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- COMW v2.20
- Communications Wait
- by John Ericson
- INTRODUCTION
-
- I originally intended COMW to connect to my friend's system due to the
- number of errors we were having using SERSETUP. I completed this task
- after a few evenings. Then I thought that this would be a good opportunity
- to transfer COMW updates and/or WAD files and added a streaming mode file
- transfer. By this time I had found the source for SERSETUP on a BBS. I
- felt I could modify the protocol to make the communications faster and more
- reliable. After a few more days of programming and many days of testing
- and playing, I arrived at what you see now.
-
- OPERATIONS
-
- Start COMW from the command line using the syntax of
-
- COMW SECTION1 SECTION2 SECTION3 ...
-
- You may specify one or more section names for COMW to execute from the
- COMW.INI file. If you do not specify any section names, COMW will use the
- DEFAULT section name. Please note: the section COMMON is always executed.
-
- COMW.INI FORMAT
-
- The COMW.INI file uses the following format:
-
- [section name] comment
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- [section name] comment
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
- keyword=data
-
- Section names and keywords are not case sensitive. You may not have any
- spaces before the `=`. You may use section names more than once. Blank
- lines and lines with invalid keywords are ignored. COMW will not report
- invalid keywords or invalid keyword data. COMW will process all selected
- sections twice. The first pass is to configure all the parameters before
- COMW opens the communications port. The second pass is for all activities
- using the open port.
-
- KEYWORDS
- First pass
-
- com=n
- Default: 1
- Valid values: 1, 2, 3, or 4
-
- This keyword specifies the communications port. COMW only uses COM1, COM2,
- COM3, and COM4 at the standard address and hardware interrupts.
-
- port=n
- Default: none
- Valid values: not validated
-
- This keyword specifies the nonstandard communications port address in hex
- (i.e. COM1 is 3f8, COM2 is 2f8). When this keyword is specified you must
- specify a IRQ setting. An invalid address can crash your system.
-
- irq=n
- Default: none
- Valid values: not validated
-
- This keyword specifies the nonstandard communications port hardward
- interrupt (I.E. COM1 is 4, COM2 is 3). When this keyword is specified you
- must specify a PORT setting. An invalid interrupt can crash your system.
- IRQ settings of 3 through 15 are supported.
-
- baud=n
- Default: 2400
- Valid values: speeds supported by the 8250 or 16550 UARTs
-
- This keyword specifies the communications speed for the communications
- port. I have tested the assembler communications driver routine a speeds
- from 300 to 115200 with RTS/CTS and XON/XOFF flow control.
-
- buffer=n
- default: 2048
- Valid values: 1024-8192
-
- This keyword specifies the number of bytes for the input and output buffers
- each.
-
- flow=string
- Default: rdy
- Valid values: none, xon, rdy
-
- This keyword specifies the bi-directional flow control COMW uses with the
- communications port. `none' means no flow control. `xon' means XON/XOFF
- flow control. `rdy' means RTS/CTS or Ready/Busy flow control.
-
- color=n
- Default: 112 (black on white)
- Valid values: 0-255
-
- This keyword specifies the normal screen colors COMW uses in the popup
- display. The color values use the standard CGA color scheme (i.e. 1=blue,
- 2=green, 3=cyan, 4=red, 5=magenta, 6=yellow, 7=white, 8=high intensity).
- Multiply the color by 16 to get the background colors. Example: 1(blue) *
- 16 + 8(high intensity) + 7(white) = 31. Note: COMW enables high intensity
- background colors (blinking is disabled).
-
- bcolor=n
- Default: 240 (black on high intensity white)
- Valid values: 0-255
-
- This keyword specifies the boarder color used by COMW for the popup
- display.
-
- scolor=n
- Default: 128 (black on high intensity black[dark gray])
- Valid values: 0-255
-
- This keyword specifies the shadow color used by COMW for the popup display.
-
- dsr=string
- Default: off
- Valid values: on, off
-
- This keyword specifies whether COMW will wait for the modem for remote
- computer to assert the DSR signal before processing keywords on the second
- pass.
-
- meblock=n
- Default: 1012
- Valid values: 128-8192
-
- This keyword specifies the MEMODEM file transfer block size. Each block
- has a 12 byte header including a crc32 checksum.
-
- mestream=string
- Default: off
- Valid values: on, off
-
- This keyword specifies the MEMODEM files transfer mode. MEMODEM supports
- paced and streaming modes.
-
- merestart=string
- Default: off
- Valid values: on, off
-
- This keyword specifies the MEMODEM receive restart mode. MEMODEM supports
- restarting at the beginning (off) or after the last valid block (on).
-
- meblkdelay=n
- Default: 0
- Valid values: not validated
-
- This keyword specifies the MEMODEM delay (in 100th of a second) place
- between blocks.
-
- medown=string
- Default: current
-
- Valid values: any existing DOS directory path (not checked)This keyword
- specifies the default DOS directory for incoming MEMODEM file transfers.
-
- meup=string
- Default: current
- Valid values: any existing DOS directory path (not checked)This keyword
- specifies the default DOS directory for outgoing MEMODEM file transfers.
-
- Second Pass
-
- flush
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to wait for the output buffer to empty.
-
- fifo=n
- Default: 16
- Valid values: 0, 1, 4, 8, 16
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to set the fifo mode of a 16550 UART.
-
- leave
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to leave DTR and RTS on when the program exits.
- Normally these are turned off when COMW closes the communications port.
-
- delay=n
- Default: 0
- Valid Values: not validated
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to leave delay (in milliseconds) between
- characters transmitted. This options allow you to slow down the
- transmissions for modems in command mode. This delay should be set to 0
- after the modems connect.
-
- out=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to transmit the characters of the string. The
- contents of the string wil be explained later. Note: characters
- transmitted will not be echoed to the popup display.
-
- echo=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to send the characters of the string to the
- popup display.
-
- wait=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to wait for a string from the communications
- port (i.e. `ok' or `connect'). COMW compares only the number of characters
- in the string. This allows for generic modem responses (i.e. `connect'
- matches `connect 9600' or `connect 9600/ARQ').
-
- exit
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to exit back to DOS with an errorlevel of 0.
- COMW closes the communications port and restores the screen under the popup
- display.
-
- mesendf=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to start a MEMODEM file transfer send using the
- string as a DOS path for a file. Note: MEMODEM transfer requests only
- contain the DOS file name, not the complete path. COMW on the remote
- system uses the `medown' keyword to determine where to place the file.
-
- megetf=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to start a MEMODEM file transfer get using the
- string as a DOS path for a file. Note: MEMODEM transfer requests only
- contain the DOS file name, not the complete path. COMW on the remote
- system uses the `meup' keyword to determine where to place look for the
- file.
-
- doom=string
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to start ID's DOOM v1.2 using the string as
- command line parameters for the game. COMW will allow you any speed and
- modem settings you like. This will allow you to experiment. The buffers
- size used by the communications routine is set to 528 bytes and can not be
- changed. I have obtained the best performance using the maximum speed the
- modems will connect using no compression or block protocol (i.e. MNP or
- V.32bis). PLEASE NOTE: the communications protocol used by COMW for DOOM
- is not compatible with SERSETUP. Therefore both sides must use COMW. The
- lowlevel communications routine are written in "heads down" assembler. Do
- NOT use XON/XOFF flow control, this will interfere with the protocol.
-
- DOOM, the DOOM logo and DOOM likenesses are trademarks of
- id Software, inc.,(C)1993.
-
- player=n
- Default: 0
- Valid values: 0, 1
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to start the DOOM player negotiations with the
- specified player number. Player zero becomes the console for the network
- game and should be the player with the faster computer/communications
- port(i.e. 16550 UART).
-
- ticdup=n
- Default: 1
- Valid values: 1-5
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to set the corresponding value in the DOOM
- communications block. I included this setting for testing purposes and did
- not remove it when I was done. I recommend leaving it at the default
- setting.
-
- extratics=n
- Default: 0
- Valid values: 0, 1
-
- This keyword instructs COMW to set the corresponding value in the DOOM
- communications block. I included this setting for testing purposes and did
- not remove it when I was done. I recommend leaving it at the default
- setting.
-
- KEYBOARD
-
- Standard ASCII characters entered at the keyboard are sent to the
- communications port. The ESCAPE key however, will cause COMW to exit back
- to DOS with an errorlevel of 1. COMW closes the communications port and
- restores the screen under the popup display. In chat mode, the characters
- entered at the keyboard will be echoed in the popup display and COMW will
- add the LINE FEED character after each ENTER character. The Alt-c key
- combination will toggle in and out of chat mode.
-
- OUT & ECHO STRINGS
-
- COMW will perform special functions for the following characters:
-
- #
- This character will cause COMW to drop the DTR and RTS signals to the modem
- for one second (out keyword only).
-
- ^
- This character will cause COMW to interpret the next character as a control
- character (i.e. ^m or ^M represents the enter character; ^j or ^J
- represents the line feed character).
-
- ~
- This character will cause COMW to delay for 2 tenths of a second.
-
- `
- This character will cause COMW to transmit it's program ID string.
-
-