode is the "BATCH FILE REQUEST", which allows you to select any number of files. The requester also creates five seperate lists that you can look at to select files or change directories with. The rectangle in the upper left corner labled as "Display:" shows which one of the five lists is currently being displayed. The five lists are: Files - The files of the current directory, selected files will be displayed in inverse video. Devices - The list of devices available to AmigaDOS. Directories - Logical, or assigned directories. Volumes - Floppy and hard disk volume names. Selected - The current list of user selected files. Files selected by the mouse when this list is displayed will be removed from the selection list. The "PARENT" gadget will change the current directory to the parent directory. The current directory is displayed in the string gadget immediately below, which is labled "Drawer:", it will also change the current directory if a pathname is entered in it. The large rectangle is the familiar Amiga-like file selection array, it can display up to 15 files and/or directories at a time. Directories will be prefixed with a "(dir)" string to indicate that it is the name of a directory not a file. The righthand side of the rectangle shows the size in bytes of each file. Below the selection rectangle there are two size indicators. The one on the left, labeled as "Free:", shows the amount of free space left on the current device that the current directory is apart of. The right side shows the total number of bytes bytes for all of the files that have been selected. To the left of the selection rectangle is the proportional scroll gadget which enables the user to scroll through a list of filenames. The "knob", or smaller rectangle inside the scroll gadget is sized to indicate how much of the list is displayed by the selection rectangle at any one time. The next gadget down is the string gadget labled "File:", depending on the function that opened the requester, it can already contain a filename for possible selection by the user. The last two gadgets are the "OK" and "CANCEL" gadgets. The "OK" gadget will return to the calling function with a list of the selected files or the oen filename is it was opened as a "SINGLE FILE REQUEST". The "CANCEL" gadget will return with a null list indicating no file(s) were selected. THE PROJECT MENU 4.1 About JR-Comm. Posts a little blurb about JR-Comm. 4.2 Printer. Toggles the printer on or off. When it is on an asterisk will be displayed in the status line. 4.3 Chat line. Toggles the chat line on or off. 4.4 Load defaults. Load a default parameters file. The file requester will be initialized to the filename which is in the general parameters requester. 4.5 Write defaults. Writes the currently set parameters to a defaults file. 4.6 Quit JR-Comm. A query requester is displayed to confirm exit. Closes any open files prior to ending. THE PHONEBOOK MENU 5.1 Phone directory. The phone directory requester is sort of a control panel for adding, editing and deleting phone directory entries. It also allows you to select one or more entries for use by the intelligent dialer. The string gadget labled "Master password:" contains the character string that is used by JR-Comm to generate passwords for each directory entry if you want one. 5.2 Adding and editing entries The directory entry edit requester is accessed fron the phone directory by selecting the "ADD" gadget to create a new entry, or by selecting "EDIT" immediately after selecting an existing entry. 5.2.1 Name string. The entry name resides here. Something must be entered or the entry will not be added to the phone directory. Up to 25 characters can be used. 5.2.2 Number string. The phone number is entered here. Up to 36 digits are allowed. 5.2.3 Macros filename. The Macros filename is optional, if one is entered it activates the "MACROS" gadget so that you can enter the desired macros at this or a later time. 5.2.4 Capture filename. This entry is also optional. If defined then a capture file will be opened in append mode when the dialer makes a connection. The review buffer will also be cleared prior to the capture file being opened. 5.2.5 Password string. The password for the current entry can be manually entered, or you can have JR-Comm create one for you instead, see the section on password types for more information on this feature. 5.2.6 Password length. Used in conjunction with the password type gadgets described below. Only a decimal number, less than or equal to 20 will be accepted. 5.2.7 Dial prefix. Selects the desired alternate dialing prefix which are used during the dialing of an entry. The default is "None" which indicates the default prefix in the modem requester. 5.2.8 Cents/min string. Optional. Enter the decimal number of cents per minute (100 = a dollar) which will be displayed in the status line while connected. The carrier detect signal must function properly on your modem for this feature to work right. 5.2.9 Password type. Depending on the button selected when you close the edit requester will determine whether or not JR-Comm creates a password for the current entry. The "Fixed" button keeps the present password the same. This button will be selected after a password is created so that the password stays the same until a time when you want to have JR-Comm generate a new one. The other three buttons, "Alpha", "Numeric" and "Alphanumeric" define what type of password will be generated by JR-Comm when the requester is closed. The generated password will of a length determined by the amount in the passowrd length string described above. 5.2.10 Other options. The selection gadgets along the bottom of the edit requester will allow you to change the parameters for the current entry. See the description for each option requester for further details. 5.3 Dialing directory entries. JR-Comm is capable of multi-dialing any number of directory entries, just select the ones you want dialed and then select the "DIAL" gadget in the phone direcotry. If you wish to dial just one entry double-click the desired entry. The dialer is controlled by three parameters in the modem requester, number of retries, dial timeout and redial delay. The number of retries defaults to 15 and applies to each entry that is selected when the dialer is called. The dial timeout refers to how many seconds the dialer will wait for a connection after dialing, it defaults to 30 seconds. The redial delay is also in seconds, defaults to 60 and is the amount of wait time at the end of the list before restarting again. The dialer has some additional intelligence built-in besides checking for modem "BUSY" responses. If three "NO DIALTONE" responses are received from the modem, the dialer will halt. It will also remove an entry from the selected list if a "VOICE" response is received or if three "NO CARRIER" responses have been received for that entry. An option is provided in the modem requester for modems that don't reliably detect a busy signal and often return a "NO CARRIER" response instead. To prevent JR-Comm from incorrectly removing a selected entry you should select this option if your modem works like this. When a connection is made the entry is removed from the selected list so that it will be passed over when the dialer is called again. If a macros file was defined for this directory entry it will be loaded. If a capture file was defined it will be opened in append mode. Any other parameters will be set if required prior to returning to terminal mode. A menu item is also provided to start the dialer again after disconnecting from another system. 5.4 Send password. After the dialer has connected to a system, the password in the directory entry that was connected to will be sent to the modem when this item is selected. 5.5 Load phones. Load a new phonebook. 5.6 Save phones. Save the current phonebook. BUFFER MENU 6.1 Kill buffer Empties the review buffer, this does not affect the capture of data which is kept in a seperate internal buffer. 6.2 View Buffer Places JR-Comm in review mode. If the status line is enabled it will display a message indicating the review mode is active. When the review first starts it will fill the screen with the most recent data received. The review buffer is controlled by the following key sequences. <ctrl><up> - move to the beginning of the buffer. <shift><up> - move up 24 lines. <up> - move up one line. <ctrl><down> - move to the end of the buffer. <shift><down> - move down 24 lines. <down> - move down one line. <esc> - end review mode, return to the terminal. 6.3 Open capture Opens a file for data capture. Any data currently in the review buffer will be immediately transfered to the capture file. Further data is seperately buffered in an internal 2k buffer. See the section on terminal parameters for the capture filters that are available. 6.4 Close capture Closes the capture file after writing any unsaved data. When a JR-Comm session is ended the capture file will be closed if currently open. 6.5 Append capture Append data to an existing file. The operation will also save the current contents of the review buffer to the appended file the same as an open capture operation mentioned above. The most recently used capture filename will be placed in the filename string gadget of the file requester when it is first opened. TRANSFERS MENU 7.1 Parameters requester. This requester contains all the options available for the file transfers available in JR-Comm. 7.1.1 Transfer mode. Binary mode sends the file as a binary image. Text mode will send a file and do end-of-line conversion according to the settings in the terminal requester. 7.1.2 Protocol. All the file transfer protocols in use by JR-Comm strictly adhere to the specifications outlined in the various documents that are available for each protocol. The following is a short description of the protocols available. CIS B+ - CompuServe's B+ file transfer protocol. WXMODEM - A variant of the XMODEM protocol which give better throughput perfomance over packet switched networks. This protocol is quite popular on the PeopleLink information service. XMODEM - The original XMODEM checksum protocol was created by Ward Christensen back in 1977. Since then it has been modified for better error correction by using an optional 16 bit CRC polynomial. JR-Comm will automatically attempt the CRC type transfer first and "step down" to the original checksum version if it's not recognized. XMODEM-1k - Another variation of XMODEM, this one uses 1,024 byte packets which gives higher throughput than the original XMODEM protocol. Some systems incorrectly call this YMODEM. YMODEM - This is a varient of TRUE YMODEM which only allows one file to be transfered. This is for the benefit of some BBS's that don't properly terminate the protocol by sending a null filename block. YMODEM-batch - This is TRUE YMODEM, which is a batch transfer protocol. The filename, date and file size are transfered in a seperate header block at the beginning of each file that is transfered. This protocol also preserves the correct file size, the other XMODEM protocols above pad characters at the end of the file. YMODEM-g - This variation of YMODEM is intended for error correcting modems, like those that use MNP error correction. Because this protocol does no error checking the file is transfered with little delay and can achieve some of the highest throughput of any of the protocols listed here. ZMODEM - This is one of the newest and most powerful protocols available. It is capable of batch transfers, automatically initiated downloads, 32 bit CRC error checking, and a unique ability to resume a transfer that had been partially completed. JR-Comm supports one of the most complete implementations of the ZMODEM protocol as defined by the specification document written by ZMODEM's author, Chuck Forsberg. 7.1.3 Miscellaneous parameters. Save aborted - Determines if a file is saved or deleted if the transfer is aborted. Relaxed timing - Set this gadget if a file transfer fails or gets an excessive number of timeouts. Useful for packet switched networks. Auto chop - WXMODEM, XMODEM & XMODEM-k pad data to the last block of a file transfer. This feature will attempt to remove this data from a binary file only. GMT offset - This numeric string gadget contains the positive or negative offset of local time to Greenwich Mean Time. Eastern Standard Time would be expressed with the value -5. This is used in YMODEM and ZMODEM transfers so that the true file date can be preserved. 7.1.4 ASCII send parameters. Expand blanks - If this gadget is selected then any lines in the ASCII file which are completely blank will have a blank character sent prior to sending the newline character. Some online text editors will stop accepting input if a newline is entered by itself, this option prevents that from occuring. Prompt char - Instructs JR-Comm to wait after transmitting a line of text for a specific character before sending the next line. Char delay - A numeric value describing hundredths of seconds to wait between sending characters. Line delay - Like char delay above, tenths of seconds to wait between sending lines of text. 7.1.5 ZMODEM options. Resume transfer - If the requested file already exists JR-Comm will attempt to resume the file transfer. A check is made between JR-Comm and the remote system that the file to be resumed is shorter. If the file is not shorter the transfer will be aborted. Auto download - When this gadget is active it allows JR-Comm to start a ZMODEM download automatically. Auto d/l challenge - This feature, when selected, instructs JR-Comm to perform a challenge to the remote system so that it can determine if the remote really intended an automatic download to start. This gadget is activated at the same time the auto download gadget is selected, but may be independantly de-selected in case a certain remote system does not support the challenge option. Escape ctrl chars - Instructs JR-Comm to do an escape of certain control characters that can interfere with the operation of packet-switched networks. 32 bit CRC - Use the newer 32 bit CRC mode of error detection first, drops down to 16 bit version if the remote does not support it. 7.1.6 ZMODEM send modes. The following modes are applicable to a ZMODEM upload from JR-Comm only. They have no effect on a download, regardless of protocol used. Newer/longer - Transfer if the file is newer, longer or not present. CRC different - Transfer if file has a different CRC or is not present. Append files - Append data only if remote file is shorter than the file locally. If the file is not present, create it. Overwrite files - Overwrite any files that are present. Also called "clobber" mode. Protect all files - Protect all files unconditionally. No preference - Use this option for systems that don't transfer a ZMODEM file correctly. 7.2 Upload file. Opens the file requester for selection of file(s) to be uploaded. The terminal can still be accessed to converse with the remote system while the requester is open. Pressing the "CANCEL" gadget will abort the upload attempt. The status window displays the progress of the transfer and estimated time to complete the transfer. The close window gadget will abort the transfer unconditionally. There may be a short time lag from when the gadget is selected to when the window closes and getting returned to the terminal mode of JR-Comm. This is due to JR-Comm attempting to flush the data stream of any left over data that may have been in transit during the transfer. 7.3 Download file. Same operation as with uploads mentioned above. YMODEM and ZMODEM do not prompt for filenames since they are sent from the remote system during the transfer. 7.4 ASCII send. Opens the file gadget for selection of a file to do an ASCII send of. The status line if present will display the filename while it is opened for transfer. This is indicated by the filename prefixed by the '<' character. OPTIONS MENU 8.1 Serial parameters. In addition to the standard settings for baud, parity, data and stop bits, you have gadgets that allow you to set handshake method and duplex type. There is also a string gadget that lets you set the amount of time, in microseconds, a break signal will last. 8.1.1 Handshaking. The four types of handshaking, or flow control, are: XON/XOFF - Uses the XON and XOFF characters for flow control. CTS/RTS - Also known as hardware flow control, used mostly with high speed and/or MNP modems that lock the baud rate between computer and modem at a rate higher than the connect speed. Both - Use both XON/XOFF and CTS/RTS flow control together. None - Don't use any flow control. 8.1.2 Duplex modes. JR-Comm has three type of duplexing available, they are: Full - Used when the remote system echos a character it receives. Half - When a key is pressed it is displayed locally as well as sent out the serial port. If the remote system were to echo the character you will see two of each character when a key is pressed. Echo - Will echo a character it receives back out to the serial port, also displays the character received. 8.2 Modem parameters. This requester contains all the necessary items for setting how JR-Comm's phone dialer will interact with the modem. All strings default to standard Hayes compatible modem commands and responses. 8.2.1 Modem commands: Init - Sent to the modem when JR-Comm is first started, but only if a carrier signal is not present. Hangup - Used to hangup the modem if the DTR gadget is not active. The '~' character represents a one-half second delay. Dial prefix - The charcter string used to prefix a modem dial command. This is the default dialing prefix. Dial postfix - The charcter sequence used to terminate a dial command. 8.2.2 Alternate dial prefixes. JR-Comm provides you with three alternate dialing prefixes that will be used instead of the default dialing prefix described above. 8.2.3 Response codes. The eight response codes and their Hayes defaults are: OK - "OK", The usual modem response to a command. Busy - "BUSY", sent when a busy signal is detected. Ring - "RING", sent when the modem detects a ring signal. Error - "ERROR", sent when the modem detects an error. Voice - "VOICE", not all modems are capable of sending this. Connect - "CONNECT", the modem has connected to another modem. No carrier - "NO CARRIER", the remote system did not respond. No dialtone - "NO DIALTONE", sent if no dialtone signal was present. 8.2.4 Phone dialer parameters. Three parameters are used to control the phone dialer in JR-Comm, they are: Redial delay - Indicates how many seconds JR-Comm will wait before re-starting the list of selected entries. # of retries - How many times JR-Comm will loop through the list of selected entries before returning to the terminal. Dial timeout - How many seconds JR-Comm will wait for a connection after sending the dial command to the modem. 8.2.5 Ignore No Carrier. Select this if your modem doesn't reliably detect a busy signal and returns the "NO CARRIER" response instead. This option tells the dialer to bypass the no carrier counter. 8.2.6 Ignore carrier detect. Select this if your modem doesn't have a properly functioning carrier detect signal. This also turns off the connect timer which is useless without a functioning carrier detect signal. 8.2.7 Drop DTR to hangup. Select this option if your modem is capable of disconnecting when the DTR signal is dropped. 8.2.8 Flush with a BREAK. Some MNP modems, the HST is one, are able to clear the internal buffer of data when a BREAK signal is sent to the modem. This shortens the time needed to recover from an error during a file transfer. 8.3 Terminal parameters. This requester deals with how JR-Comm's terminal mode will be operated. there are options for capture filters, screen type, end-of-line in and out conversion types and if chat mode is active. 8.3.1 Capture filters. These filters affect the review buffer and capture file, if open. The filters currently available are: ANSI codes - Turn this filter on if you do not want ANSI screen control codes captured. The codes will still affect the screen though. CTRL chars - Removes all control characters except for carrige returns, line feeds, form feeds, tabs and backspaces. Backspaces - If this filter is active then any backspace received will remove the previous character recieved from the capture file too. This results in the capture function operating in the same manner as the display. 8.3.2 Strip high bit. Use this option if you want the high bit of each character reset that is received when using 8 data bits, no parity. (This used to be a capture filter but has been moved since it now effects both display and captured text.) 8.3.3 Chat mode. The chat line is a 256 character line displayed along side the connect and clock in the status line. The line will automatically scroll left as data is entered into the line. Line editing is available while in the chat mode. The left and right cursor keys move through the current line. The delete key has two functions, alone it deletes the character underneath the cursor, when pressed while the shift key is down it will insert a blank at the current cursor position. The backspace key works as expected. If the return key is pressed while in the middle of the chat line the complete line will be transmitted to the modem. Several other editing functions are available with the left and right arrow keys when used with the <ALT>, <SHIFT> and <CTRL> keys. They are: <ALT> - Move cursor to left or right of chat line display. <CTRL> - Move cursor to start or end of the chat line. <SHIFT> - Move cursor left or right one word. The chat mode also has a history buffer which can be accessed via the up and down cursor keys. The default size of 50 lines is used unless you have increased or decreased it. "Natural" control characters are sent to the serial port immediately while in chat mode. This is convienent when you need to stop and re-start the display via the <CTRL>-S and <CTRL>-Q sequences. Finally, the '^' character can be used to send control characters out via the chat line. Two '^' characters in a row will send the '^' character itself. 8.3.4 Convert EOLIN. If selected this option tells JR-Comm to add either a C/R or LF character to the received end-of-line. You can tell when you need this option on or off by the way the display acts when text is received. If extra spaces occur between lines of text then you need to turn this option off. If everything gets printed on the same line then you need this option on. 8.3.5 EOL out. Select either a C/R or LF character to be sent to the serial port when a newline in a text file or the return key is pressed. 8.3.6 Screen type. Selects the type of screen JR-Comm will use. The default makes JR-Comm use the Workbench screen. The other selections are for two, four, eight or 16 color screens. The 16 color screen will give you the full ANSI color emulation as defined by the IBM ANSI protocol. When the Workbench screen is selected certain options throughout JR-Comm will be disabled. They are the palette menu item, the screen title menu item and the interlace gadget described below. 8.3.7 Interlace. Select this button is you want an interlace display instead. 8.3.8 Text and background colors. Enter the color number you wish to use for text and background color for a multi-color display. See the palette for the colors and their numbers. 8.4 Macros requester. The macros requester lets you define up to 20 different macro strings that will be output to the serial port when the appropriate function key is pressed. The shift key gives you the second set of 10 macros, the unshifted function keys access the first 10 macros. The display buttons indicate which set of macros is currently being displayed as well as an upper or lower case 'f' character for each macro. The '~' character will make JR-Comm pause for one-half second while processing a macro. The '^' character is used for sending control chracters, the sequence "^M" will send a carrige return, the equivalent of pressing the return key. The "LOAD" and "SAVE" gadgets will take you to the file requester so that you can save or load a set of function key macros. -Note- The macros requester will NOT have its "LOAD" and "SAVE" gadgets displayed when it is used via the phone directory entry edit requester, macros will automatically be loaded and saved now. 8.5 Palette requetser. Works like most any color palette requester found in other Amiga applications. The "RESET" gadget will reset the colors to the default IBM ANSI color set. If you are familiar with the IBM color palette you will notice that the colors do not follow normal IBM ordering. This was necessary so that the colors JR-Comm uses for string gadgets and requester borders/titles would be visible and "clean" in appearence throughout the different screen types it uses. 8.6 General parameters. The parameters in this requester deal with the status line, review buffer and chat history sizes, pathnames and filenames. 8.6.1 Logfile active. This option allows JR-Comm to log transfer and session activity, the following actions are presently recorded. - JR-Comm session start and end. - Connection to a system via the dialer. - Modem hangup command. - Carrier drop if the ignore carrier detect button in the modem requester is not active. - Successful downloads with file size, total error count and cps rate. 8.6.2 The status line. Three button gadgets control the status line, they are: Status line displayed - Self explanatory. Time of day clock - Determines if the time-of-day is displayed. On-line timer - Same goes for the connect timer. 24 hour mode - Selects either 12 or 24 hour mode. 8.8.2 Size settings. The review buffer size is indicated in bytes and defaults to 16,000. The chat history size indicates lines and defaults to 50. 8.8.3 Pathnames. Set these string gadgets for JR-Comm to look for or place files for uploading and downloading. The files path is used by JR-Comm to locate or put phonebook, macros, definition files and the session log. If during the operation of JR-Comm, you change directories in the file requester, that new pathname will be placed in the appropriate pathname string discussed here. 8.8.4 Serial device and unit number. If you are using a serial device different from the default Amiga device enter the name and unit number to activate it. 8.8.5 Font name and size. If you wish to use a font other than the two internal default fonts enter the name and font height in these string gadgets. MISC MENU 9.1 Timer reset. Resets the connect timer located in the status line. 9.2 Send break. Sends a break signal out the serial port for a length specified by the gadget in the serial requester. Default is 250,000 microseconds. 9.3 Hangup modem. Will hangup the modem either by sending the hangup command string as defined in the modem requester or, by dropping the DTR signal to the modem if the DTR gadget is active in the modem requester. The default is to send the hangup command, which is initially set to the Hayes compatible "~~~+++~~~ATH1^M" string. See the section on special character definitions for modem and other commands that are sent out of the serial port. 9.4 Clear screen. Clears the screen. The same effect as a <CTRL>-L character or ANSI sequence of <ESC>[2J. 9.5 Screen title. When using a custom screen a full size borderless window prevents you from switching to another screen. By selecting this item you can display the screen title bar which allows you to "drag" the screen down. The screen title is also displayed during file transfers automatically. JR-COMM SUPPORT 10.1 Support for JR-Comm will be available by contacting the Atlantic County Amiga BBS, (609)625-2453. It is an open system available to anyone 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Access of 3/12/24 & 9600 HST is supported. If you are calling with a problem about JR-Comm please be specific and post your request in a public message. This will help future callers who may find the information they're searching for by reading previously posted messages. The most current release of JR-Comm will always be available on the BBS. Likewise, there will be new versions simultaneously posted on CompuServe, People Link and GEnie.