home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware Grab Bag
/
Shareware Grab Bag.iso
/
001
/
minitel3.arc
/
MINITEL.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1985-01-25
|
27KB
|
925 lines
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 1
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 1118 SF CA 94114
This program is made available free of cost to all non
commercial users. It is not to be sold or traded in any
form.
Minitel is a small subset of the Ptel (c)
Communications program by Phoenix Software Associates. Ptel
has the following additional features:
Flexible autodialer, unlimited directory size
Autodialer support for alternate phone services
Remembers settings (baud, etc) for each phone number
Presettable function keys for each phone number
Ability to move files from directory to directory
Complete modem support for: Hayes, US Robotics,
Anchor Automation, Racal Vadic VA212, DEC DF03,
Novation SmartCat, IBM PC Junior Internal Modem,
Ventel, and direct computer to computer.
Support for IBM PC, XT, AT, Jr, DEC Rainbow, TI Pro,
Sanyo 555.
Install program for setting all default values.
A real manual ...
For information on Ptel, contact:
Phoenix Software Associates Ltd
1416 Providence Hwy Suite 220
Norwood MA 02062
(800)-344-7200
(617)-769-7070 in MA
For information on Minitel, contact:
Fido #1
300/1200 baud, 24 hrs.
(415)-864-1418
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MINITEL is an asynchronous communications program
for any MSDOS or PCDOS machine. (A version must be
configured for a particular machine.)
MINITEL can receive or transmit files in XMODEM,
MODEM7 (batch) or TELINK modes. TELINK mode is described in
detail later, but basically it is a MODEM7 compatible
protocol that supports DOS exact file sizes and dates and
additional error checking.
This manual is divided into a number of sections:
Section 1 Operating Minitel
Section 2 Quick Command Summary
Section 3 Command Descriptions
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 2
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 2118 SF CA 94114
The first section walks you through operating
MINITEL, and gives you a feel of how it works. Section 2 is
a one page list of MINITEL's commands, followed in section 3
with a complete description of each. You will find all
commands in the index. You do not need to read any
appendixes to operate MINITEL; they are provided for more
detailed operating and technical information.
To run MINITEL, you need (besides the computer) 64K
of memory, a disk of some sort, a serial port, and a modem.
You will have to refer to your modem manual for details on
dialing and making connections.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 3
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 3118 SF CA 94114
1.00 O P E R A T I N G M I N I T E L
MINITEL is menu driven, with all commands
accessible with two keystrokes. You do not need to enter and
exit "modes" or levels to get where you want. Most command
keys are mnemonic.
Error handling is simple, straightforward and non
dangerous, especially in entering keyboard commands. (Like
all programs, you can bash diskfiles if you try hard
enough.) Error recovery usually consists of some default
action; entering a non-existent command results in a list of
available commands; entering a blank line at a prompt quits
that command; illegal baud rate selections result in no
change, etc. All error messages are in plain English, so you
don't have to memorize secret codes.
Running MINITEL is easy: at the system prompt, type:
A: MINITEL <cr>
MINITEL clears the screen, displays it's signon on
the top two lines, and waits for commands. At this point,
anything you type goes directly to your modem; for a
SmartModem, you can dial and make your connection.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 4
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 4118 SF CA 94114
Entering Commands:
MINITEL provides fancy line editing whenever you
need to enter filenames or whatever; see Appendix C for
details.
MINITEL is always in communication mode; if the
modem were to receive data, it would be displayed on the
screen now, and you could type directly back to it.
With the cursor still in the lower left corner,
type ESCape. The cursor now moves to the upper left corner,
and types:
Command: _
If you wait a second or so, the menu is displayed.
Entering one of the command letters from the menu
now executes that command. (How to send an ESCape? Type
another ESCape.) If you type a key that's not a command,
MINITEL will type the menu again (if it's not already
there), display your screen, and return the cursor to where
it came from. You can get the menu at any time by typing the
ESCape key, and waiting about one second.
If you type the ESCape key, followed by a command
key within one second, the command will be executed
immediately without displaying the menu. This provides an
expert mode once you remember the command keys.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 5
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 5118 SF CA 94114
2.00 C O M M A N D S U M M A R Y
Here is a quick list of command available in MINITEL.
Text and character oriented commands.
ESC C Save all console conversation.
ESC S Stops the 'C' command.
ESC L Auto linefeeds on.
ESC M Disable Auto line feed (default)
ESC F Full duplex. (default)
ESC H Half duplex.
ESC ESC Send an ESCape.
ESC V Parity selection. (none, default)
ESC I Terminal Type
File transfer commands.
ESC R Receive file(s) in selected mode
ESC T Transmit file(s) in selected mode
ESC N Select a file transfer protocol
File Oriented Commands
ESC Y List disk files, sizes and transmission times.
ESC W Type a text file
ESC K Delete disk files
Modem commands
ESC B Select a baud rate for the modem. Default is 300.
ESC X Raise and Lower DTR
ESC Z Change command key
System and miscelaneous commands.
ESC ? List current MINITEL settings.
ESC Q Quit. Closes any text collection file.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 6
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 6118 SF CA 94114
C O M M A N D D E S C R I P T I O N S
All of the following commands act somehow on the
disk. Some create files and write on the disk; with these
you can do things like delete files or change their
contents, so some care is required.
ESC Y List disk file information
The 'Y' command is similar to a DIR command from
the operating system, but gives you more information. You
are asked for the name of files to look for; entering an
empty line is the same as *.*, like the DIR command.
You can enter a pathname, specifying the directory
you want to look at. If you do not, only files within the
current directory are listed. Wildcards cannot be used in
the directory portion of the path name.
In addition to the file names, MINITEL gives you
the file size, in bytes, and the time it would take to send
it, at the current baud rate. (See the 'T' and 'R' file
transmission commands.)
The transmission times are of course approximate,
because errors sometimes occur, requiring blocks to be
resent, and other variables in both computers. The guesses
are a little on the safe side for that reason. It also takes
time for the person running each each computer to type
whatever is necessary to start file transmission, and of
course this cannot be accounted for. Transmission times are
most accurate when sending more than one file, using the
automatic batch mode.
After all the files are listed, the total file
count, and the total size and transmission times for all of
the files is listed.
ESC K Kill Disk Files
Asks you for a filename or names, and deletes them.
Wild cards can be used. Caution: *.* will delete all files
without asking. You can specify a full pathname here.
ESC W Display a text file
Merely types the specified file on the screen. You
can specify a full pathname here also. ESCape aborts the
display.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 7
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 7118 SF CA 94114
ESC C Collect text
This asks you for a file name, then starts putting
all text you see on the screen into it. Everything the
remote computer sends you is saved as is. (Control-Z
characters are NOT put in the file if they appear from the
modem or console; this prevents "lost" data. Though one is
put at the end of the file when it is closed.)
The text file can be closed by the S command, or
automatically by the ESC Q command. You will get an error
message if you try an ESC C when one is already in effect.
Text is temporarily stored in memory; every once in
a while it must be written out to disk to make room for
more. When MINITEL is almost out of room, it sends a
control-S to the remote computer, to tell it to pause
sending data. Up to 256 characters after the control-S are
collected, to give the remote a chance to stop. Then, the
text is written out to the disk, and a control-Q is sent to
tell it that it may continue. This is done automatically by
MINITEL.
Most remote computers will pause when a control-S is
received; if it does not, you will probably lose a few
characters. On systems with hard disks, you won't lose more
that 10 or so; with mini-floppies, you may lose up to 40 or
so.
If the disk fills up while collecting text, an
error message will appear at the top of the screen. If the
screen happens to scroll while you're not looking, you won't
see the message. Oh well.
When MINITEL is first run, it gets as much memory as
it can (up to 64K) to use as the text buffer. You can see
the amount available using the ESC ? command. The only thing
this affects is how often MINITEL must write saved text to
the disk; the more memory, the less often it must write it
out.
ESC S Stop text collection
Stops the collection of text. (The 'C' command.) You
get an error message if you're not collecting text. Appends
a control-Z to the file, flushes it and closes the disk
file, where you can type, print or edit it. If you forget to
stop collecting, MINITEL will do it when you exit via the
'Q' command.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 8
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 8118 SF CA 94114
ESC T Transmit file(s)
ESC R Receive file(s)
The T (transmit) and R (receive) commands are used
to transfer files, to a similar program running on another
machine. Either binary or text files can be transmitted.
Error detection and recovery are done automatically.
There are a number of ways in which files can be
transferred; see ESC N for details. Selecting the right
method is important, as transfers sometimes will not work.
MINITEL tries to automatically choose the right transfer
mode, but it is not always possible.
Invoking either command prompts you for files to be
sent or received. Except in XMODEM mode (again, see ESC N)
you can enter any number of filenames, where each can
contain wildcard characters. Seperate each name with spaces
commas or plus signs. The filenames can contain drive
letters, and pathnames on MSDOS v2.00.
The TELINK mode is identical to MODEM7, except it
"sneaks in" information on exact file size and creation
date. If you use this mode with MODEM7 running on the other
computer, that computer will get four or six errors on the
first data block, by which time MINITEL will figure out that
it will not accept the extra information, and finish the
transfers in MODEM7 mode.
All display transmission status continually on the
top two lines. The current block number being sent,
estimated transmission time left, name, etc is displayed.
The time is constantly recalculated, and may be blank if:
(1) less than 1 second, or (2) receiving a file where the
file size is unknown. EXAMPLES:
The following are valid filenames that can be
entered for transmitting files. (XMODEM can only accept a
single filename.)
FOO.COM send one file
B:FOO.COM send one file
FOO.* one or more files
B:FOO.*,XYZ.ASM one or more files
FOO.COM,\BIN\*.COM,/WORK/*.ASM many files
AFILE.EXE,BFILE.DOC ANOTHER.FIL many files
These are valid entries for receiving files. Note
that filenames themselves are ignored, since the actual
names are received along with the files.
B: put files on drive B:
? files to default drive
* same as above
\bin\ put files in \BIN\
foo in default drive
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 10
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 10118 SF CA 94114
ESC N Select file transmission mode
MINITEL now supports all popular file transfer
modes currently in use. These are:
XMODEM One file at a time,
MODEM7 Similar to XMODEM, one or more files
TELINK Similar to MODEM7, full MSDOS
KERMIT Many mainframes
ASCII Text only
In addition, transfers can be done with the older
CHECKSUM method, or the newer, more reliable, CRC (Cyclical
Redundancy Check). This of course makes for six different
ways to handle files, but it's not really that bad.
When receiving file(s) (ESC R) you must select
either CRC or CHEKSUM properly. Most systems that support
CRC say so when you start the transfer. If you get it wrong,
then you'll get a "timeout" or other error; change to
CHECKSUM and it should work.
The methods and how to select one is described
below; first, some suggestions on how to choose the right
one.
BULLETIN BOARDS AND OTHER REMOTE SYSTEMS:
Most of these support only XMODEM, so there is
usually no choice! (Fido supports all methods.) More and
more systems are supporting CRC mode; MINITEL defaults to
CRC mode. Try selecting XMODEM and CRC; if that does not
work, try XMODEM and CHECKSUM.
TO ANOTHER COMPUTER OR SYSTEM USING MINITEL, TELINK, OR
MODEM7:
Using the TELINK method, CRC vs. CHECKSUM is
handled automatically; this is the best way to transfer
files from machine to machine. It handles multiple files,
etc so you dont need to do ESC T and ESC R for each file. If
both have MINITEL or TELINK, then use TELINK and CRC; if
either machine has an older MINITEL or TELINK that does no
support CRC, it will switch to CHECKSUM automatically.
If MODEM7 is used on one or the other, you may have
to select CHECKSUM. TELINK mode will switch to MODEM7
automatically if necessary.
SELECTING THE TRANSFER METHOD:
After entering ESC N, you will see a small menu.
You select a type by typing the first letter of a selection.
At the left edge, you will se the current setting; just type
the right letter until you see what you want, then type
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 11
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 11118 SF CA 94114
[CR]. This setting is also displayed by ESC ? and also when
actually transferring files.
MODEM7:
This is the most popular method used to transfer
files, and is available on almost all CP/M and MSDOS
machines. The MODEM7 compatible programs can transfer one or
more files at a time, with full error detection and
correction. The limitations on MSDOS are that the original
file creation time and exact file size are lost. For text
files this does not matter, but for data base and
spreadsheet files, it can cause great problems.
XMODEM:
Most frequently used on bulletin boards and the
like, it is the original MODEM transfer protocol. It can
transfer only one file at a time, and the user must enter
the filename specifically. (No wild card characters.) It is
included mostly for completeness, and should only need to be
used for computers that do not support MODEM7 or TELINK
modes.
TELINK:
The TELINK mode is an extention of the MODEM7
protocol, but includes extra information on each file sent.
After the filename is sent, the file size, creation time and
date are sent before the first data block. If MINITEL
receives this block, it is used to exactly duplicate the
file on the receiving end.
This mode is still compatible with the MODEM7 mode.
However, MODEM7 will get four or six errors while
transferring the first file, while MINITEL figures out that
it cannot accept this data. If it cannot be accepted, then
MINITEL will stop sending this info, and will operate for
the rest of the files in MODEM7 mode.
CRC / CHECKSUM:
Entering C at the prompt will toggle between CRC
and CHECKSUM. The CRC method is a very reliable method of
transferring files; the worst error rate is 99.9969%
reliability! Take a couple of nines off for CHECKSUM, its
still a pretty good method. Use CRC whenever possible,
CHECKSUM only if CRC isn't supported by the other computer.
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 12
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 12118 SF CA 94114
The following commands control the way MINITEL acts
to the remote computer, and you. All of these are "not
dangerous", i.e. you cannot wreck anything with them.
ESC ? List MINITEL status
The current settings of the commands in MINITEL are
listed on the screen, like so:
<Full, half> duplex (ESC F, H)
Auto linefeed <on, off> (ESC L, M)
The cursor is at line 10 column 23
Either:
* Collecting text in file TEXT.FIL, (ESC C, S)
* 4022 saved so far, room for 18101 more
Or: Not collecting text
Currently <300, 1200, 9600> baud (ESC B)
<TELINK MODEM7 XMODEM> file transmission (ESC N,J)
<no, odd, even, zero, mark> parity (ESC V)
Most of these can be changed via a MINITEL command.
The command is listed to the right of each, above. Others
are just internal status: they are:
The cursor is at line <n> column <n>
This just tells you where the cursor is. Some
bulletin boards and editors require you to fit typed lines
in some arbitrary line length; with this you can see how
close to the end you are. It is updated every time you type
a key.
Either: Collecting text in file TEXT.FIL,
4022 saved so far, room for 48101 more in memory
-or- Not collecting text
If you have not started text collection with the ESC
C command, you will get "Not collecting text", which means
just what it says.
If you are collecting text, MINITEL will tell you
the name of the file being used, and some simple statistics
on it. The "... saved so far" is the number of characters
saved in the disk file. The "room ..." message tells you
about how many characters will be saved in memory before
they need to be written out to disk. You do not ever need to
worry about the numbers here; MINITEL automatically takes
care of saving text in the disk file. (See the ESC C command
description)
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 13
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 13118 SF CA 94114
ESC ESCape
Not really a command, it just sends an ESCape to
the remote. The cursor will still go up to the command area,
but will go right back down.
ESC Z Chenge Command Key
The command key for Minitel is usually ESCape. This
allows you to change it to almost any other key. The command
key CANNOT be a normal printable character (!); use control
or function keys please.
ESC F Full duplex
ESC H Half duplex
Changes the line operating mode. The default is
Full. Half duplex caused keyboard characters to be displayed
as they are typed.
ESC L Enable Auto linefeed
ESC M Disable auto linefeed
When enabled, causes a line feed character (control-
J) to be typed after each carriage return typed. This is
independent of half duplex. The linefeed is sent to the
remote.
ESC V Parity selection
The default is no parity. Parity is generated
within MINITEL, and is either none, even or odd, zero or
mark. If even, odd, zero or mark is selected, the parity bit
replaces bit 7 of the data byte. (Obviously only 7 bit data
can be sent.) Parity will be suspended when file
transmission or reception is used.
This affects outgoing characters only; if anything
other than none is selected, Minitel will strip the parity
bit off all incoming characters.
ESC Q Exit to DOS
The 'Q' command exits MINITEL, and returns control
to DOS. If text collection is on (via the 'C' command) text
is saved before exiting.
CAUTION:
You must remember to disconnect from the remote
computer. MINITEL cannot do it when you Quit. You will still
be connected to the remote computer.
Of you do quit, (to change diskettes, or whatever)
then run MINITEL again, do not forget to set the baud rate
Minitel Communications Program Software 20 Jan 85 Page 14
(c) Fido Software 2269 Market St. 14118 SF CA 94114
again, as MINITEL cannot remember what it was set to when
you exited, and it always selects 300 baud when started.
ESC B Baud rate
Tells you the current baud rate, and lets you change
it. The little menu says only 300, 1200, 2400 or 9600, but
on some computer more are allowed; Minitel will complain if
it cannot do the entered baud rate. A blank line or a bad
selection results in no change. Once you type CR, it changes
the rate, and displays the rate now in effect.