Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!ncis!oodis01!uplherc!esunix!blgardne From: blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: A-Talk III 1.0e Message-ID: <1193@esunix.UUCP> Date: 17 Jan 89 04:49:37 GMT References: <14719@oberon.USC.EDU> Organization: Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation Lines: 108 From article <14719@oberon.USC.EDU>, by papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa): > In article <1189@esunix.UUCP> blgardne@esunix.UUCP (Blaine Gardner) writes: >>Do you have plans to add an autodialer to Atalk III. The lack of one is >>the biggest reason I've got for not buying it. > > Version 1.0e of A-Talk III has it. We call it "queing". One host is "linked" > to another one, and the second one is linked to the third one and so forth. > Each one has its own number of redial (1, 10, or continuous). If the first > is BUSY for all the redials, the second one linked to is tried and so forth. Sounds like a nice setup, the autodialers I've seen before only give you one BUSY before going on to the next number. Does it require some setup to "link" the hosts together, or is it as simple as clicking on the hosts you want from a phonebook list? Also, does A-Talk III restart the dialing sequence (minus the host just called, of course) when you end a session and hangup, or does the dialing have to be restarted manually? >>Here's a few items from my fantasy terminal program wish list: >>3) The ability to send a setup string to the modem for each phonebook >> entry before dialing. (Obscure perhaps, but I've got a Telebit >> Trailblazer Plus, and I need to change a register if the computer >> I'm calling doesn't have a Trailblazer.) > The only program that I know does this is a PD version of Procomm for the > IBM PC. I know of no Amiga program that does this. You can actually do it > in A-Talk III by putting the setup string in the Long Distance Code string > requester of the A-Talk III phonebook. Only drawback you'll have to type it > in for each host. The problem here is that Trailblazers usually answer a call with the PEP (high speed) carrier first. This confuses the heck out of most modems, and they hang up before the Trailblazer gets to the 2400/1200/300 tones. To get around this, the order of the carriers can be switched so that the PEP carrier comes last. Low speed modems now work ok, but another Trailblazer will also hook up at 2400 instead of 19,200. So I need to set a register on my Trailblazer to make it ignore anything but the PEP carrier. Of course that means that it won't ever connect to a 2400 baud modem. Ideally I'd like to send an ATS50=255 before calling another Trailblazer, and send an ATS50=0 before calling a normal 2400/1200 modem. What I do now is assign those strings to a couple of F-keys, and call the Trailblazer systems in a group, and the low speed systems in another group. Not too much of a hassle, but my "ideal" terminal program would let me handle this automatically. (I did say this was a wish list. :-) >>4) Scripts for logon and such. > Got this covered (are over 50 commands and ARExx support enough) Sounds great! >>6) Flicker free color when ANSI color graphics are being displayed. >> Every terminal program I've seen has horrible flickers, flashes, and >> tears when a color combination other than 0 for background and 1 for >> text is scrolled. > We support ANSI with 8 color mode in both IBM ANSI and Amiga ANSI emulation > with 24, 25, 48, or 50 lines supported. All 8 colors can be programmed for each > host to your own liking. [the 25 & 50 lines will be in the next version I > believe]. > > I really don't understand your "flicker" problems. The Amiga "flickers" > only in Interlace mode. My monitor NEVER flickers when in non-interlace > mode, NO matter what combination of colors I use. Bad choice of words I guess, since "flicker" has come to mean "interlace flicker" in the Amiga world. It has nothing to do with interlace at all. I'll try to explain myself better. Using the stock Workbench colors as a reference: If you scroll white text on a blue background, everything looks fine. But if you scroll a screenful of white text on a black background all of the white characters have yellow ghosts flashing behind the white text. ("Behind" is pretty vague, let me try again to muddy the waters.) As the white text is scrolling up the black screen, a duplicate image of the text appears in yellow about half a character below the "real" text. Every terminal program I've seen for the Amiga does this. But it's not just a terminal program problem, I've seen some editors that do this too (early versions of TxEd if I remember right). It's not the screen colors, but something to do with using a combination other than color 0 and color 1 (whatever color they happen to be). It looks like one bitplane is getting "ahead" of the other as the text scrolls up the screen. Whatever is causing it, it makes the ANSI graphics used by some BBS's a real headache. I suppose that this is really a trivial complaint, but nobody has got it right yet. >>8) Hardware handshaking support (Trailblazer again.) > Got that one [You mean RTS/CTS, right?]. I get 10% more throughput with ZMODEM > when using RTS/CTS instead of Xon/X-off. Right, the hardware handshaking makes a noticable difference at high speeds. >>So am I dreaming, or is there a program that will really do all this? > Not at the moment, but some come pretty close. Continue looking :-) Keep adding features, and you just may make a customer out of me yet. :-) It would be nice to be able to use just one terminal program instead of three or four. -- Blaine Gardner @ Evans & Sutherland 580 Arapeen Drive, SLC, Utah 84108 Here: utah-cs!esunix!blgardne {ucbvax,allegra,decvax}!decwrl!esunix!blgardne There: uunet!iconsys!caeco!pedro!worsel!blaine "Nobody will ever need more than 64K." "Nobody needs multitasking on a PC."