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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.