DARFH manual02.ascL Flow Control There are three methods for temporarily halting transmission of characters: None The local computer must handle the characters as fast as the remote computer sends them. Not a very good idea, really. Xon/Xoff A special character (Xoff) is transmitted by the local computer to inform the remote computer to stop. When the local computer is ready to accept characters, it sends another character (Xon). Though this method is better than nothing, it suffers from the time it takes for the character to get from one computer to the other. RTS/CTS The local computer signals (RTS) the local modem to stop sending data (which is almost immediate). The local modem then tells the remote modem to stop, which will then tells the remote computer to stop. When the local computer is ready to accept more characters, it signals the computer, which starts sending the data again. CTS is the same, but works from the remote computer to the local. This method of flow control should be used whenever possible. Threshold This is the number of characters that are allowed to be in the 256 byte input buffer before DesTerm will signal using RTS. Values range from 128 (half full) to 248 (almost full). If your modem continues to send a few extra characters after RTS is lowered, you may wish to use a lower value. Mask High Bit DesTerm can be instructed to only treat the lowest 7 bits of an incoming byte as significant (ignore the 8th bit). This can occasionally cure mismatches in data length and parity settings between two computers. Local Echo On most systems, the remote computer will 'echo' any characters that it receives back to you - so you can see what you are typing. Some systems don't - they require you to display your own characters. This feature is often known (incorrectly) as half duplex. Local Only Mode This feature specifies whether data bytes are sent to the modem or not: RS232 On Characters are sent to the modem as you would expect. RS232 Off Characters are not sent to the modem. This mode is usually used in conjunction with 'Local Echo'. Modem Settings This menu deals with the details of your modem. You will probably need the manual for your modem so you may tell DesTerm the codes it should send. DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide 7 RS232 Type This option only applies to modems and interfaces that plug into your User Port. DesTerm will ignore these settings if a SwiftLink, Turbo232 or HART is detected. Cheap RS232 Some home-grown (and cheaper commercial) modem interfaces don't properly invert certain control signals. This option allows DesTerm to function properly with these interfaces. Proper RS232 This option is for serial interfaces (such as the VIC 1011A) that support the proper RS232 signal polarity. Commodore 1670 You have a Commodore 1670 modem. Commodore 1650 You have a Commodore 1650 or compatible modem. Commodore 1660 You have a Commodore 1660 or compatible modem. Hayes Setup These options only apply to Hayes compatible modems (most non-Commodore modems are Hayes compatible). The Commodore 1670 is also Hayes compatible. Set the following items to best suit your modem: Max Baud Rate DesTerm should communicate with your modem at the highest speed that both DesTerm and the modem support. This option is used when DesTerm dials a phone number for you. Set Connect Rate Most modems today are able to fix the speed at which they speak to the host computer. (They always speak to the host computer at the same speed, regardless of the speed that it is communicating to the other modem at) If your modem is capable of this feature, enable it, and set this option to 'No'. If your modem will adjust the communication speed to match that of the modem-modem speed, set this option to 'Yes'. Init Sequence This is the sequence of characters that DesTerm sends to the modem in order to initialize it. NOTE: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. Hangup Sequence This is the sequence of characters that DesTerm will send to the modem in order to hang-up the phone. NOTE: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. Dial String (1-3) A Dial String is a sequence of characters sent to the modem just before the telephone number. DesTerm allows three Dial Strings to be defined. This allows slightly different commands to be used under differing circumstances. 8 DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide Connect xxxxx If your modem does not support a fixed communication speed, you will need to inform DesTerm what responses the modem sends when a connect is made at varying speeds. Speeds above 19200 are not listed, since all modems that operate at 19200 and above are able to fix the communication speed. Busy This should be set to the response that the modem gives if the desired phone number. No Carrier This should be set to the response that the modem gives if the modem connection is lost. No Dial Tone This should be set to the response that the modem gives if there is no-dial tone. No Answer This should be set to the response that the modem gives if the remote modem does not answer. Voice This should be set to the response that the modem gives if the modem detects that a human has answered the phone. Error This should be set to the response that the modem gives if an error is reported. Ring This should be set to the response that the modem gives if the modem detects an incoming call. Resend Init This menu item will simply re-send the modem initialization string (Init Sequence) to the modem. Tune Bit In See the 'Tweaking the DesTerm RS232 Serial Routines' section. Tune Bit Out See the 'Tweaking the DesTerm RS232 Serial Routines' section. Tune Half Bit See the 'Tweaking the DesTerm RS232 Serial Routines' section. Save Config This option allows you to save the configuration for your modem. The name is usually modem.mdm, but if you use more than one modem, you may like to use a different name for each (each name must end with '.mdm'). Tweaking the DesTerm RS232 Serial Routines These three options have no effect if a SwiftLink, Turbo232 or HART is detected. DesTerm includes high performance RS232 routines. Many hours were spent in front of an oscilloscope fine-tuning these routines to give accurate speeds of up to 9600 bps. Several modems were tested, and during this time, we noticed that some modems idea of the correct speed was off - we even discovered that the timing on some modems changed depending on how hot they were. The three menu items here allow minor adjustment of the timing that DesTerm uses - in the hopes that reliable communication can still be achieved with a less-than-perfect modem. For each speed (up to 9600, though more are listed), the timing that DesTerm may be modified in increments of 1% from -5% to +5%. When DesTerm transmits a character, it uses a timer to know how long each bit should last. When DesTerm detects an incoming character (the start bit) , it uses a timer to calculate when to examine the incoming bit. Hopefully, the incoming bit will be sampled exactly in the middle of the incoming bit. This initial time should be equal to 1.5 bit times (the start bit, followed by half of a bit). For the rest of the data byte, the incoming bits are sampled 1 bit time apart. Thus, the three parameters that can be changed are: DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide 9 Tune Bit In Adjusts the time an incoming bit is expected to last. Tune Bit Out Adjusts the time an outgoing bit will last. Tune Half Bit Adjusts the bit-and-a-half time so we can sample in the middle of a bit. Adjusting DesTerm to suit you Now that you have configured DesTerm to work correctly with your disk drives and modem, we can now concentrate on adjusting the program to your preferences. These settings are available from the 'User Settings' item in the main menu. Background Colour Selects the background colour of the screen. Most users will select black. Menu Colour Selects the colour of the text in all the menus. Frame Colour Selects the colour of the menu frames. Ruler Colour Selects the colour of the 'Tab Ruler' (second line on the screen). Prompt Colour Selects the colour of DesTerm prompts. Char Colour Selects the character colour used in the terminal window. Status Colour Selects the colour of the Status Line (top line on the screen). Also used as the 'highlight' colour in the menus. Key Click Enables or Disables a small 'click' noise whenever a key is pressed. Printer Device The Commodore serial device number of the printer/interface you have. Devices 4 to 7 are supported. Printer Sec Address The Commodore serial secondary address of the printer/interface you have. Printer interface cartridges often use the secondary address to set the printer into a particular mode. Secondary Addresses 0 to 8, 15 and 20 are supported. Printer Type If your printer expects Commodore-style ASCII (a.k.a. CMBSCII or PETSCII) select 'Commodore'. If your printer expects real ASCII, select 'Ascii'. NOTE 1: Most printer interfaces will do this conversion for you if you flick the correct switches or use the correct secondary address. NOTE 2: It is highly recommended that you use real- ASCII whenever possible. DesTerm works internally in real ASCII - the less conversion the better! Append Linefeed Some printers will automatically advance the printer-paper when they receive a carriage return (CR) character - some don't. DesTerm will add a line-feed (LF) character if you select 'Required'. NOTE: Most printers and printer interfaces have a similar option. Be sure that only one of DesTerm, the printer interface and the printer has this option enabled - or you may get several blank lines per each line printed! Joystick Or Mouse DesTerm can use a joystick or mouse to control Menu Selection and cursor movement. This option allows you to select 'Joystick' if you are using a joystick or '1351 Mouse' if you are using a Mouse. NOTE: The 1350 Mouse (JoyMouse) is considered a joystick. 10 DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide Mouse Mode The movement of the mouse can be directed to affect only menu selection ('Menus Only') or menu selection and cursor movement in the terminal ('Terminal & Menus'). Control Port # The Commodore 128 has two joystick/mouse ports. This item allows you to select the back ('Back (2)') or front ('Front (1)') port. Information Windows DesTerm can display a small banner message on the display indicating a particular event (such as a buffer being opened, closed, exhausted, filled etc). If you do not want to see these windows, select 'No' otherwise select 'Yes'. Transfer & Dial Tunes Upon completion of an upload, download or a successful dial, DesTerm can make some noise to alert you. You can select from 'None' for nothing, 'Music' for an amusing little ditty or 'Tone' for an annoying series of notes. Select Timer The time display at the top of the screen can be configured to display either the On-Line ('Online Time') time (time the modem has been connected) or the actual time of day ('Time Of Day'). NOTE: DesTerm supplies no way of setting the actual time. This time is set at boot-time from either a CMD-RTC chip or from a Smartwatch. Save Settings This option will save the current settings into a file. The default filename is prefs.set, but you may keep several sets of settings by picking any name ending in '.set' Configuring Terminal Emulation Parameters DesTerm comes with several terminal emulation protocols. These protocols are supplied as loadable modules. To find out how to load a terminal emulation protocols, see the 'Controlling DesTerm File Settings' section. It is possible to adjust the default behavior of the DesTerm terminal emulations using the items in the 'Terminal Settings' menu. The following items may be configured: Set Backspace The INST/DEL key is used as the backspace key. This option selects whether this key sends the code 8 (ASCII BS, Backspace) or code 127 (ASCII DEL, Delete). Set Delete The CLR/HOME key is used as the delete key. This option selects whether this key sends the code 8 (ASCII BS, Backspace) or code 127 (ASCII DEL, Delete). Backspace Mode Some remote systems expect that code 8 (ASCII BS, Backspace) will simply move the cursor one space back ('Non Destructive'). Others expect that the character being backspaced-over will be removed ('Destructive'). If the display looks a little odd when using a remote editor, it is likely you have chosen the incorrect mode. DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide 11 Line Wrap Mode Some remote systems expect that the next line will automatically be used when the cursor reaches the right edge of the screen ('Wrap On'). Others expect characters to over-write each other in the last character position at the right edge ('Wrap Off'). If you notice that text appears to be missing or in the wrong place, it is likely that you have chosen the wrong mode. NOTE 1: Some terminal emulation protocols (such as VT102) have special codes that turn this feature on and off automatically. NOTE 2: The current setting of the Line Wrap Mode is displayed on the Status Line, just after the terminal emulation type and screen length. 'W' indicates that wrap mode is enabled, 'N' indicates that it is not. VT 102 Decid The remote computer can request that the terminal identify itself. The choices are: VT 100 Responds as if the terminal were are VT-100. VT 101 Responds as if the terminal were are VT-101. VT 102 Responds as if the terminal were are VT-102. NOTE: This function is only applicable if the VT-102 emulation mode is loaded. Answerback The remote computer can request that a user-defined string be sent to it. Use this menu item to enter the string that gets sent. NOTE 1: This function is only applicable if the VT-102 emulation mode is loaded. NOTE 2: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. Set Tabs By default, the tab stops are set every eight character positions. You may change the tab settings using the following menu items: Reset Reset the tab settings to every 8 characters. Clear Clear all tab stops. Edit Edit the position of each tab stop. The cursor will move into the tab line, use the following keys: ESC Stop editing the Tab lines. SPACE Remove the tab at the current cursor position. RETURN Set a tab at the current cursor position. LEFT Move the cursor left one character. RIGHT Move the cursor right one character. Default Reset the tabs to the way they were when you last Stored them. Store Save the current tabs settings, so you may restore them later using 'Default'. NOTE 1: Some terminal emulation protocols (such as VT102) have special codes that turn this feature on and off automatically. Transmit CR Determines which characters are sent when you press the return key: Send CR = CR Just send a carriage return (ASCII 13). Send CR = CR LF Send a carriage return (ASCII 13) and linefeed (ASCII 10). Receive CR Determines what action occurs when a carriage return (ASCII 13) is received: Show CR = CR Move the cursor to position 0. 12 DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide Show CR = CR LF Move the cursor to position 0 and move to the next line. Colour Mode You can choose to have DesTerm not display colours or other attributes (underline, blinking or reverse video). This speeds up the display to over twice as fast as when colours are displayed. Colour Display colours and attributes as normal. Mono Do not display colours or attributes. Screen Length DesTerm can be configured to display various numbers of lines in the terminal window. 23n Display 23 lines in the terminal (25 total). Non- interlaced. 24n Display 24 lines in the terminal (26 total). Non- interlaced. 25n Display 25 lines in the terminal (27 total). Non- interlaced. 30n Display 30 lines in the terminal (32 total). Non- interlaced. 48i Display 48 lines in the terminal (50 total). Interlaced. 50i Display 50 lines in the terminal (52 total). Interlaced. 52i Display 52 lines in the terminal (54 total). Interlaced. 62i Display 62 lines in the terminal (64 total). Interlaced. NOTE 1: The last four modes use screen-interlacing. Double the information is displayed on the display in this mode. You will notice some flicker. NOTE 2: The 30 and 62 line modes push the VDC/Monitor limits to the extreme. Only use these modes if you have a monitor capable of syncing to a wide range of signals. NOTE 3: You can adjust the screen parameters to suit your particular monitor in the SETUP program supplied in the distribution package. Cursor Mode The blink mode of the cursor can be selected from four choices: Non Blink The cursor does not blink. Blank The cursor is not displayed. Fast Blink The cursor blinks at a fast rate. Slow Blink The cursor blinks at a slow rate. Cursor Style The style (shape) of the cursor can be selected from two choices: Block The cursor is the entire size of a character. Underline The cursor is a single line at the bottom of the character. Screen Mode The entire screen can be placed into 'Normal' video mode or 'Reverse' video mode with this item. NOTE 1: Some terminal emulation protocols (such as VT102) have special codes that turn this feature on and off automatically. Pre Scroll The slowest part of the screen update is when the screen scrolls. To speed things up, DesTerm can scroll several lines in one go. You can select the maximum number of lines to pre-scroll with this option: None, 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16. NOTE: This feature is smart: even if you request a pre- scroll of 16 lines, DesTerm will only scroll by the number of lines that will be actually used. DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide 13 Video Mode It is possible to tell DesTerm not to display incoming characters on the screen. This feature may be of some use if you buffer all your text, and don't want to slow the system down with unnecessary screen updates. Yes Display characters on the screen as normal. No Do not display characters on the screen. Defining Your Function Keys DesTerm allows 8 user definable function keys. When these keys are pressed in terminal mode, a pre-programmed set of characters will be transmitted to the remote computer. The function keys are programmed from the 'Define Fkey' item in the main menu. The function keys can be edited by selecting the menu item that corresponds to the key you wish to define: Fkey x (Alt x) Define function key #. Save Functions Save the function key file. The default name is function.fnc. You may save several different sets of function keys by supplying a different name. The new name must end with '.fnc'. NOTE 1: Unlike most other terminal programs, the function keys are accessed by pressing the ALT or C= key in conjunction with the numeric key representing the function key number. ie Function Key 3 is transmitted by pressing ALT & 3 or C= & 3. NOTE 2: Special function keys exist for your login name and password. These keys are configured on a telephone number basis. See the 'Defining Your Telephone Book' section for details. NOTE 3: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. NOTE 4: Characters transmitted using function keys are subject to the 'Inter Character Pause' and 'Inter Line Pause' delays as defined in the 'Transfer Settings' section. Defining Your Telephone Book DesTerm has the capability to store frequently used telephone numbers for you. Up to sixteen numbers may be loaded at a time. As well as defining the telephone number and a comment, each entry has several other configurable items so that the terminal is properly configured as soon as a connection is made. The Telephone Book is accessed from the 'Edit Number File' section in the main menu. The first 16 entries in the menu correspond to the 16 numbers that are stored. The other options in this menu are: Save Telephone File Saves the telephone book. The default name is numbers.tel. You may save several different sets of telephone numbers by supplying a different name. The new name must end with '.tel'. Transfer Numbers to Buffer This option will append the contents of the telephone book to the current contents of the buffer. You can then print out copies of you phone book for later reference. If you pick one of the 16 telephone book entries, you are presented with another menu that allows you to select the properties for that entry. Most of the entries are duplicates of ones found in the 'Protocol Settings' and 'Terminal Settings' menus and will not be discussed here. Comment A brief description of the service that you are calling. Number The telephone number for this service. Dial Prefix # The dial prefix (defined in the Modem Settings->Hayes Setup menu) to use for this number. Char Filename The name of the character-set to load when this entry is 14 DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide selected. Blank means that the current character set is kept. Character set filenames must end with '.chr' Fkey Filename The name of the function-key file to load when this entry is selected. Blank means that the current function definitions are kept. Function key filenames must end with '.fnc'. Logon Name This item allows you to define your logon name. This definition is available in terminal mode by pressing ALT 9 or C= 9. This definition is also available for use in script files. NOTE: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. Password! This item allows you to define your password. This definition is available in terminal mode by pressing ALT 0 or C= 0. This definition is also available for use in script files. NOTE: See the 'DesTerm Meta-Characters' section for details about sending control characters and including pauses. Script File This item selects the name of the script file to use when connected to this number. NOTE: Script files are not currently supported in DesTerm V3.02. Transfer Settings The transfer of information is the primary use for telecommunications. Smooth, accurate transfer of files is a must. The following items will help ensure that data is communicated reliably and accurately. Inter Char Pause It is sometime surprisingly easy to 'choke' a remote computer by jamming characters at it too fast. This item defines a pause (in 1/60ths) of a second between characters transmitted. The values range from None to 6. Inter Line Pause This item is similar to the one above, but the delay only takes effect between lines. The values are in tens of 1/60ths of a second and range from None to 60. NOTE: The Inter Char Pause and Inter Line Pause affect the timing of just about all automatically send text strings: Modem initialization, Hang-up, function keys, buffer-sends and ASCII uploads. Punter Block The Punter family of protocols allows a maximum block size to be defined, in the hopes that a smaller block size may allow better transfer of files over bad line conditions. The values range from 40 bytes to 255 bytes. Default Filetype Commodore Filesystems default different filetypes. This option allows you to select whether downloads will create 'Prg' or 'Seq' files. NOTE: This option is not currently supported. All files will be created as 'Prg' files. Duplicate File Several of the transfer protocols support 'automatic' filenames - the user is not required to supply one. If the filename supplied already exists on the disk, you can select to 'Alter Filename' or 'Replace File'. If the file name is altered, the first letter is replaced by increasingly higher digits (0-9) until a unique filename is generated. The transfer will fail if no unique filename can be made. Ascii Send LF Normally, DesTerm will send a single carriage return (ASCII 13) as and end of line marker ('Send CR = CR'). You can also chose to send a carriage return (ASCII 13) linefeed (ASCII 10) pair ('Send CR = CR LF'). NOTE: This option affects ASCII uploads and buffer sends. DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide 15 Xoff Timeout If you are using Xon/Xoff flow control, it is entirely possible that the remote end will send DesTerm an Xoff character - but never send an Xon. Instead of just waiting for something that will never happen, DesTerm has a timeout - a time that it will wait for the Xon response. If the time expires, DesTerm will continue as if the Xon response was received. The timeout values range from 1 second to 120 seconds. File Selection When uploading several files using one of the batch protocols, a method is needed of selecting the files to send. This option allows you to select 'Pattern' if you wish to use the DesTerm pattern matching feature or 'Buffer List' if you wish to use the buffer list feature. NOTE: See the 'Pattern Matching and Buffer Lists' section for more details. Xmodem Padding The Xmodem family of protocols all suffer from a problem due to the fact that they do not specify an exact filesize. Extra characters are added to the end of the file to make the final block complete. If 'Strip' is selected, DesTerm will attempt to remove this padding using a fairly smart algorithm. If 'Leave' is selected, DesTerm will leave the padding bytes alone. Xmodem Timing The Xmodem family of protocols define a set of 'timeout' values that should ensure a fairly rapid, error free transfer. With today's modems that have error-correction built-in, delays are often incurred when the correction kicks in - causing the transfer to fail. If you select 'Normal' the precise timeouts are used - 'Relaxed' extends the timeouts to account for slightly longer delays. Filename Case Some of the batch protocols allow the sender to specify the filenames in upper and lower case. It is often convenient to have DesTerm to convert filenames to be all lower-case ('Force Lower'). If you wish to leave the filenames intact, select 'Upper & Lower'. Auto Download Zmodem has the ability to automatically start a download when it sees a particular series of incoming characters. The following options are provided: Never Ignore the download request. Always DesTerm will attempt to load the Zmodem protocol from the DesTerm Drive (if not already loaded), then proceed with the download. If Loaded DesTerm will proceed with the download if the Zmodem protocol is loaded, and ignore it otherwise. NOTE: You should only select 'Always' if the DesTerm files are available on the DesTerm Drive at all times (if you have multiple drives or partitions available). Disk Functions Several of the items in the 'Disk Functions' menu were already discussed in the 'About Disk Devices and Unit Letters' section. This section discusses all of the options in more detail: Directory A listing of the current drive is displayed on the screen. If the directory is longer than the space available, the next 'page' is available by pressing RETURN. The ESC key will stop the directory display at any time. NOTE: Only files that match the current 'Dir Pattern' (next 16 DesTerm 128 V3.02 User Guide FH