CHAT'N'SEND ----------- by JOHN P. ROBINSON and JEFF DEIMUND --------------------------------- graphics by MATTHEW CHUBBOY ----------------- special thanks to RYAN GLUECK ----------------- Programmed with "AMOS the Creator" ---------------------------------- Requires 1 megabyte of RAM: DISCLAIMER: WE HAVE PUT MUCH TIME AND EFFORT INTO THIS PROGRAM TO ENSURE ITS RELIABILITY; HOWEVER, WE CANNOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGED OR LOST DATA DUE TO THE USE OF CHAT'N'SEND SO YOU MUST USE CHAT'N'SEND AT YOUR OWN RISK. INTRODUCTION: Have you ever tried to telecommunicate directly with a friend using a standard telecommunications program? If you have, chances are it took you quite a while to get all of your settings right so you could chat properly. Besides that, if both of you happened to type at the same time, you probably ended up with a garbled mess on the screen. Also, while you were transferring a file you could not type messages to each other. GOOD NEWS!! Chat'n'Send changes all of that!!!!! Chat'n'Send is a telecommunications program designed specifically for direct connection with another Amiga user running Chat'n'Send. It is not designed for connection to a BBS. It allows you to Chat while transferring a file without any noticeable loss in transfer rate. Other features include two chat windows and a digitized laugh which can be heard on both ends by pressing the F1 key. Chat'n'Send uses our own customized transfer protocol that operates similar to autodownloading Z-modem and uses a "checksum" type error correction. This protocol updates the receiving chat window between each data block allowing communication while transferring a file. GETTING STARTED: The Chat'n'Send distribution disk will automatically boot so you can just insert the disk into df0: and reset your Amiga to load the program. Otherwise you can use your normal workbench disk in df0: and put the Chat'n'Send disk into df1: and click on the icon. Hard disk users can just drag the Chat'n'Send drawer into any directory on their hard drive. ONE IMPORTANT NOTE, HOWEVER: The file called serial.device in the DEVS directory of your boot disk or hard drive must be version 34.12 (Mar 1989) or greater. Chat'n'Send will not work (GURU) with earlier serial devices. A useable serial device is included on the distribution disk in the DEVS directory in case you need to update your serial device. Or you can just double-click on the INSTALL NEW SERIAL DEVICE icon from the workbench. MULTI-TASKING: Press the left-Amiga-A combination to toggle between the workbench and Chat'n'Send. CTRL-C COMBINATION: To quickly exit the program press Ctrl-C at anytime and you will be taken back to the workbench immediately. SET-UP WINDOW: The first time you run Chat'n'Send you will be taken to the SET-UP window immediately after the title screen display. The program will first give you a warning that to run Chat'n'Send your serial.device in your DEVS directory must be version 34.12 or greater. It will then ask you if you want to check your serial device to see what version it is. If you say Y for yes, the computer will look for the current serial device and display its version number. If the version displayed is less than 34.12 you should exit the program immediately and then double click on the INSTALL NEW SERIAL DEVICE icon from the workbench. This will install the new serial device for you. If your serial.device is 34.12 or greater you can continue with the setup procedure. You will then be asked to enter your name. UPLOAD PATH: Next you will be asked for your UPLOAD PATH. This just makes the file requestor jump to this path first when looking for a file to send. For example, if the files you want to send will usually be coming from df1: just enter df1: in the upload path. Hard disk users can pick any drawer or disk as their upload path; for example, DH0:mydrawer/ will go to the mydrawer directory on the hard drive. If you leave the upload path blank, it will just use the current directory where the Chat'n'Send program resides. DOWNLOAD PATH: The download path is next and it tells the program where to put the files that it receives. For example, if you always want the files you receive to go to df1: then enter df1: in the download path. You can also enter RAM: if you want the files to go to your RAM DISK. Hard drive users can enter any drawer or directory here eg. DH0:mydrawer/. If the download path is left blank, all received files will go into the current directory (Chat'n'Send Drawer). NOTE: When entering the upload path or download path, if you specify a drive such as df0: or df1:, there must be a disk in that drive or the program will not accept your input. STARTING BAUD RATE: After the download path comes the starting baud rate entry. You must enter 300,1200,2400,4800,or 9600 here. This is the baud rate that will be used initially when you run the program. The baud rate can be changed from the baud rate pull down menu later on. Your Amiga and the Amiga you are connecting with must be set at the same baud rate to communicate, otherwise you will get garbage on the screen. SAVE SETTINGS?: If you answer Y or y to this prompt your above settings will be saved so that you will not have to enter them every time you run the program. If you answer N or n your settings will not be saved. This concludes the SET-UP procedure for Chat'n'Send. If you ever wish to change these settings just choose SET-UP... from the CONTROL pull down menu at the top left of the screen. HOW TO CONNECT: First just call up your friend by voice and after both of you get Chat'n'Send running make sure you are both set on the same baud rate. When you are ready to make the connection, one person should choose SEND CARRIER... from the CONNECTION menu. At the same time the other person should choose ANSWER CARRIER... from the CONNECTION menu. Now hang up the phone and the modems will begin to make a connection noise. When the connection noise stops just press any key to finish the connection. At this point the two computers will exchange names and label the windows accordingly. At this point you will be able to chat and send files. When you are ready to disconnect just choose HANG-UP from the connection menu. SENDING FILES: To send a file to the other person just choose SEND A FILE from the transfer menu. A file requestor will be displayed. Just double- click on the file you wish to send and this will start the transfer. IF YOU WISH TO CHANGE TO A DIFFERENT DISK DRIVE OR DEVICE, PRESS THE RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON WHEN THE REQUESTOR IS DISPLAYED AND A LIST OF DEVICES WILL BE PRESENTED FOR YOU TO CHOOSE FROM. You can watch the progress of your transfer in the status window which will appear below the chat windows. The file will be transferred into the directory or disk specified in the DOWNLOAD PATH on the receiving end. Feel free to continue to chat while the file is being sent as it will cause no noticeable slowdown in the transfer rate. The program is able to allow chatting and sending at the same time because the chat windows are updated between each data block. Normally the receiving chat window is updated continuously but when you are chatting and sending a file at the same time it is updated approximately every one second. When the transfer is finished the status window will vanish and the chat windows will then be updated continuously again. NOTE: If the file you are transferring has an ICON it will automatically be transferred immediately after the file itself. Also it is IMPORTANT to know that if there is a file with the exact same name in the receivers download path directory it WILL BE DELETED and OVERWRITTEN by the incoming file. STATUS WINDOW: The status window helps you to keep track of the file being transferred. The title bar of the status window tells you the name of the file being transferred and the file's size in bytes. The BYTES field in the status window tells you how many bytes have been transferred so far. The CPS field tells you the overall characters per second since the beginning of the transfer. The TIME field tells you in minutes and seconds approximately how much longer is will be before the transfer is completed. This time is based on the current CPS value so you will notice the time value go higher if the CPS rate drops. The STATUS field tells you if the last block of data sent passed the checksum test. If it passed the checksum test you will see an ACK in this field for acknowledged. If the data block did not pass the test you will see NAK in the status field for negative acknowledge. The program will automatically resend any blocks which NAK so your transferred file should not have any errors in it. The ERRORS field just shows you the number of NAKs which have occurred on this transfer. NAKs occur when you have a poor connection and will decrease your CPS rate because the program will have to keep sending the same block until it passes the checksum test. COMMENT MENU: The comment menu may be expanded in future versions of Chat'n'Send but right now only has two options. The first, SEND A LAUGH... will cause digitized laughter to be heard on both ends. It also sends the sideways smiling face :-). This laughter can also be activated by pressing the F1 function key. Incidentally this digitized laugh is the laughter of the Chat'n'Send production crew! The second comment option, HOLD ON... can be very useful. It informs the other person that you have to leave the computer for some reason so they will know why you are not responding. It can be also activated by pressing the F2 function key. WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!! COPYRIGHT 1992. It is illegal to copy the registered version of Chat'n'Send except for backup purposes. It is also illegal to upload the registered version to a bulletin board service (BBS). In order to provide Chat'n'Send at the lowest possible price we had to do something to discourage pirating. EVERY REGISTERED VERSION DISTRIBUTED HAS THE NAME AND REGISTRATION NUMBER OF THE REGISTERED USER SECRETLY ENCODED INTO THE PROGRAM. If a registered version is ever found available on any BBS for downloading, it will be downloaded, decoded and investigated for possible infringement of U.S. copyright laws. We feel that this method of discouraging piracy would allow us to provide a quality program for less than $10.00 per copy including shipping. THE FUTURE OF CHAT'N'SEND: We are open to suggestions and would appreciate any comments or recommendations for features you would like to see in future versions of Chat'n'Send. Registered users will be notified of Chat'n'Send updates and the updates will be offered to them at a reduced price. From the production crew of Chat'n'Send; we thank you very much!! Please mail any comments or suggestions to: John P. Robinson 1O25 Odus Drive Jackson, MO 63755 USERS GROUP DISCOUNT! The price of Chat'n'Send is $9.95 per copy. But if there are Amiga users groups that wish to purchase more than 5 copies they may be purchased at $9.00 per copy. Just write "USERS GROUP DISCOUNT" on the order form and send the appropriate amount by check or money order payable to John P. Robinson. YOU MUST INCLUDE THE NAME AND ADDRESS OF EACH USER. THE PROGRAMS WILL BE MAILED DIRECTLY TO EACH USER!