"New...": Creates a new session (or, if you hold down the Shift key, a new text-only document). The "Configure Session" dialog comes up, which allows you to choose the connection type you wish to use, a host address if required, and the terminal type you wish to use. The "Comet Default" document is used as a template for the new session, so that the new session's connection type, terminal type, window positions, font size, etc., will be the same as your "Comet Default" document. Key macros are NOT copied to the new document.
"Open...": Calls up the Standard File Dialog to open a dataComet session document (or, if you hold down the Shift key, a text-only document). When a connection is made, the session's Connection Macro (see "Set Connection Macro" in the Control Menu) will be executed.
"Close": Close the session document associated with the top window and release all storage associated with the session.
"Save configuration...": Saves information about your session's configuration in a document file which you can use to lauch dataComet. If you change the name of a session, the new session will use the current session's configuration as a template; key macros are NOT copied to the new document.
"Type file name at cursor": Brings up a directory dialog box for you to select a file whose name you want to type on the dataComet screen. The download directory is set to the last directory you use.
"Set download directory...": Bring up a Macintosh Standard File dialog which allows you to choose a default download directory. (You need to select a file in the directory to get it to select a directory, otherwise the Standard File dialog opens the directory selected in the list... a "Set Directory" button will eventually be added to this dialog by dataComet to address this Standard File defect.)
"Set default file type...": Brings up a Macintosh Standard File dialog which allows you to choose a default file creator by selecting an appplication or document. E.g., if you select WriteNow, or a WriteNow document, any files download or created by dataComet will by displayed by the Finder as a WriteNow document. (Note that the document is still a 'TEXT' document, and will be converted to WriteNow format only when it is opened by WriteNow.)
"Save screen/selection/text as...": Presents a Standard File Dialog so you can select a file in which to save either the current emulator selection (or the whole screen if no selection has been made), or the contents of the text window. Saving will delete any text already in the file.
"Append screen/selection/text to...": Works like the command above, except it will append data to the file you select rather than deleting existing text.
"Save screen/selection/text [as filename]": Saves the data in the file which has been opened by the "Save as" or "Append to" commands. This will delete any text already in this file. If no file has been selected, you will be presented with the Standard File Dialog so you can choose one.
"Append screen/selection/text [to filename]": Works like the command above, except it will append data to the file you have selected.
"Open Log...": Presents the Standard File dialog so you can choose a file in which to log your session.
"Log session in sessionname": Allows you to turn session logging to the file selected with "Open Log..." on and off .
"Page setup...": Allows you to set up the printer when you are printing using the standard Print Dialogs.
"Print...": Presents the standard Print Dialog so you can print the emulator screen, a selection from the screen and scrollback buffer, or the .edit text. This delivers a rendering of the screen using the entire dataComet character set which is reasonably faithful, except that spaces are not always maintained accurately by Apple's Print Manager. (Note that you need to install the dataComet fonts in your System File to get accurate font reproduction on a LaserWriter if you are using Background Printing under the MultiFinder.) If
"Print lines off top": All lines scrolled off the top or cleared will be printed.
"Quit": Quits dataComet. You will be prompted to close any open connections which are currently open, and will be prompted to save changes that you have made to session configuration settings.
"Undo": Undo applies to the latest Cut command in an edit window.
"Cut": If the .edit window is in front, this command cuts the selection range and copies it into the Clipboard.
"Copy": Makes a copy of the screen or the selection (if one exists) or the text selection and copies it into the Clipboard.
"Paste": Pastes the contents of the Clipboard into the screen or text at the current cursor location.
"Clear/Clear buffer": If the .edit window is in front, the "Clear" command clears the selection range. If "Clear buffer" appears, then the whole emulator scrollback buffer is cleared.
"Select All": Selects the whole emulator scrollback buffer or .edit window text.
"Table Mode for Copy and Save": If the beginning of the selection range is less than the end of the selection range when you do a Copy or Save, only the text in between the beginning column and ending column of the range will be copied, so that you can exclude portions of the table. When this mode is on, the Control Session dialog item "Tab threshold" controls whether runs of blanks will be converted into Tab character to assist in copying tables from the terminal screen and pasting them into programs such as spreadsheets.
"Append file to .edit window...": Presents the Standard Get File Dialog and appends the TEXT format file you select to the session's .edit window.
"Append to .edit window": Appends the screen or selection to the end of the session's .edit window.
"Record session": When this mode is on, the contents of the emulator screen will be automatically appended to its .edit window when the emulator screen is cleared or lines scroll off the top. (Note that when this feature is used with sessions on IBM mainframes, screens are saved when the user enters a PF key; thus, if the user allows screens to automatically page on the IBM host, they will NOT be saved.) This setting is saved in the session's configuration.
"Page up": Move up one page in the scrollback buffer or the .edit window.
"Page down": Move down one page in scrollback buffer or the the .edit window.
"Go to line...": Offers a dialog to jump to a line number in a window. A return will cause the cursor to move to the end of scrollback buffer or the the .edit window.
"Find...": Offers a dialog to enter a text string you want to find in the scrollback buffer or the .edit window. The current selection is automatically placed in the dialog. You can hold down the Shift key to search backwards.
"Find same": dataComet will try to find the last string for which you searched. You can hold down the Shift key to search backwards.
"Add Returns": Adds a Carriage Return at the end of each line in the .edit window selection so the text can be pasted into a host document without lines overflowing.
"Remove Returns": Removes any Return from the .edit window selection which does not have adjacent Return or spaces.
"Set": Set the cursor position to be in the current screen.
"Show": Display the current selection.
"Delete ->": Delete the character to the right of the cursor, or the selection and the character to the right of the selection.
"< Shift left": Shift the lines in the selection left and delete any '>' found in the first columns.
"> Shift right": Shift the lines in the selection right and insert a '>' found in the first column.
"Match brackets": Sets the selection to the text inside the next pair of brackets, which include quotes and brackets. (You can modify the behavior of bracket matching by modifying the 'BRCK' resource in dataComet, which specifies the bracket pairs).
"Word left": Moves the cursor left one word.
"Word right": Moves the cursor right one word.
"Sentence left": Moves the cursor left one sentence.
"Sentence right": Moves the cursor right one sentence.
"Re-open session": Allows you to attempt to re-open a session which has failed to open or has been closed. If a connection is made, the session's Connection Macro will be executed.
"Reconfigure session...": Lets you use the "Configure Session" dialog to reconfigure a session after you have created or opened it.
"Scrollback buffer": Lets you turn scrollback buffering in the emulator window on and off.
"Toggle .edit Window": Bring the .edit window associated with the topmost emulator session to the front.
"Miniaturize": Shrinks the front window down to an icon. The icon will be inverted if data arrives while the session is iconified. The position of the icon on the screen is saved automatically when the window is closed.
A list of session/window names follows; the first 9 are associated with the Command keys 1-9. Selecting the item brings the window to the front.
Items in the list of sessions may have marks to indicate special conditions. Active Telnet sessions have a bullet; Telnet sessions which have terminated abnormally are marked with a cross. A Serial session which has the Modem Port open is marked with a 'M', while a Serial session using the Printer Port is marked with a 'P'.
"Global...": The Set Global Configuration dialog allows you to control several important features of dataComet. See the Global Menu help text. All the other items in the Control Menu affect only the topmost window.
"Session...": The Set Window Configuration dialog allows you to control various features associated with each window, such as whether it will shrink when you switch applications in MultiFinder and the keymapping for the emulator being used.
"Controls": Allows you to show or hide the controls around the emulator screen.
"Emulator": Allows you to configure items specific to the emulator you're using.
"Printing": Allows you to configure printing parameters which aren't included in the "Page Setup..." dialog.
"Keypad...": Allows the user to choose which of several keypad configurations will be used. If you are using a Macintosh Standard ADB keyboard, you can use the "Switch Standard keyboard +/- keys to match picture" control to switch the + and - keys to fix the keymapping so it will be the same as in the keypad picture (and in the same position as the + and - keys on other Macintosh keypads).
"Color...": The Color dialog allows you to assign different colors to different field types on the emulator screen, using the standard Color Picker dialog.
"Record Beep...": The Record Beep dialog allows you to record a sound which will be used in place of the system beep when a host sends a Bell to a dataComet emulator window which is not the frontmost window. If you have copied a sound resource into the Scrap and Paste it into a dataComet window, the sound will be saved and used as the session's Beep sound.
"Delete Beep": Deletes the beep you've recorded to supplant the system beep.
"Font": Allows you to set the font used in the emulator screen. If you're using a font which uses characters > 127 to display foreign character sets, you will need to enable the "Control Session" dialog item "Don't use Comet-font for characters > 127" to display the font correctly.
"Font Size": Allows you to change the font size used on the emulator screen.
"Bold Font": Allows you to set the font used for bold attributes in the emulator screen.
"Control Font": Allows you to set the font used in the control area around the emulator screen.
"Type my address at cursor": Enters your Internet address at the cursor position. This is useful with file transfer programs such as TFTP.
"Send ->": A hierarchical menu which allows you to send Telnet commands, which give a standard way of performing some common operations with diverse hosts.
"Erase character": Delete the character to the left of the cursor.
"Erase line": Erase the current line of input.
"Are you there": Send a request to the host to confirm that a
connection still exists; useful to confirm that a sluggish host
is still there.
"Interrupt process": Abort the current job on the host.
"Abort output": Abort the output from the current job on the host.
"Break": Send a Telnet Break to the host.
"Show statistics": Gives information about the state of the connection to your host.
"7-bit characters/8-bit characters": This setting allows you to negotiate Telnet Binary mode, i.e., an 8-bit wide character size, with the host.
"Send after return": Wait to send command lines to the host until the Return key is pressed (not applicable to 3270 emulation).
"Local echo": Echo characters locally and have the host stop "echoing," or sending each character received back to the emulator (not applicable to 3270 emulation).
"My Address -- xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx": Displays your Internet address
"Host Address - -xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:pp": Displays the Internet address of your host, and the port to which you are connected.
"Host: HostName": The name of the host to which you are connected, which is the same as your window title.
"Send Sytek Escape": This command offers a convenient method for sending the standard <Ctl-A><Ctl-B> character sequence used to escape to the Sytek command level when you are connected to a host over Sytek.
"XON-XOFF/Hardware handshake": You can configure the serial port to use two different kinds of handshaking to help guarantee that no data is lost when it is transmitted between the modem and your Macintosh.
Hardware handshake is the preferred option, and is compatible with Cornell's EZ-Remote SLIP cabling and modem configuration. A special cable is required to use hardware handshake, which uses two of the RS-232 lines (CTS and DTR, for output and input flow control respectively) to signal that the modem or Macintosh can't handle more data immediately. Your modem must also be properly configured for hardware handshake to work: for Hayes-compatible modems, configuring it with "AT&F&B1&H1&I0&R2&W" should work (this has been tested with USR modems). Selecting hardware handshake disables the menu items "Hang up phone" and "Hang up on close," which use the DTR line to signal the modem to hang up.
If you lack a cable which can support hardware flow control, you will use XON-XOFF to help control data transfer. You can configure a USR Courier to do this correctly using "AT&F&B1&H2&I1&R1&W".
With these configurations, you should configure your dataComet session to use the highest baud rate offered by your modem to maximize performance. On the USR Courier modem, the switches should be set to the factory default, with switches 3, 5, and 8 ON.
"Hang up on Close": Hangs up the phone line automatically when you Close the session. Note that when you Quit, dataComet always attempts to hang up the phone. See "Hang up phone" below.
"Baud": The items under this heading set the speed at which the port will communicate.
"Parity": The items under this heading set parity checking.
"Data Bits": The items under this heading set the number of data bits.
"Stop Bits": The items under this heading set the number of stop bits.
"Hang up phone": Drops the DTR line on the serial connection to the modem. This should cause your modem to hang up; if it does not, check your modem and cable configuration. (For Racal-Vadic modems using the Hayes-AT command set, the commands "AT*D2<Return>AT&W<Return>" should configure this option permanently--but you may need consult your modem documentation, since your modem may differ.)
"Reset Parameter RAM": The Modem port may be locked up when you try to use it, for (apparently) no reason. In this case, use this command to fix the Parameter RAM settings, which should free up the Modem port.
Notes on using the Printer port: To use the Printer port, you must first turn off AppleTalk (which is done using the Chooser). Some versions of AppleShare will lock out access to the Printer Port even if AppleTalk is turned off; if this occurs, you need to remove the AppleShare INIT from your System Folder.
"Record actions for macro": Starts recording of keystrokes, selections, and menu item choices as a macro. This option tries to generate correct !Z "waitfor" strings so that host interactions can be easily automated; there is an automatic delay when characters are typed to obtain the the best results with ASCII hosts, where there is a delay before the host echoes the character back. WARNING: menu items may change positions, so recording of menu choices is not guaranteed to be reliable.
"Record end--ready to Paste": Ends macro recording and places a copy of the macro into the Scrap so it can be pasted into a macro dialog text box or the .edit window.
"Dump Macro keys into edit window...": Dumps the keys which have had key macros defined. If the macro is only a single character, a three digit decimal number is also printed to make it easier to copy and paste the key into the Key macro dialog.
"Key macros on": Switches the use of key macros on and off, so that the standard keyboard interpretation can be easily restored.
"Define key macros...": Brings up a dialog which allows the user to remap the keyboard and keypad by associating a key with a macro command. (In general, key macros are sequences of characters and commands executed when a key associated with a macro is pressed.) The Help item in the dialog has more information on key macros.
"Set Single-click macro...": Presents a dialog similar to the key macro dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when you click the mouse in the emulator screen. If no Single-click macro is set, dataComet will try to move the emulator cursor to the location of the mouse. You can use this to disable cursor tracking by setting up a macro which contains no text or commands.
"Set Double-click macro...": Presents a dialog similar to the key macro dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when you double-click the mouse in the emulator screen. E.g., on a UNIX machine, you could set cursor tracking off ('!Ct') and set the double click macro to "!EW!ECvi !EV" to allow you to edit a file name listed in the emulator window by double-clicking on it. If no Double-click macro is set, dataComet will select the current word by default ('!EW').
"Set Connection macro...": Presents a dialog similar to the key macro dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when a connection is made. This is useful for partially automating logins, but PLEASE... don't put your passwords in Connection macros! Use the "!QS" macro to prompt the user for the password instead.
"Set Close macro...": Presents a dialog similar to the key macro dialog which allows you to set a macro command sequence to be executed when a connection is closed. In order to ensure that the screen is properly displayed, you may need to add a delay at the end of the macro; dataComet will close the connection if it is not already closed by host actions initiated by your macro.
When you create a new connection using the File menu New... command, you are presented with the "Configure Session" dialog, which allows you to configure the most fundamental parameters affecting a terminal session, including:
"Connection Type": The method of making a connection. Currently dataComet allows you to use MacTCP for Telnet network connections and Serial drivers for modem connections; Apple's Comm Toolbox will be supported in the future.
"Terminal Type": The preferred terminal type; the "Automatic" terminal type will default to a vt100 on a serial connection; on a Telnet connection "Automatic" will negotiate the "best" terminal type to use with the host. (Note that some hosts may not perform terminal type negotiations correctly, so "Automatic" mode may fail.)
"Hostname": If you are making a Telnet Connection, this field must contain the IP address or domain name of the host to which you wish to connect. If you need to specify an IP socket other than the standard Telnet socket (23), you can enter the socket number after the IP address or domain name followed by a colon; e.g., "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu:300". Alternatively, you can use the IP address or domain name followed by two periods or spaces; e.g., "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu..300" or "cornellc.cit.cornell.edu 300". Note that MacTCP must be configured correctly in order to make a connection, and that the configuration may need to be updated if you use this copy of MacTCP on another machine. You should contact your network administrator for "advice and consent" if you change your configuration.
If you get a message stating "Can't open MacTCP DNR," replace the "MacTCP DNR" file in the System Folder with a good copy. Trashing the "MacTCP DNR" file and restarting with virus programs off will allow MacTCP to create a good copy automatically when it starts up.
The global configuration in the "Comet Default" document is saved when you quit dataComet. If you find that dataComet tends to crash on launching, try throwing out the "Comet Default" document in the System Folder.
"Enable fast drawing": Let the application try to use the direct-to-screen drawing mode, which is faster on older Macintoshes but may prove incompatible with some displays. If you have a color or greyscale display which you've configured to run normally with many colors or shades of gray, dataComet will automatically change the screen mode to black-and-white when fast drawing is enabled and the session does not have color drawing enabled in the "Control Color" dialog, and back to normal mode when you switch to another window, so that monochrome and color sessions can run on the same screen at maximum speed.
"Restrict fast drawing to topmost window": Let the application try to use the direct to screen drawing mode with multiple windows. This mode may produce some odd screen displays if windows overlap, so if you see characters appearing in inappropriate places on the screen, check to see that this mode is off; if it is, then you might try disabling direct-to-screen drawing entirely.
"Reset emulator selection range after Copying": When this option is on, a Copy, Save, or Append command will reset the selection range to no selection, so the whole screen becomes the default selection range for the next Copy, Save, or Append. If you want the selection to remain fixed on the screen so you can the same selection on successive screens, turn this off.
"Remap Option key-combinations": Changes the keyboard layout to the "dataComet keyboard" keyboard layout, which disables the standard mapping of Option-E, I, N, and U (or other keys in non-US keyboard layouts) to characters with diacritical marks so that Option works properly as a Control key and macros are triggered immediately by these key-combinations. The "dataComet keyboard" keyboard layout must be installed in the System for this to work.
"Quit automatically when all windows closed": Quit the application when there are no open windows.
"Always use Courier font when printing with a LaserWriter": This option allows you to configure dataComet so that it will always use the resident LaserWriter Courier font when printing; this saves the time it takes to build the dataComet fonts and get better justification of columns; with the Courier font, however, the NOTIS library foreign character set will no longer print as you see it on the screen. If this option is not selected, the dataComet fonts will be used whenever special characters appear in the text to be printed, and Courier otherwise.
MacTCP/OT bug- workarounds
"Use Asynchronous sends": This option causes MacTCP to send multiple packets rather than send only one at a time (and wait "synchronously" for the packet to be ACKed before proceeding, so that the Macintosh performs no other normal processing while the network and remote host pass the data packet over the network). This is the default, but NOTE MacTCP may prove unreliable on LocalTalk when this mode is enabled using versions of MacTCP prior to 1.1.1.
"Send only one packet at a time": This option causes MacTCP to send multiple packets on a connection rather than just one at a time . This is the default, but NOTE that MacTCP may prove unreliable on LocalTalk when more than one packet is sent asynchronously on a connection, especially on 3270 connections. If your connection hangs, try disabling this option.
"Use TCP Status calls": Open Transport (as of 1.0.7) does not perform MacTCP status calls correctly. This must be enabled to get statistics and/or push the MacTCP timers.
"Push MacTCP timers": MacTCP has traditionally set the TCP re-transmit time-out to unreasonably large values. Enabling this option resets the timers to more reasonable values, which provides much more responsive performance over connections with high packet loss rates (which are usually caused by a lossy physical connection or an overloaded gateway). You must enable "Use TCP Status calls" for this to take effect.
File Transfer options
"File transfer--always do dialog to rename files": Before transferring a file, dataComet will present a Standard File dialog allowing you to select (upload) or rename (download) the file. This is off by default.
"File transfer--archive overwritten files in ".back"": This option automatically appends the contents of a file to "filename.back" before the download commences and overwrites the file.
"TFTP Server On": dataComet offers a TFTP server for use in transferring files. TFTP is the Trivial File Transfer Protocol, which you can invoke on the host to which you are connected to start a file transfer. dataComet also offers a "download" command to transfer files.
"Request approval of TFTP transfers": If this is on, when the TFTP server receives a request to transfer a file, it will query you. Note that if the TFTP server is on and Server asking is off, someone could transfer files from your computer without your knowledge (although they would have to be able to specify the names of the files they wished to transfer).
This dialog allows you to control the configuration of the session which is currently on top.
"Shrink on MultiFinder Switch": When you switch from dataComet to another application under MultiFinder the screen will automatically shrink to a small icon and expand. This feature helps make the TrashCan more accesible under MultiFinder.
"Close window when session closes": Will close the window and its corresponding document automatically when your session is closed or aborted.
"Use Block Cursor": Allows you to change the emulator cursor from an underline to a block.
"Blink Cursor": Determines whether the cursor will blink or stay on continuously.
"Open session without terminal type negotiation": Some TCP/IP hosts (particularly terminal servers) may not negotiate terminal types correctly, or may not open a session by sending some data to dataComet; if this occurs, you cannot send keystrokes to the host, and the button bar is left grayed out. Setting this option will allow you to send characters to such a host.
"Only one session per document": Usually dataComet closes a dataComet document after getting the settings and macros from the document; you can then open another session with the same host by double-clicking on the same document. Setting this option causes dataComet to leave the document open, so that double-clicking on it will bring the old session to the foreground and re-open it if it has been closed, rather than opening a brand new session.
"Keep session open when Mandarin sleep event received": This allows the user to configure a dataComet session running under Cornell's Bear Access LaunchPad to keep a session open rather than closing it when a sleep event is received. This speeds up switching between the LaunchPad and dataComet sessions.
"____ lines max. scrollback buffer (zero = no limit)" allows you to set the maximum number of lines to save in the emulator screen scrollback buffer. Note that if this is not set appropriately, you will run into out of memory conditions.
"____ Tab threshold (zero = copy all spaces)" allows you to set the threshold for converting spaces into tabs when the Edit menu item "Table Mode for Copy and Save" is on.
.edit WINDOW ITEMS
"Delete Returns in session.edit automatically on download": If you download a file with the same name as the session with ".edit" appended, it will be added to the session's .edit window; this option allows you to have the Carriage Returns at the end of each line stripped out automatically.
"Add Returns to session.edit automatically on upload": Like the above, except that Carriage Returns will be added automatically to the end of the lines where the text was wrapped in the .edit window.
