Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-tis!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU!minshall
From: minshall@VIOLET.BERKELEY.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: tn3270
Message-ID: <8812140548.AA20509@violet.berkeley.edu>
Date: 14 Dec 88 05:48:25 GMT
References: <8812062111.AA03388@terminus.UMD.EDU>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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At long last, a new version of tn3270 is being released.

The preferred method of retrieval (see below) is by mail from the University.
However, the file is available on host ucbarpa.berkeley.edu as
pub/tn3270.tar.Z (binary mode transfers only, please).

This version should work on Ultrix, SunOS, etc.

With this version we are dropping support (possibly temporarily) for the
MS-DOS environment.  The basic hooks are still there, but I haven't had
the time to actually get it to work.

This new version consists entirely of bug fixes (ie: no new functionality).
However, there have been enough bugs accumulating over the last year or
so that getting the fixes out should improve things considerably.

Bugs to me.  Sorry this has taken so long ("so little and so late").

Greg Minshall
minshall@berkeley.edu

---------------
New versions of the tn3270 and mset commands, used to logon to CMS from
unix, are now available.

The following bugs have been fixed in version 4.1:

	o	This version corrects an earlier bug in tn3270 (telnet,
		actually) which prevented tn3270 from running on a
		Sun 4.

	o	This version corrects for a bug on some SunOS 4.0 systems
		(running on Sun 3's is where this has been noticed) which
		causes screen corruption when making extensive use of
		highlighting (which tn3270 does and "man", for some reason,
		doesn't).

	o	This version corrects a bug which caused unformatted
		screens to behave incorrectly (the so-called CICS bug).

	o	This version works correctly with VM/XA.

	o	Various bugs have been fixed.

The previous version of tn3270 supported an MS-DOS environment; this
version doesn't.  See tn3270/README for some alternatives.

Features include:

	o	Error messages, in English, overlay a portion of the
		screen when the user types an erroneous entry (invalid
		control sequence, attempt to enter data in an "input
		disallowed" field, etc.).

	o	Ability to "escape to shell".  This, by itself, is
		mostly useful in a non-BSD system.

	o	An Application Programming Interface (API).  This allows
		programs, running under Unix, to read and
		write the 3270 screen, and to send keystrokes (3270)
		to tn3270.  This makes use of the "escape to shell"
		feature.  Included in the (beta) distribution is a
		program which uses the API to receive files sent from
		the IBM host (we don't supply the IBM side at this point,
		and the rather stupid protocol is likely to change in
		the future).

	o	Yale ASCII/7171/4994 "transparent" mode should now
		be fully implemented.  SAS-Graph, for example,
		supports doing graphics to TEK terminals over
		this interface.  Locally, we use the X windowing
		system terminal emulator (xterm), which provides
		some TEK emulation, to display SAS-Graph graphics
		on our workstations.

	o	Mset now prints out program function (PF) keys in
		numerical order.

    To obtain the source for tn3270, send a check for $100.00 (US) payable
to "Regents of the University of California" to:

	Campus Software Office
	295 Evans Hall
	UC Berkeley, CA  94720
	USA

Specify that you are ordering tn3270.