Talisman BBS - Support Disks/talisman bbs - dox - side 2.D64/parameters right

Text File | 1995-01-01 | 9.1 KB | 194 lines

3.5.14  Modem init.

This string is a Hayes modem command string that is automatically sent
to the modem when Novaterm first boots up.  It is also sent when you
press C= I in terminal mode.  A typical initialization string looks
like this:

ATE1M1Q0L2S11=50

This string would turn echo on, turn on the speaker, turn off quiet
mode, set the speaker volume to 2, and set the touch tone sound time
to 50 milliseconds.

3.5.15  Baud rate.

The baud rate is the speed at which data is sent and received over the
modem.  Novaterm can operate at 2400 baud under normal conditions and
as high as 38,400 baud using the SwiftLink-232(tm) cartridge.  You
select the baud rate from a menu of available baud rates which is
limited by the maximum baud rate of your modem.

Without a SwiftLink cartridge connected, Novaterm uses the RS-232 NMI
routines from the February 1989 issue of Transactor magazine.  These
routines provide clean, reliable communication at high speeds even
when the computer is sending and receiving data at the same time.
These routines are necessary because the RS-232 routines present in
the stock Commodore 64 do not work properly beyond 300 baud.  The
Transactor routines use carefully selected values for start-bit and
full-bit transmission times to overcome the errors.  These "times" are
actually values used by an internal counter to determine when the next
bit of data should be sent or received.  Each byte of data has eight
bits which must be sent plus a starting bit which precedes it.  The
start bit takes slightly longer to send than the bits of real data
(called "full bits") and thus the start-bit time is longer than the
full-bit time.

3.5.16  Dial method.  See section 2.3.7.

3.5.17  Redial time.

During each attempt at autodialing, Novaterm waits a certain number of
seconds before giving up without a connection.  That amount of time is
set here.

3.5.18  XOFF char, XON char.

These are single ASCII characters used to pause and resume
transmission.  Usually, XOFF is the ctrl-S key (ASCII 19) and XON is
ctrl-Q (ASCII 17) (these are Novaterm's defaults), but they may vary
among bulletin boards (for example, some BBS's use P to pause and any
other key to continue).  The ASCII values of the characters used by
Novaterm are displayed.  When you choose to modify either of these,
type the actual character to be used, not the ASCII value.

3.5.19  Flow control tolerance.  See section 3.5.25.

3.5.20  Protocol block size.

Kermit and Punter protocols allow a variable block size (see section
3.5.2, Protocols).  This option allows the block size to be set within
an acceptable range.  The value here may not be changed when one of
the other protocols (Xmodem, Xmodem-1k, Ymodem batch) is in memory.

3.5.21  Batch download file type.

During a Ymodem batch or Kermit download, there is no means of
specifying the file type while the transfer is taking place.  Instead
of simply saving these downloads as "prg" files, the file type of
batch-downloaded files may be set to "prg", "seq", or "usr" with this
option.  If this is set to "seq", the file type of every file
downloaded using Ymodem batch or Kermit will be "seq", and likewise
with "prg" and "usr".  This setting has no effect with Multi-Punter,
since Punter protocol sends the file type of transferred files.

3.5.22  Comm parameters.

Some bulletin boards or mainframes may use only seven of the eight
bits of a byte for communication.  To accomodate for this, you may use
either 8 bits with no parity, 7 bits with even parity, or 7 bits with
odd parity.  Most systems use 8 bits with no parity.

3.5.23  Bell.

This simply turns the bell on or off.

3.5.24  Save buffer when full.

More than 8192 bytes of text may be captured and saved to disk without
running out of memory, even though the buffer is restricted to that
size.  When the buffer becomes full during a text capture, Novaterm
immediately sends a character that tells the host computer to pause
(called the XOFF character), just as if you had pressed the pause key.
Once the host computer stops sending data, Novaterm saves the buffer
capture file to disk, appending it to the disk file if it already
exists.  The capture file in the buffer is erased and re-opened,
making all the memory available again.  Then, Novaterm sends a
character to tell the host to resume transmission (the XON character),
also as if you had "hit a key to continue" yourself.  The buffer
capture continues after this, and the process repeats once the buffer
fills up again.  When the text you want to capture has all been
received, you must manually save the text remaining in memory.
Novaterm allows you to append the text to the existing disk file.
This is all done automatically, but it may be turned off by toggling
this option.

If a disk error occurs while trying to save the capture file, Novaterm
does not send the XON character to resume transmission.  This leaves
the remote system paused so that you may correct the problem, save the
capture file manually, and resume the text capture where it left off.

3.5.25  Flow control.

Since both 40 and 80 column modes may have trouble keeping up with
baud rates of 2400 baud and above, flow control has been implemented
to prevent character loss.  When the terminal is falling too far
behind in displaying incoming data, Novaterm sends a pause (XOFF)
character to the remote computer. This halts transmission to allow
Novaterm to catch up.  When the terminal is nearly caught up to where
it was paused, it sends a continue (XON) character to resume
transmission.  This prevents characters from being lost when Novaterm
gets too far behind the incoming data.  The flow control is done
automatically, but it may be turned off by toggling this option.

A tolerance value for the flow control may be adjusted from the same
menu.  A higher number means Novaterm waits until it is further behind
before sending a pause character.  The default is 150 in an acceptable
range of 11 to 255. Generally, the higher the baud rate, the smaller
this number should be.  This is because there is a delay between the
time Novaterm realizes the buffer has reached its tolerance and the
time Novaterm sends the pause character, during which additional data
may be received and stored in the buffer.

If you are operating at less than 2400 baud, the flow control
tolerance shouldn't concern you at all.  The problem is most common at
2400 baud or higher in 80 column mode.  If you are still losing a lot
of characters even with flow control turned on, you should decrease
the tolerance until the character loss is a minimum.  This number may
be around 100 to 200 if you are directly connected to a mainframe
system.  It may need to be lower if you are on a BBS.  It all depends
on how long the remote system takes to respond to a pause signal.

On some mainframes, if you dial into the system with your modem at
2400 baud or less, you may find that pause signals won't have any
effect at all, and flow control does not work.  This is because the
mainframe system is sending data as fast as it may into its modem's
buffer, and its modem is emptying its buffer at the slower baud rate.
Therefore, the mainframe is already waiting at the prompt while its
modem sends data.  To correct this situation, you must find some way
to slow down the mainframe to the speed of your connection.

Your mileage will vary with flow control.  With some connections it
works flawlessly, while on others you may still lose characters.  If
flow control does not work well enough for you on a particular system,
you may try 80 column scroll adjust (see 3.1.2, Commodore key
commands, C= W).

3.5.26  Transfer translation.

If you are downloading a sequential file (textfile) from a bulletin
board, it may be in standard ASCII.  In order to change the file to
PETSCII while it is downloaded, you may turn this option on.  This
causes the incoming file to be translated through the ASCII receive
translation table in memory before it is saved to disk.  Similarly, if
this is toggled on when you upload a file, the file is translated
through the transmit table before it is sent to the receiving
computer.

3.5.27  Chop X/Ymodem padding.

When you download a file using Xmodem, Xmodem-1k, or Ymodem batch, the
last block is padded with control-Z characters to increase its size to
the required 128 or 1024 bytes.  This leaves extra bytes at the end of
the file when it is saved.  If you have this option turned on, these
padding bytes at the end of the file are stripped, bringing the file
back to its actual length.  This could corrupt a binary file which has
control-Z characters at its end, but such files are uncommon.

3.5.28  SwiftLink.

The SwiftLink cartridge may be mapped to three different memory
locations.  This may be necessary if you have some other device hooked
up to the cartridge port that uses SwiftLink's default memory
location.  Consult the SwiftLink documentation for more information
about changing the mapping within the cartridge itself.

When you select this option, you are given a menu of three areas of
memory.  Select the area of memory that your cartridge is mapped to.
The default is $DE00, which should be used if you have no other
special devices hooked up.  You may map the SwiftLink to $DF00 and
$D700 as well. Mapping to $D700 is only possible with a Commodore 128
in 64 mode.