TinyTerm, version 1.04 Copyright (C) 1988, George A. Stanislav All Rights Reserved TinyTerm is a terminal emulator. It converts a personal computer into a dumb terminal. That means the computer will be able to call other computers, send text and control codes from them as well as receive the same back. There are two types of emulation TinyTerm is capable of: 1. ANSI BBS. This allows you to receive ANSI color codes from BBS and interpret them properly. TinyTerm sends these codes to the screen. To have them converted into colors, you must install ANSI.SYS. You can do that by adding the following line to the file called CONFIG.SYS: device=ansi.sys For more information on ANSI.SYS consult your MS DOS manual. 2. AVATAR - the Avanced Video Attribute Terminal. In this TinyTerm is somewhat ahead of its time. It can receive the advanced color codes developed by Wynn Wagner III and used by his Opus BBS program. Whenever the AVATAR emulator encounters the codes, it converts them into the appropriate ANSI codes. Since AVATAR codes are much more compact than ANSI codes, the AVATAR emulation allows for a faster transmission of screen controlling data. Here is a summary of AVATAR commands: ^v^a - tells AVATAR that the next character is a color code. AVATAR will translate it into [?;3?;4?m. ^v^b - turns blink on by translating to [5m. ^v^c - moves the cursor one line up - [1A. ^v^d - one line down - [1B. ^v^e - moves cursor one space left - [1D. ^v^f - one space right - [1C. ^v^g - clear to end of line - [K. ^v^h - locate a different cursor position. The next two characters are read and interpreted as binary representation of and . ^l - clear the screen - [H[0;33;36m[2JJ. ^y - repeat character. AVATAR reads the next character and displays it repeatedly as instructed by the byte which is received immediately after the repeated character. This information is given for reference only, a more detailed description is available in Opus documentation. It is not important for the user of this program to know anything about AVATAR emulation, it works automatically. TinyTerm is tiny indeed. It only runs on COM1 at 300, 1200 and 2400 baud. It is meant mostly to show how FOSSIL communications and AVATAR emulation can be programmed. TinyTerm does not support any file transfer on its own but will call Chuck Forsberg's program DSZ to do that. DSZ is a shareware program distributed separately. You can find it on many bulletin boards. The function keys can be used to change the baud rate and parity. Some function keys are used as macros for Hayes compatible commands. For the list of commands press . If you are using an AT enhanced keyboard, you can use as well. Version 1.03 added four new functions to TinyTerm - hardcoded keyboard macros, user configurable start-up defaults, support for external Zmodem file transfer and lowering the DTR which usually results in disconnecting. The source code itself has no hardcoded macros, but leaves enough space in the program to include them. The advantage of hardcoded macros is that the program need not open and read any external files, it is all included. That's one of the advantages of being "tiny". There is an obvious dis- advantage to this approach: To have them hardcoded, you either have to include the macros in the source code and reassemble the program each time you want to modify the macros. Or you need an external utility to write your macros into TT.COM as if it were a file. TTSETUP.COM is such a utility. Not only can you change the hardcoded macros to whatever you want, but you can change the defaults from 1200 baud, 8 bits, no parity and COM1 to something else. You can configure the program to run from COM1 - COM9, to initialize the modem to 300, 1200, 2400 or 9600 baud and to set parity to equal or none, with 7 or 8 stop bits respectively. The macros are attached to the 10 function keys when pressed together with either the or key. The TT.COM file distributed in the arc file already has one macro defined: will dial my bulletin board if your modem uses Hayes commands. You can leave it that way or change it to whatever you want. If you insert a vertical line in your macros, TTSETUP.COM will convert it into a carriage return before hardcoding it to TT.COM. For example: John Doe Y|Doey| will be changed to: "John Doe YDoey" which is the proper macro to log onto Opus BBS without letting anyone see your password. You can use the macros for any string of characters: To dial a number, to send a code to your modem, to enter your password, whatever. Version 1.03 of TinyTerm needed a program called ProZ.Com to be capable of Zmodem file transfers. ProZ in term would call DSZ. I decided this was a kludge - it got the thing done but was not elegant. In version 1.04, TinyTerm will call DSZ by calling MS DOS. If you use a hard disk, this will be totally transparent to you. If you are a floppy user, make sure you have COMMAND.COM in the same drive and directory you booted the system from. As long as I had to code the exec routine, I decided to add the possibility to drop to DOS temporarily and to call an external editor. The distribution copy of TinyTerm comes configured to call the BRIEF editor with MSGTEMP the file to edit. You can use any editor or word processor you wish (or any program or even batch file for that matter). Use TTSETUP to make the choice. As everything else in TinyTerm, your choice will be hardcoded in the program. That allows you to call TinyTerm anywhere on your system. Now, assuming you have obtained a copy of either DSZ.COM or DSZ.EXE and have it somewhere on your path, and have set up the defaults for the editor, these are the commands to shell other programs: - call DSZ for a Zmodem download, - same for upload, - Xmodem download, - Xmodem upload, - run the editor - drop to DOS (type EXIT to return). By the way, TinyTerm does not tell DSZ which communications port to use. DSZ defaults to COM1 which can be changed using an environmental variable. Please refer to DSZ documentation. Also note that DSZ is copyrighted by Omen Technologies and you are expected to pay for its use. Please do not distribute DSZ in the same archive with TinyTerm. You can drop the DTR (data terminal ready) by pressing . This usually results in hanging up and disconnecting. Please notice the "usually." TinyTerm uses FOSSIL to access the modem. To run this program you must have a FOSSIL driver installed. In fact, you need a new FOSSIL driver supporting draft 4, better yet draft 5 of FOSSIL specs. If your driver is too old, TinyTerm will tell you and refuse to run. If TinyTerm does not refuse to run, you have a proper version of FOSSIL. TinyTerm achieves its tiny size by being written in assembly language. The full source code is included. George Stanislav, the author of TinyTerm, makes no warranties or claims that TinyTerm will run and work on any equipment. He has tested it on his own equipment where it worked flawlessly. If you run TinyTerm, you do that fully at your own risk.