Pcomm version 1.2 4 Feb 89 Compatibilities with v1.1: The support files used with the v1.1 release are compatible with the v1.2 release. However, the use of the "index" field (now called the "script" field) in the pcomm.dial_dir file has changed dramatically (see below). Things that have changed: Berkeley flavors of Unix are now supported. There are files called tty_att.c and tty_ucb.c that contain the code specific to the AT&T and Berkeley worlds. See the config.h file for the BSD pre-processor definition. Auto-login scripts are now supported. If the script field of the dialing directory contains the name of a valid Unix shell script, that shell script is "played" after the connection is made to perform the auto-login "chat" sequences. A example of a auto-login Bourne shell script (called Sample) is included in the distribution. Three new external programs. In order to assist in the creation of the auto-login shell scripts, three external programs are included in the distribution. waitfor - wait for a string, return a 1 if timed out matches - test if string2 is contained in string1 modem_break - send a modem break There is a new support file called "pcomm.extrnl" that allows the user to imbed the names of external file transfer programs into the list of available protocols. (The default file "Pcomm.extrnl", supplied with the distribution package, contains definitions for zmodem). The pcomm_input program has been changed to use multiple character buffered writes to the screen. Both the input and output buffer sizes are tunable parameters in config.h Newer versions of Xenix have changed the rules for creating UUCP lock files. See the config.h file for the description of XENIX_LOCKS. The -f option now looks at the name field of the dialing directory (rather than the index field). A match is found when the argument to the -f is contained in a name field (an exact match is not required). The match does not consider upper and lower case differences as significant. Known limitations: The detection of VCS (video command sequences) is still limited to a very small subset of possible commands. For the VCS emulation to work, the terminfo entries on the host machine must match the entries on the remote. (Don't assume your vt100 terminfo data is identical to someone else's). The disp_tty() routine in s_tty.c currently does not support a NUM_TTY definition of greater than 10. Future directions: That's about it folks... If Pcomm grows any more, I'll break the setup routines out as a separate program. Many thanks to the following people (and many others) for bug reports and suggested improvements to the code. Andy Fyfe ...ames!elroy!cit-vax!andy Brian Antoine ...iscuva!tau-ceti!briana Chad R. Larson ...ncar!noao!nud!anasaz!dcfinc!chad David MacKenzie ...uunet!rocky2.rockefeller.edu!edf Gary S. Trujillo ...{linus,bbn,m2c}!spdcc!gnosys!gst George Pontis ...uunet!moldev!geo J. Eric Townsend ...uunet!nuchat!flatline!erict Jim Pickering ...csun!polyslo!rducky!jrp Jim Sanchez ...uunet!mcvax!syteke!jim Jonathan Bayer ...uunet!ispi!jbayer MAJ Dave Dockstader ...twsc4sac@mater1.arpa Michael Brady ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!michealnc ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pcomm version 1.1 21 Aug 88 Incompatibilities with v1.0: I've added a few more fields to the pcomm.param and pcomm.modem files. This means that those files created under previous releases will not be compatible with the v1.1 release. It might be a good idea to abandon the older files and start over with the sample files in this release. Things that have changed: An awful lot of sloppy programming on my part has now been cleaned up. This means that porting Pcomm to different versions of Unix will be considerably less painful than before. All of the tunable parameters are now in "config.h". Pcomm now uses buffered I/O routines. This yields higher performance I/O at large baud rates. File transfers now use high performance CRC calculations. If a UUCP lockfile does exist, Pcomm now attempts to determine if the process is still active. An external file transfer program can be invoked from the file transfer menu. The keyboard macro feature is now supported (although it is rather crude). The virtual screen routine now understands a limited subset of escape sequences. The virtual screen can now be held in shared memory or in a file. The input routine is now contained in a separate program called pcomm_input. You can now include a "modem break" in a dial or initialization string. A separate "initialization speed" feature was added to support 9600 baud modems such as the Telebit Trailblazer. See Appendix C of the Doc file for more info on the use of this feature. I've added a transparent pass through mode to be used in a communications daisy chain. Known limitations: Whenever Pcomm makes the transition from the terminal mode to the command mode, the true screen contents are lost. Pcomm tries to keep track of what the true screen looks like in an internal "virtual screen". This means that the escape sequences known to the hardware have to be emulated in the virtual screen. Unfortunately, the number of escape sequences that are emulated is quite small, so the representation of the true screen is sometimes wrong. For the VCS (video command sequence) emulation to work, the terminfo entries on the host machine must match the entries on the remote. The disp_tty() routine in s_tty.c currently does not support a NUM_TTY definition of greater than 10. Future directions: Continue work on the virtual screen routines. Add dial back support. Use shared memory to overcome the current limitation of outgoing characters in the half duplex mode not appearing in the virtual screen, log files, and print logs. Many thanks to the following people for bug reports and ideas for improving the code: Andy Pitts ...{mtune,pacbell,kd4nc}!gladys!rbdc!andy Chris Wiener ...ihnp4!{killer,attnssc}!crlabs!cwiener David Brierley ...{sun,decuac,cbosgd,gatech,necntc,ukma}!rayssd!dhb Karl Fox ...cbosgd!mstar!karl Michael Young ...panda!genrad!mrst!sdti!mjy Mark Mendel ...ihnp4!umn-cs!hyper!mark Viet Hoang ...ihnp4!drutx!vgh -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pcomm version 1.0 12 Mar 88 Incompatibilities with the beta release: I've added a bunch of new parameters to the pcomm.param and pcomm.modem files, so the files used with the beta release won't work with the v1.0 release. Things that have changed: Pcomm will attempt to determine if the modem has synchronized at a baud rate different than what is expected, and make changes to the line settings as appropriate. The quit and interrupt signals are now ignored. All of the file transfer protocols are now functional. The directory search order used to find the support files has been changed slightly. Known limitations: The keyboard macro feature is not implemented at this time. The true screen contents are lost when the "hot key" is pressed. Pcomm attempts to compensate (rather poorly) by repainting a virtual screen of what it thinks the true screen should look like. Escape sequences in the virtual screen image will be ignored when the background is repainted. For example, if you're on a vt100 and you receive a ^[[2J to clear the screen, the screen *will* be cleared... but when the screen is repainted, it will contain the characters ^[, [, 2, J (instead of performing the function). The disp_tty() routine in s_tty.c currently does not support a NUM_TTY definition of greater than 10. For some strange reason, the first keystroke is "lost" after a file transfer is complete or after starting data logging. Future directions: The virtual screen routines need a lot of work. The most commonly used escape sequences (known to terminfo) will be processed. I plan to have an option at compile time to have the virtual screen buffer held on disk [] or in shared memory []. The input routine is designed so it could be a standalone program that gets called from Pcomm. [] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have fun... Emmet P. Gray US Army, HQ III Corps & Fort Hood ...!uunet!uiucuxc!fthood!egray Attn: AFZF-DE-ENV Directorate of Engineering & Housing Environmental Management Office Fort Hood, TX 76544-5057