10.Serial channel setup

10.0 Overview

This section describes the use of the serial channel setup menu and each of the programmable items.

10.100 Setup menu

To edit the contents of your terminal setup file, enter the command ALT-S. The following menu will appear:
                                     
PC-PLOT-III SETUP MENU 
---------------------------------------------------------------
  Terminal Number 
  Terminal Name 
  Comm. Channel 
  Computer Type 
  Screen Resolution 
  Communication Rate 
  Data Format 
 
  Default Setup 
  COM1: 
  IBM PC/XT/AT/AT+T 
  Std IBM 640 x 200 
  300 
  7 0 1 

<--Terminal Number To Set Up 
 
 
 
  Commands for Setup Menu 
  ----------------------
     
  Local Echo 
  <OFF> 
  Cursor UP/DOWN
     
  Upload <lf> Strip 
  <ON> 
  Number-Select Terminal #
     
  Line Turnaround Char 
  <LF> 
  <cr> change selection
     
  GIN Terminate Character 
  <CR> 
  ALT-C change selection
     
  Host Echo GIN 
  <YES> 
  ALT-S Exit setup & save
     
  ANSI/VT52 
  ANSI 
  ALT-Q Exit without save
     
  Wraparound Mode 
  <OFF> 
End name select with <cr>      
  Newline Mode 
  <OFF> 
       
  Terminal Emulation Type 
VT-100/Tek 4010
   
     
  Serial Mouse for GIN 
  <NO> 
       
  VT-640 Mode Shift Char 
  <CAN> 
       
  Printer type 
  Epson/IBM 
       
  Ignore deletes 
  NO 
       
  <-- key sends 
  BS 
       
  VT-100 screen width 
  80 
       
                                     
The terminal setup screen operates in the same fashion as all of the other edit/create screens in PC-PLOT-IV. Use the cursor arrow keys to select the item to be modified. Most other items in the menu will change to a new value when you press <cr>. Keep pressing <cr> until the desired setup appears. To save the edited values, enter an ALT-S, to exit back to PC-PLOT-IV to try the new values without saving them, enter an ALT-Q. The only exception to the setup operation is the Line turnaround character and the VT-640 mode shift character. To make an entry in these fields, depress either control+letter key for the desired code, a letter key, or depress ALT-C (change) and the value of the entry in that field will increase by one.   
                                     
10.101 Terminal number                          
                                     
There can be up to eight terminal configurations defined in the file PCPLOT.SET. When PC-PLOT-IV is started up, terminal configuration number 1 is always selected by default. When you enter the ALT-S command, the terminal number currently in use is displayed. To change to a different terminal number, select another number (from 1-8) and exit with an ALT-Q command. The new terminal setup will be used to configure the serial communications port.   
                                     
When you are editing or creating a new terminal setup file, use the terminal number line to select the configuration number to set up. When PC-PLOT is started for the first time, a complete terminal configuration file is created for the computer/ graphics board setup that you specified in answering the initial question. Each item has the name 'DEFAULT SETUP' and all of the rest of the items are set for the most common values.   
                             
10.102 Terminal Name                        
                             
The terminal name item contains a string of characters which you define so that you can recall what the particular setup item is used for. For instance, you might have   
an item for CAS Online and another one for Western Union Easylink.      
                             
10.103 Channel number                      
                             
The channel number item selects the communication channel to be used with the particular terminal configuration. To change the channel, depress either <cr> or ALT-C. The only two entries allowed are COMI or COM2.   
                             
If you have only one serial channel in your computer, it will be automatically assigned to be COM1 by the startup code in your IBM computer. If there is only one serial device in your computer, it should be configured to be COM1 so that the interrupts will work properly. 

10.104 Computer type 
                       
                             
The computer type selection chooses the correct interrupt routine for the serial channel. The default selection is for an IBM PC/XT/AT with an external modem. The second choice PC/XT reverse channel is for systems that have only one serial device and it is set for COM2. With this setting, the interrupts are reversed from the normal definition.   
                             
10.105 Screen resolution                    
                             
The screen resolution selection selects the graphics board type and the display format for the graphics mode of PC-PLOT-IV.   
                             
If you have an AT+T PC6300, you can select either IBM 640 x 200, IBM 320 x 200, AT+T 640 x 400 mono, or AT+T 640 x 400 color. The screen resolution settings which can be selected are:   
                             
  Std IBM 640x200 Mono 
Hercules 720x348 Mono 
Toshiba T-3100 640 x 400 
Enh IBM 640050 16 col 
Tseng Labs EVA-480 640 x 480 
      Std IBM 320x200 4 col 
AT+T 640 X 400 16 col 
Enh IBM 640x200 16 col 
Enh IBM 720 X 350 Mono 
AT+T 640 x 400 mono 
   
                             
The Hercules selection can be used with a Tseng Labs Ultra Pak and any other boards that are compatible with the Hercules monochrome board.   
                             
In order to use the 640 x 350 16 color mode on the IBM enhanced graphics board, you must have the enhanced graphics monitor and 128k of memory.   
                             
10.106 Communication rate                  
                             
The communications rate selection is used to select the baud for the serial channel. Depress <cr> until the correct setting appears.   
                             
10.107 Data Format               
                     
The data format selection is used to set the number of data bits, parity, and stop bits. There are only 6 selections which are legal for an 8 bit data environment. 
                     
 
   

7 O 1

   Data bits
 ----------
  7
 
  Parity 
  ------ 
  Odd 
  Stop bits 
  ------------------
  1 (most common) 
 
 
  7 E 1 
 
  Even 
 
 
 
  8 N 1 
 
  None 
 
 
 
  7 O 2 
 
  Odd 
 
 
  7 E 2 
 
  Even 
 
 
 
  8 N 2 
 
  None 
 
 
  7 N 1 
 
  None 
   
          1 * not 8 bit
 
 
 
  7 N 2 
 
  None 
 
          2 * not 8 bit 
 
 
                     
Depress <cr> until the correct setting for your environment appears. If you are unsure of the correct setting, assume 7 O 1 which is the most common setting. 
                     
The 7 N 1 and 7 N 2 settings are for 'strange' systems only. These two selections send only 7 data bits rather than the 8 that most systems expect. 
                     
10.108 Local Echo                
                     
If your host computer does not echo characters that are sent from your keyboard back to your terminal, you should select ON. Otherwise select OFF. 
                     
If you have selected local echo ON and you see double letters ( DDIIRR instead of DIR ), you should select local echo OFF. 
                     
10.109 Linefeed strip on upload          
                     
This setting is used only when sending an ASCII (text) file to your host.If you are sending the ASCII file to a text editor program on your host, you should always strip linefeeds because the text editor will add another one following each <cr>. The result will be a double spaced file on your host. 
                     
If you have written your own program on the host computer to accept ASCII data, you may have to select linefeed strip off. 
                     
10.110 Line turnaround character        
                     
This setting is also onlv used when sending ASCII files to your host.Most host computers accept only a line at a time from each terminal. As soon as the terminal sends a <cr>, the host will process the line, empty its input buffer of the line just sent, and send a linefeed to the terminal to indicate that another line can be sent. 
                     
The line turnaround character is the character that the host sends when it is ready to accept another line of text. In most cases, the Line Turnaround Character (LTA) will be a <lf>. 
                     
The default LTA character is <lf>. To change it to another control character, depress ALT-C until the correct character appears. To change the LTA to a printing ASCII character, depress the character on the keyboard. 

10.111 GIN mode terminate character
   
The GIN mode terminate character is the character sent at the end of a cursor position report to the host (GIN mode). GIN mode is active only when the crosshair cursor is turned on and the report sequence takes place when an alpha- or numeric key is depressed. 
                   
Most systems require a <cr> at the end of the reporting sequence. In some cases however, the system requires either <cr><eot> or no terminating character at all (only position data). 
                   
10.112 Host echo GIN mode        
                   
In most cases the host computer will echo the keycodes sent to it as a position report. If these codes were accepted as characters from the host, the graphics information on the screen would be messed up. During a position report (GIN mode), characters from the host are discarded until the GIN terminate character is received. 
                   
If the host does not echo the cursor position report, the terminal emulation will appear to 'lock up' because it is waiting on the terminate character which willnever be received. In those cases, select NO (host echo).

10.113 ANSI/VT-52 select 
         
                   
This selection puts the PC-PLOT-IV in ANSI (VT-100) mode or VT-52 mode when it is started up. Most systems use the VT-100 mode. 
                   
10.114 Wraparound mode             
                   
This selection, when OFF will put all characters on a line after 80 have been sent in column 80. If the selection is ON, an automatic <cr>, line feed will be forced and the rest of the line will be on the next screen line down. 
                   
10.115 Newline mode               
                   
If this selection is ON, each <cr> will have a line feed added to it.   If the selection is OFF, a <cr> will return the cursor to the left margin on the current line. 

10.116 Terminal emulation type 
     
                   
   
  There are two possible selections for this item.
 
   (1) 
  VT-100/200/Tek 4010 
 
 
  (2) 
    VT-100/200/Tek 4010/Limited Tek 4027   
   
 
Ovtional PC-PLOT-LV+
 
 
  (1) 
  VT-100/200/Tek 4105 
 
 
  (2) 
    VT-100/200/Tek 4105/Limited Tek 4027   
                   
The standard setting is (1).   If you want to display color plots, and your system will support the Tek 4027 terminal, select #2. 
                   
If you select (2), the screen scale will be changed from 1024 x 768 to 640 x 480 to accommodate the data format of the Tektronix 4027 terminal. If you try to display Tektronix 4010 scaled pictures using the Tek 4027 setting, the pictures will wrap around the sides of the screen. 
                   
10.117 Serial mouse for GIN mode     
                   
You should select this item YES only if you have a mouse driver installed before running PC-PLOT-IV. PC-PLOT-IV uses the mouse device driver which is supplied with your mouse that is compatible with the Microsoft mouse driver. 
               
10.118 VT-640 mode shift character    
               
The VT-640 terminal has several operating modes one of which is called 'transparent mode'. A single control character is used to shift the terminal from graphics mode into transparent mode. Depress ALT-C until the correct control code is displayed. 
               
10.119 Printer type               
               
Select the printer that is connected to your system using this menu item. Some Okidata printers actually emulate IBM or Epson printers so if your setup does not work with Okidata selected, try Epson. PC-PLOT-IV initially assumes LPT1: as the printer port. The port can be LPT1:, LPT2:, COM1: or COM2: which is selected in the ALT-0 setup menu. 
               
10.120 Ignore deletes             
               
Some computer systems send delete characters at the end of each output record and they have no significance. The default value is to allow delete codes as legal graphics values in Tek 4010 mode. If deletes are set to be ignored, your host system must send ESC ? as a substitute for a delete character while in graphics mode. 
               
10.121 <-- key sends           
               
The latest revision of the VAX VMS operating system has switched the definition of the delete and backspace keys. This menu item allows the backspace key to send either a BS or DEL code depending on the system used. 
               
10.122 VT-100 screen width       
               
If you are using a Tseng Labs UltraPak monochrome graphics board which has hardware 132 column mode, you can select 132 columns for VT-100 mode. 
               
10.2 Using terminal setups         
               
The reason for having multiple terminal setups is so that you can easily communicate with several host computers which have a different data format, or communication rate. Each item in the autodial telephone directory has a terminal setup number associated with it so that you can change terminal setups automatically when you dial another host. 
               
You can change the terminal number currently selected manually with two methods. Depressing ALT-S, the terminal number desired; then ALT-Q will select a new setup. Depressing ALT-3 and entering a number plus <cr> willalso select a new setup. 
               
Terminal numbers may be set using a script file also. The first command in a script should be the terminal number to use. 
               
PC-PLOT-IV     Chapter 10    Serial Setup  

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