AMIC PD TERM beta version .56 preliminary documentation 1. AMIC PD TERM Beta release .56 1.1. Overview of new features over version .55 1.1.1. Set GEnie-Chat (PROJECT MENU, ITEM 2) This function will set AMIC PD TERM to strip out any blank lines sent by GEnie, which is an extremely nice feature for the Amiga RTC (Real Time Conferencing), held every thursdays and saturdays at 10PM Eastern. This does not mean it can't be used on other services besides GEnie though,I just named it like that in appre- ciation for the SYSOP's of this service (they sure asked!) When CHECKMARKED, the flag is toggled ON, otherwise AMIC PD TERM won't filter any blank lines (DEFAULT mode). 1.1.2. ASCII send mode (TRANSFER MENU, ITEM 7) Allows you to upload ASCII files using the START ASCII SEND func- tion in a "WAIT FOR PROMPT" mode. What it does is to wait for an user definable character to come from the host before sending the next string of the file. This is EXTREMELY useful when uploading pre-edited messages to network services like GEnie that may have slow response. For example,let's say that the prompt character is a '>' (default on GEnie, I think (at least mine!)), and you have pre-edited a file that contains the description of a file you are about to upload. Setting the ASCII SEND MODE to PROMPTED, you use the START ASCII SEND; you will notice that AMIC PD TERM will send the first line of text to the host and stop. It is actually in a wait mode until the '>' gets transmitted from GEnie,which usually means it is ready to receive the next line of text.As soon as the '>' character appears on your screen, you will see the NEXT line of this file being transfered,until the whole file is transfered. Now, how to define this character? Well, for NOW, you can only assign this character from the .Config file, by creating a field called CHARACTER, in example: CHARACTER > Where '>' is the character to wait for before sending the next line of text. For version .57 you will be able to define this on a NEW .param file that contains this and other information for each one of the phone records in the system (optional). 1.1.3. Get fonts (SETUP MENU, ITEM 13) This function allows you to load a new font to be used as the I/O text font. You can load a new one any time during a session, but notice that loading a font will do a CLEAR SCREEN. Propor- tional fonts are *not* supported, yet,and they will look a little wierd if used. And yes, you can define a DEFAULT font in your .Config file too! All you need to do is to add the following two fields to your configuration file! FONT fontname (which MUST be located in FONTS:) SIZE fontsize (if defined size is not found, it will load either 8 or the first one it finds in the list) Please notice that if you select the GET FONTS routine and click over the OKAY gadget WITHOUT selecting a font from the directory, AMIC PD TERM will reset back to the ROM font! (Topaz 8) 1.1.4. Set a different editor for LOAD EDITOR. You are now able to set the Editor you want to load when using the LOAD EDITOR function at the UTILITIES menu of AMIC PD TERM. So far I have been able to have it to load TxED, ED and UE with- out any problems from both parts. I am not sure about any other editor though, but would be nice to know. To set the editor, you must create field in the .config file as: EDITOR editor-filename where "editor-filename" could be, among others, "C:E", "C:ED", UEDIT, even "C:E temporal.txt" will work fine. 1.2. Fixes on AMIC PD TERM from version .55 1.2.1. In the DIAL Requester. o Real support of 2000 phone records on each phone directory, instead of only 1000 as on .55 o No more crazy numbers when using the autoredialer (like 5656566 seconds, etc) AMIC PD TERM beta version .56 preliminary documentation o NO more problems with the ALTERNATE SERVICE NUMBER Flag. o No more problems with the EDIT gadget. o No more problems deleting multiple phone entries from the re- quester. You won't be able to delete the LAST record in the directory, this way you can always add a new one whenever you want (notice that once you fill the blank record with informa- tion, a NEW blank is created. 1.2.2. START ASCII CAPTURE o Blank spaces are NO longer appended to the end of the filename 1.2.3. START ASCII SEND o When ABORTING (STOPING) an ASCII send you won't be bothered by the file requester again. 1.2.4. INTERLACE switch o No apparent problems doing this function several times in a row. I have tried switching back and forth 100 times in a row and no problem was detected during the whole process. 1.2.5. BORDERS OFF/ON o the BORDERS OFF/ON switch in the configuration file is working now. 1.3. Miscellaneous comments Well, its been a while since we made the last release to AMIC PD TERM, but it sure has been busy around here. But I am glad to re- lease this new version, with a part of the complete documentation that will go with this program from now on. PLEASE leave feedback about the docs and about the program on GEnie or on AMIC! (Read about technical support, at the begining of this addendum file. Some of you must be glad to know that I have decided to add the Ymodem protocol to AMIC PD TERM version .60, on top of the Zmodem protocol I have been implementing for a while now. You might be happy to know that version .57 will have a review buffer and some other really neat features like HAYES messages for autoredialing sequences, a better user interface, more configurable variables, and much more.. keep looking, and please, if you use and like the program, become a registered user!! 1.4. Known bugs o When used on an Amiga 500, and loading AMIC PD TERM from the WB system, I was unable to load different fonts, please try and let me know! o The memory used by a font won't be deallocated when closing the program down,but fonts that are loaded will use the memory used by previously loaded fonts, so that you won't lose more memory than the one used by the largest font you load. I haven't debug this one enough to tell if the problem is not the text attribu- tes structure instead, not being deallocated properly. o WHO KNOWS!! Let me know if you find bugs! I gotta fix them ALL! 1.5. About the new docs If you are new to telecommunications, or confused with some of the functions of AMIC PD TERM, I recommend you to download the new documentation files, released under the name of APD56DOC.ARC. They explain in great detail all about AMIC PD TERM and about the world of telecommunications. One thing though, as of today, only a part of the complete docs are ready and released. Chapters 1 and 2 to be more precise, which explain some of the program ope- ration but without any great detail. I expect to finish the com- plete documentation by August 20, 1987. ===================================================================== AMIC PD TERM BETA .52 --------------------------------------------------------------------- This note just to tell ya, READ the AMIC.NEW file if you wonder about certain things of the program. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The following is a list of the files that should be contained in this ARC. If you upload this ARC file to any other system, you shall NOT remove ANY of this files,nor alter them. Your colaboration is GREATLY appreciated. File Size Description --------------------------------------------------------------------- READ.ME 3603 This file. AMIC.info 482 ICON for AMIC PD Term. AMIC.NEW 52973 Documentation for AMIC PD Term. Well, sort of. MAKE SURE you read it! AMIC 69184 Executable and the actual heart of this! AMIC.Config 860 Example Configuration file for AMIC. AMIC.Phone 1394 EXAMPLE Phone directory. There is a NEW format, so make SURE YOUR Phone directories are changed accordingly. More info in the docs. AMIC.Keys 81 Macro Keys example. Define your own. GENIE.Keys 117 Some useful macros for GEnie, as an example. AMIC.Color 210 Default Color Palette file. IBM.Color 261 IBM UGLY Colors! ===================================================================== IMPORTANT NOTE: The files with the extension .Phone, .Keys and .Color must be copied to the path (or disk) assigned to LOOKDIR in the .Config file. Read the docs for more information, or load AMIC.Config on your editor and change the LOOKDIR path (has to be FOUR chars max, to your preference. Also very important, the first letter, and ONLY the first letter, MUST be a CAPITAL if you want to see those files listed in the file requester when loading phonelibs, colorlibs and/or macrolibs. ===================================================================== CALL AMIC: Amiga's Larget BBS in the WORLD! 217 Megs of available storage. Largest Amiga Public Domain Library ANYWHERE, with over 2600 files online, for over 100 Megs of data in just PD files. 1700 Messages are active, they last just around 25 days (LOTS of ac- tivity. AMIC 2 will be on operation sometime this summer, with 8 lines for mutliuser capabilities, Chat with other users, transfer several files simultaenously while doing some other activities in the system at the SAME time, via MultiTalk(tm), visit our "3D" shopping mall where you are an animated character, browse through the different shops, buy with your credit card, or COD, see product pictures, transfered while viewed in real-time, play online games with other users, including graphical games via GraphLink, our graphics protocol for the Amiga. To take advantage of the graphics interface you must be using Graph- Term, our commercial terminal program, available early Fall/87. Databases, Conferences, Networking, etc, via AMIC-2. For more infor- mation, call AMIC or leave messages in the Communications Category on GEnie. I will respond mail (slowely but surely) on the following sys- tems: GENIE: D.SALAS AMIC: SYSOP BBS-JC: David Salas AMIGO BBS: David Salas And any others where you see my name stamped in the message base. ===================================================================== ===================================================================== AMIC Development presents AMIC PD Term By: David Salas & Albert Kirk ===================================================================== Version: Release beta 52 Date : July 7, 1987 Time : 15:00:00 Status : RELEASE GRANTED FOR ALL USERS, ALL BBS's ===================================================================== *** NOTE *** AMIC PD TERM was originally made from Dan James (DJJ) source to COMM version 1.34, but has evolutionized im the last couple weeks into its very own environment. I was actually going to adopt the name of COMM version 2.0, but on requests of DJJ I have adopted this new name. But Dan sure deserves some credit on it, even if the program doesn't look too similar at all. Most of the I/O and Transfer protocol routines are intact, with few changes, this will ultimately change, HAS to change to accomodate our MultiTalk protocol, and it will improve I/O speed greately by using assembly made routines. Thanks and ENJOY this BETA version of AMIC PD TERM, this BETA status implies that the pro- gram might have some bugs here and there, and that some of the items available are not actually implemented. Just be patient, I DO *NOT* intent to release EVERY single update to the public domain,but perio- dically, as I have been doing for about a month since I started with it. There are about 40 testers of it, so I think that is enough to get enough feedback on problems with the program. I would appreciate your feedback, but if I don't reply at all is because that has been taken care already on new releases to selected testers (mostly from AMIC). SYSOPS: Do *NOT* delete COMM 1.34 from your libraries, AMIC PD TERM is NOT considered a newer version of this program, nor want to takeover the great work that DJJ has put into the original version of COMM. --------------------------------------------------------------------- ** DISTRIBUTION AND COPYRIGHT ** --------------------------------------------------------------------- This program is placed in the public domain as SHAREWARE. If you find this program useful, a $20.00 registration fee will be really appre- ciated, and will help us to keep mantaining and enhancing the program on a regular basis. At this point of time I won't release the source code, in first place because I don't feel confortable releasing code that is not being 100% debugged, secondly, I would rather wait until the full implementation of the program has been completed. By then I will make the source code available one way or another. As registered users you are entitle for updates of the program as they become available, uinlike non-registered users that only will be able to update it whenever I release Generally available updates of the program. These updates have to be obtained either by mail or via AMIC. Via mail, the only cost for you is a SASE (Self Addressed Stam- ped Envelope). Via AMIC, just the cost of the call. Also, on AMIC you will be able to read and participate in the AMIC Development Testers Area, with hints and information about AMIC PD TERM, special files, etc. And best of All, AMIC PD TERM registered users are entitled to a $20.00 discount on GraphTerm, our commercial terminal program. Send your registration fee to: David Salas or Albert Kirk AMIC Development 1002 Apple Creek Lane (NEW ADDRESS!!) Santa Rosa, CA 95401-2731 --------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements, suggestions --------------------------------------------------------------------- MINIMUM Configurations: - Amiga 1000/500/2000 w/512K of memory - One 3.5 floppy drive - Amiga Monitor - Kickstart/Workbench 1.2 or up! (It does NOT work under 1.1 and we don't plan on doing such thing) SUGGESTED Configuration:- Extra 512K or more of memory. - Second Floppy Drive or Hard Disk - Printer ===================================================================== Features of the NEW AMIC PD Term --------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Features of .53 *** --------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing at all, just a MAJOR bug has been revised on this verison, you perhaps didn't even see .52 around, so that's good! The problem was not really easy to find, I think, unless you are an avid user of the HELP key... But there is goes, this version fixes the problem! Leaving some 12 hours after releasing .52......... I guess you better reade the features in .52 now... ===================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- AMIC PD TERM .52 --------------------------------------------------------------------- SEVERAL bugs have been fixed, and perhaps new ones have been created. Please understand that we are not just adding features to the program but we are also optimizing the code GREATELY, that's why you will be surprised to see this new version having a code size SMALLER than versions .50 and .51, while new additions and bugs have been fixed. Again, I haven't add any new functions at all to the program, but enhancing the ones already available in the program. This includes: o Better error trapping in the program. o No more strange GURU's upon exit, or while playing around with the menus. o Support of multiple menu selections: (Select items while keeping your RIGHT BUTTON down, go through all the menus items you want, select the ones you want to execute, by clicking on them with the LEFT button, and when ready to go just release the buttons. o The program won't die misteriously after a download, or after canceling autoredial, etc. o The Autoredial flag has been fixed now, so that it reflects the real status of it. o You can now do double clicks on the file requester to select the file you want for file tranfering. o The system will DESELECT the phone item to which you have esta- blished connection, so that you can just go and and start auto- redialing w/o having to deslect that BBS system you logged into. This is not true when using DIAL instead of AUTOREDIALING. o Also the system should work fine on splitting into chat mode, or viceversa,we have optimized that routine to work much faster and safer. o You can now have several requesters up, but only the last one is going to get your mouse inputs, but I should suggest NOT to do that (like the phone and color requesters up at the same time and other combinations like those). o Xmodem should be faster than on any previous versions, due to flow control optimization. o Assembly routines have replaced a lot of the color requester C code, making it faster to save and convert the color table. No big deal though, just saved a lot of code! o the status line should be less messy now. CAUTION: o DO NOT ASSIGN a path longer than three chars AND the ':' to your LOOKDIR, GETDIR, DEFDIR preferences, or the file requester will die as well, memory allocation problems. I think I have this warning at least two more times here, but you keep skipping it! That will be trapped on .53, promise.. Well, not much for now, believe me, a lot of work went into this one, even if you don't see that much, other than the code being SMALLER! So, keep around for Zmodem and Scripts, but don't forget you must be registered to be entitled to such release (.60). We want to express our gratitudes to all those fine guys that have been reporting bugs with the program. Many of you don't understand that the program is in its prelimary stages of development, and many bugs are still living in this thing. But we are crushing them, don't worry! Our main project is GraphTerm and the multiuser BBS, so that we can only give so many hours of concentration to this project, but even so, we are giving it lots of time to it.. --------------------------------------------------------------------- *** NOTICE *** --------------------------------------------------------------------- I you are interested in a new READY to go version of AMIC PD TERM, just send $5.00 and a SASE to: AMIC Development Att: David Salas/Albert Kirk 1002 Apple Creek Lane Santa Rosa, CA 95403 This does NOT make you a registered user though, if you want to be- come a registered user, send $20.00 and the SASE, and we will send you the latest version of AMIC PD TERM as soon as possible, besides the fact that you will be receiving future versions of the program that are NOT going to be released to the general public at all, including the functions that I describe in the following NOTE. Please specify your system configuration, so I can build you the best possible startup-sequence on the disk. Also, complete documentation is available to registered users... ==================================================================== --------------------------------------------------------------------- ** NOTE ** AMIC PD TERM Beta release .60 is almost ready to be delivered. This version won't be available to non-registered users, unless the satisfaction/registrered ratio changes to a more favorable percentage. This version includes the several additions: SCRIPT LANGUAGE: Scripts can be assigned to each phone record, or can be loaded on the fly (taking over any loaded script if there is any currently in memory). The following commands are available in such release: About Dialing: AUTO ON/OFF Sets the autoredial flag to ON or OFF. DIAL number Dials . If AUTO is OFF it won't try again if no carrier was detected, but if AUTO is ON it will redial until carrier is detected. HANGUP Couldn't be simplier! It hangs up,disconnecting the system from the host immediatly. Be kind and use this wisely, make sure you send a goodbye command to the host before doing this! About Flow control: BREAK Sends a break to the system. DELAY nn Delays amount of seconds. GOTO label Goes to