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- ITERM.COM by Scott Murphy
- 77 So. Adams St. #301
- Denver, CO 80209
- Compuserve 70156,263
-
- ITERM.COM is a terminal emulator for the IBMPC and close
- compatibles. It supports a telephone directory and auto-dial
- for a Hayes external modem. ASCII files can be transmitted and
- received with X/ON-X/OFF flow control, or files of any kind may
- be sent and received using the XMODEM-CRC protocol. Because it
- is written in Turbo Pascal, and because it does not include
- every concievable feature, it is relatively small (25K), and
- loads and executes quickly. Its only known bug that I have been
- unable to root out is a frequent failure to initialize the modem
- correctly when first executed. Exiting and re-running the
- program invariably solves the problem.
-
- ITERM is essentially "modeless." Everything you type at the
- keyboard, with the exception of the alt-shifted command keys
- described below, is sent to the modem and on to the machine you
- are communicating with. I find this simplicity attractive
- compared to older CP/M programs, or the implementation of
- KERMIT that I have used.
-
- Status Line
- ITERM maintains a dispaly of its current status on the top
- line of the screen. If you wonder what's going on, look there-
- it probably says.
-
- Auto-Dialing
- ITERM maintains a directory of 20 telephone numbers. Each
- directory entry has room for the name of the system, your
- usercode and password, the communication parameters needed by
- the remote system, and a list of characters to be filtered from
- the incoming stream. ITERM will look for its directory file on
- the currently logged disk. If none is present, a new, blank
- directory is created. It is up to you to fill in the directory
- as you use the program.
-
- Command Keys
-
- F1 ------ Send the current usercode string.
- F2 ------ Send the current password string.
- F3 ------ Recall the last line typed at the keyboard.
- F7 ------ Send an ASCII file with X/ON - X/OFF flow control.
- F9 ------ Toggle ASCII text capture on/off. The first time you
- use F9, you will be prompted for a filename to open and
- use for text capture. If the file exists, text will be
- added to the end of the file. X/ON - X/OFF flow control
- is used.
- F10 ----- Close the current text capture file, and turn text capture off.
- Alt-B --- Break. Sends a break signal to the remote system.
- Alt-C --- Clear the screen.
- Alt-D --- Dial the modem. A numbered list of system names will
- appear in a window on the screen. To dial a system,
- enter its line number (1-20), and a carriage return.
- To add, or change an entry, enter the letter 'C' and
- a carriage return. You will be prompted for a line
- number to add or change. You will be prompted for
- the contents of the directory entry interactively. If
- you don't wish to change an item of the directory entry,
- just type a carriage return. Some mainframes _will_
- persist in adding junk characters to their output stream.
- You may filter these out by providing their decimal ASCII
- codes at the appropriate prompt. (127, the little house-
- shaped pictograph on IBM is a common one.) Some machines cannot
- accept the strings sent by the F1, F2, and F3 keys at the
- full speed of your modem. By default, ITERM waits for an
- echo from the remote system before sending each new character.
- You may defeat this by answering no at the 'Use pacing' prompt.
- If you decide not to dial a number or change an entry,
- answer the first prompt with a single carriage
- return. If you wish to abort a call in progress,
- (perhaps because of a busy signal) type a control-X.
- Alt-H --- Hang-up the modem. This command tells the modem that
- the terminal (your computer) is no longer ready to
- talk to a remote system. The modem responds by
- hanging up. In its default configuration, the Hayes
- modem maintains the Terminal-Ready state regardless
- of what ITERM tells it. To enable the Alt-H command,
- you must disable this feature of the modem. (Switch 1
- inside the front panel of the Smartmodem 300 must be
- UP to enable Alt-H. Settings for other models and
- compatible brands will vary. Consult your manual.)
- Alt-P --- Parameters. Alter or examine the current
- communication parameters. Allows you to see or set
- the baud-rate, number of stop-bits and data bits, and
- the parity setting. The program will gladly accept
- any baud rate up to 9600. It's up to you to enter the
- desired rate without typos.
- Alt-R --- Recieve a file in XMODEM-CRC protocol. You will be
- prompted for a filename. If the file exists, you have
- the option of overwriting it or entering a new file
- name.
- Alt-S --- Send a file in XMODEM-CRC protocol. You will be
- prompted for a file name to send. If it cannot be
- found, you may retype the name, or abort the send.
- Once the transmission process has begun, you may
- abort it at any time by typing a control-X.
- Alt-X --- eXit ITERM. You can back out of the exit if you
- issue this command by mistake. (Note: ITERM will not
- automatically hang up the modem on exit. This can be
- useful if you wish to run other software and then
- return to your session.)
- Home ---- Help. Displays a menu of commands.
-
- Up
- Arrow --- Saves the contents of the current screen for later
- review.
- Down
- Arrow --- Restores the contents of the screen saved with Up
- Arrow.
- Right
- Arrow --- Recalls characters from the last line typed at the
- keyboard, one at a time.
-
-
- Notes on the source code.
- ITERM is composed of code I have written in Turbo-Pascal,
- and of code others have written and released to the public
- domain. I hereby release the portions I wrote into the
- public domain as well. You may do anything with it except
- put your name on it and attempt to sell it for profit.
- Remember, there is no creature more despicable than a
- plagiarer!
-
- ITERM is composed of a "root" file, ITERM.PAS, and a set of
- ".INC" files that implement various sections of the program.
- Turbo Pascal permits the type definitions, and constant and
- variable declarations of a program to be scattered through-
- out a source file, so long as they appear outside the block
- where they are used. I have taken advantage of this feature
- to keep the Type, Const, and Var sections of the various
- include files near the code that uses them.
-
- The include files are as follows:
- ITRMDIAL.INC -- implements auto-dialing and the phone
- directory.
- ITRMSAVE.INC -- the code to capture the ASCII text of
- your terminal section.
- ITRMXFER.INC -- implements XMODEM protocol and ASCII
- text-file transmission.
- ITRMMISC.INC -- miscellaneous service routines used by
- other program segments.
- ITRMPORT.INC -- the routines that drive the serial
- port, including the interrupt service routine that
- permits interrupt driven input from your modem. Most
- of these routines were written by Alan Bishop.
- ITRMWIND.INC -- the routines that handle the windows
- that come and go as the program runs, and allow you
- to save a screen for later reference. Thes were
- written mostly by Bela Lubkin of Borland Int'l.
-
- Your comments or complaints, and especially your improvements,
- are of course, invited.
-
- Unsolicited Advertisement: Turbo Pascal, and Borland International,
- its publishers, are a joy to work with. Seek them out.