Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!helios!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!seismo!ukma!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!cedman From: cedman@golem.ps.uci.edu (Carl Edman) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm Subject: Re: VLT suggestions (was: HandShake 2.20c DOES work with xprzmodem) Message-ID: Date: 15 Feb 91 03:47:53 GMT References: <1718@public.BTR.COM> <1991Feb12.134052.27100@sarah.albany.edu> <91045.113010WGLP09@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> <91045.172115WGLP09@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> Organization: University of California, Irvine, USA. Lines: 61 Nntp-Posting-Host: lynx.ps.uci.edu In-reply-to: WGLP09@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU's message of 15 Feb 91 01:21:15 GMT In article <91045.172115WGLP09@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> WGLP09@SLACVM.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU writes: 1. All protocols in VLT *are* external, have been since 4.824. The fact that there are still menu options for Kermit and XMODEM setups separately doesn't mean that it doesn't use the external protocols. Take away the corrsponding XPR libraries and it will complain. Kermit and XMODEM are treated separately because that is what people here at SLAC are familiar with. I see. But you have to admit that the way the protocolls are listed in the menu ("Xmodem" "Kermit" "--External:------" "ZModem" a.s.o) is somewhat misleading in this case :-). 2. There *is* a simple ascii send command: it is the ARexx script SendASCII.vlt, which can easily be made into a menu option in the user menu so it has a keyboard abbreviation. It does all the XPR switching for you and even sets it back to the protocol you used before. For one thing this requires REXX which not everybody has, and for another I think that such an extremely basic thing should be doable by the terminal program itself without messing with transfer protocolls a.s.o. just to send a local two line text file into your remote editor buffer. 3. That Save in the review buffer overwrites the previous file is a feature. If you don't want it to do that, don't select it... Yes, I won't do it again. :-) Still I think it would be a good idea to have "save" default to the overwrite/append behavior of the last "save_as". 4. A lot of keys in VLT are programmable. For special occasions you can use the WEDGE command to intercept all keystrokes. The Intercept.vlt script gives you an example of how this works, and the marginbell.vlt and autowrap.vlt execs give you some examples to play with. If the ARexx versions are too slow for your taste, you can write faster versions in C. You can even use WEDGE to block all keystrokes and use Fifo pipes to write a filter. Yes, that was the first thing I tried when this capability was added to VLT, but it really is awfully slow , at least for a fast typist on an old A1000. It is a while since I last wrote a larger program for the amiga, but unless I am mistaken most OS calls for windows I/O a.s.o. allow you to specify the keymap to use. A simple gadget similar to that which is used to select the font today, is all it would take. I think that at least a bit of the VT100 terminal "smarts" could be moved to the keymap then making VLT both smaller _and_ more customizable. Things like e.g. redefining the arrow keys to send "^N", "^P" a.s.o. which can be a great blessing in many editors/ line disciplines a.s.o. would become possible without slowing down the system to a crawl. But thanks for an excellent,free and (IMHO) best terminal program for the amiga. Carl Edman "We hold that what one man cannot morally do, a million men cannot morally do, and government, representing many millions of men, cannot do." -- Auberon Herbert Send mail to Carl Edman