Date   : Thu, 28 May 1992 18:02:00 GMT
From   : Alan Ralph <aralph@...>
Subject: Re: Comms program

Gerben 'P' Vos <gpvos@...> writes:
>On Wednesday May 27, 1992 Dave Sainty <terros@...> wrote:

>>I'm having some trouble distributing my comms program, but I hope to make it-

>>avaliable shareware soon somehow...

>I'd like to see it! As is always the case: when the time is right, several
>people invent the wheel at the same time. As soon as my program worked
>reasonably, i found three other comms programs with Ymodem! But two of
>them didn't run on my machine...

Perhaps we'd better make a list of who's produced what, what capabilities
each program has so far, and compatability with various machines.

So far I've counted yours and Dave's, plus the one I use, Gareth Babb's
ATerm 0.79 (SWR version - also available in TTY and ANSI main-memory
versions). Oh, and a 4-colour version of same, which has to be seen to be
believed.

All these can handle ANSI emulation and are at or working towards Ymodem
transfer. Any others?

>>Gerben 'P' Vos <gpvos@...> writes:

>>> My comms program, TSTerm 0.43 (with Ymodem) will be available on
>>> rusinfo.rus.uni-stuttgart.de soon.

>>This is interesting, is it for the 8 bits? I had some thoughts of doing Zmod-
em,
>>but decided ymodem is really everything you need...

>Well, Zmodem works better in some instances (like when some strange
>terminal server like the one here in Amsterdam tries to "intelligently"
>buffer your file...).

>It works on my Electron and on at least one BBC-B. Later versions (not
>released yet) read the VDU workspace (page &300) directly to make ANSI
>emulation simpler, so these are guaranteed not to work across a Tube.

ATerm will work across the Tube, at least for straight access - file
transfer, especially at high speed, tends to fail tho.

>** Question for all: is the allocation inside page &300 the same in all Acorn-

>** eight-bit machines?

In a word, no. Here's the list of differences, taken from the 'Advanced
Reference Manual for the Master 128' :

       Model B & B+                    Master 128
&359   Foreground graphics colour      Plotting foreground/background
&35A   Background graphics colour      Current graphics plot mode
&366   Mode 7 cursor                   Cursor control flags (VDU 23,16)
&367   Exploded font flag              Dotted line pattern (VDU 23,6)
&368   Exploded font location bytes    Current dotted line state
&369   Plot colour (0- solid, not 0- pattern)
&36A                                   F/grnd col. (0- solid, not 0- pattern)
&36B                                   B/grnd col. (0- solid, not 0- pattern)
&36C                                   Col. 81 flag (top bit set pending)
&36D                                   Foreground graphics colour
&36E                                   Background graphics colour

Hope that helps.

>     <>< Gerben.
Alan.