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Preliminary documentation for JR-Comm 0.90 ------------------------------------------ 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 Thanx Manx, for giving me a nice environment to work with, Aztec 3.6 w/sdb. Gimpel Software for Amiga Lint. Daniel M. Lawrence, MicroEMACS 3.10. Russ Ranshaw for his CompuServe B Plus protocol document. Peter Boswell for his WXMODEM protocol document. 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! Paul Resch for his BPLUS.C source file, converted from the Pascal source BPLUS.PAS by Russ Ranshaw. Charlie Heath for getfile.c, didn't use it, but it did show me the anatomy of how a file requester works. Tony Sumrall & Dave Wecker for the VT100 sources, my basis for learning how a comm program functions. Mark G. Mendel for his CRC-16 data table. Gary S. Brown for his CRC-32 data table. My trio of faithful beta testers, Jim Burwell, Wayne Hackney and Bruce Schoenburger. Sorry for that damn guru guys... And lastly, the various commercial and otherwise telecomm programs that are available for the Amiga, you gave me something to shoot for... 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: - 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. 1.2 System requirements. JR-Comm can be run on any Amiga with as little as 512k of system ram. The 16 color screen mode requires about 300k of ram in order for the various requesters to be opened. If you're tight on free memory use the Workbench or 2 color screen to keep memory requirements below 225k. 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 five 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. The appropriate string gadget will be immediately updated, except when using the file reqester but, the filename will be updated after the file requester has been closed. JR-Comm will determine if the filename already has the proper extension, if it does, it will not append another. 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. When using a custom screen there are no front/back gadgets available. There is a menu item which will puch the JR-Comm custom screen to the back of the Amiga display when selected. This item will also move the Workbench window version of JR-Comm to the back too. 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. An ibm.font file is included so that the complete IBM character set can be used to complete the IBM ANSI emulation. 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 Display limitations. At rates above 2400 baud you may experience "lost" data with the 16 color screen display. This screen uses a substantial amount of cpu time and leaves little for the 68000 to keep up with continuous streams of incoming data. GETTING STARTED 2.1 First time users. Prior to running JR-Comm for the first time you must install the IBM character font. First create a directory labled "ibm" in your FONTS: directory with the following command at the CLI. makedir FONTS:ibm Next, place the two font files from the JR-Comm archive file in the FONTS: directory with these following commands. copy ibm.font FONTS: copy 8 FONTS:ibm 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. At the extreme right is a time-of-day clock. In 12 hour format it has a blinking colon indicating seconds and an am/pm indicator. To the immediate left of the time-of-day clock is a connect timer which will begin counting once the carrier detect signal goes high after the modem connects to a remote system. If the timer is counting when not connected please read the following section about setting your modem. To the left of the connect timer is a list of current settings for transfer protocol and serial port settings. See below for what each character refers to. X FN 8N1 2400 | || ||| | | || ||| +----- Baud rate | || ||+-------- Stop bits | || |+--------- Parity | || +---------- Data bits | |+------------ Handshake | +------------- Duplex +--------------- Protocol 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 Phone directory. The phone directory resembles the file requester as far as the selection rectangle and scroll gadget, but that is where it ends. The "ADD" gadget will allow you to add a phone directory entry. The "EDIT" gadget will let you edit the last entry selected in the selection rectangle. The "DELETE" gadget removes an entry, like the edit feture though, only the last entry that was selected. The directory entry requester has string gadgets for the name, phone number, optional macros file, optional capture file and password definitions. Four button gadgets define which, if any, of the dialing prefixes you wish to use for dialing. See the modem requester section for further information on the dialing prefixes. The "LOAD and "SAVE" gadgets do the expected for the phone directory. 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. 4.1.1 The directory entry requester. The directory entry requester is accessed either by selecting the "ADD" gadget to create a new entry, or by selecting "EDIT" to edit an existing directory entry. The Name and Number string gadgets should be filled with the appropriate information for the desired entry. The Macros and Capture string gadgets are optional, if a filename for the Macros entry is filled in this allows you to select the "Macros" gadget in the bottom row to define the function key macros for this entry. If the Capture string gadget is filled in then a capture file will be opened in append mode after the dialer completes a connection for this entry. Please see the section on filname creation. Four other buttons are used in conjunction with the string gadget labled "Length:" to define what type of password you desire. The "Length" string gadget instructs JR-Comm how many characters to generate for the password. The first button, labled "Fixed" will let you enter a password in the string gadget which won't be modified by JR-Comm when you close the requester. 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 be placed in the password string gadget and "Fixed" button will then be set so that the password won't be changed until you wish to by doing an edit of the directory entry. The row of gadgets along the bottom allow you to select the various parameter requesters to tailor the entry for the system you are entering. The "CANCEL" gadget will either cancel a new directory entry or an edit. 4.1.2 The phone dialer. 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. 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. 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. 4.2 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. 4.3 Modem 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. 4.4 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. 4.5 Timer reset. Resets the connect timer located in the status line. 4.6 Load defaults. Load a default parameters file. The file requester will be initialized to the filename which is in the general parameters requester. 4.7 Write defaults. Writes the currently set parameters to a defaults file. 4.8 Clear screen. Clears the screen. The same effect as a <CTRL>-L character or ANSI sequence of <ESC>[2J. 4.9 Screen to back. Moves the JR-Comm display to the back so that you can access another window. 4.10 About JR-Comm. Posts a little blurb about JR-Comm. 4.11 Exit. As expected, terminates the current JR-Comm session. Closes any open files prior to ending. BUFFER MENU 5.1 Kill buffer Empties the review buffer, this does not affect the capture of data which is kept in a seperate internal buffer. 5.2 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. 5.3 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. 5.4 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. 5.5 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 6.1 Parameters requester. This requester contains all the options available for the file transfers available in JR-Comm. 6.1.1 Protocols. 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. YMODEM - 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. 6.1.2 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. 6.1.3 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. 6.1.4 Transfer mode. Determines if a file transfer will be done as pure binary without any end-of-line conversions or, in text mode, and end-of-line conversion will be processed as per the settings in the terminal requester for end-of-line in and out. 6.1.5 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. 6.1.6 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. 6.2 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. 6.3 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. 6.4 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 7.1 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. 7.1.1 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. 7.1.2 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. 7.2 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. 7.2.1 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. Dial postfix - The charcter sequence used to terminate a dial command. 7.2.2 Alternate dial prefixes. JR-Comm provides you with three alternate dialing prefixes that will be prefixed the the phone number of a phone directory entry. To use a prefix set the appropriate gadget in the phone directory entry requester. 7.2.3 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. 7.2.4 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. 7.2.5 Miscellaneous parameters. There are two button gadgets that indicate if JR-Comm will use the DTR signal to hangup the modem, and if JR-Comm should ignore the state of the carrier detect signal. If this last gadget is set to ignore the carrier detect signal then the phone dialer will search for the connect string instead of the carrier detect for a connection, it will also turn off the connect timer in the status line if it is displayed. 7.3 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. 7.3.1 Capture filters. These filters affect the review buffer and capture file, if open. The filters currently available are: Graphics chars - Use this option if you want the high bit of each character reset that is received when using 8 data bits, no parity. 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. 7.3.2 Chat mode. Jr-Comm's chat mode is activated when this button gadget is selected. Chat mode is indicated by the solid square cursor on the last line of the display. If the connect timer and/or time-of-day clock is also active when chat mode is activated then the maximum size of each chat line is 60 characters. If either or both timer and clock are turned off or if the status line was not active when chat mode is activated, then the chat line size will be modified to 70 or 80 characters in length. The chat line will automatically word wrap when the end of the line is reached while typing so that you do not have to worry about going over the maximum size of the chat line. This maximum length will be 80, 70 or 60, as described above if the connect timer and/or clock is also displayed. 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. 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. Each line is set to a maximum of 80 charcters so that full editing can be utilized on each string. 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. 7.3.3 EOL in & out conversion. Selects which type of end-of-line sequence will be sent when the return key is pressed or, when ASCII send is active, a newline character is sent. The default out is a carrige return. When an end-of-line sequence is received it will be converted to the selected sequence, usually a linefeed character, also called a newline character. 7.3.4 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 screen. 7.3.5 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. 7.4 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. 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. 7.5 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. 7.6 General parameters. The parameters in this requester deal with the status line, review buffer and chat history sizes, pathnames and filenames. 7.6.1 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. 7.6.2 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. 7.6.3 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. 7.6.4 Filenames. Displays the current filenames in use for the phonebook, macro, logfile and capture files. 7.6.5 Logfile. The logfile records the following actions: - 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. If no logfile filename is present in the general parameters requester, no actions will be logged. JR-COMM SUPPORT 8.1 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. Requests for help will sporadically, if at all, be responded to on these services, please call the BBS instead.