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PC-SIG Diskette Library (Disk #188)
[PCjs Machine "ibm5160"]
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Information about “MINITEL”
MINITEL is an asynchronous communications program for any MSDOS or PCDOS
machine. The program's author calls it a "stripped version of TELINK."
MINITEL can receive or transmit files in XMODEM, MODEM7 (batch) or
TELINK modes. It is menu-driven, with all commands accessible by two
keystrokes. Error handling is simple and straightforward.
Documentation is provided on the disk.
Features:
~ MINITEL can receive or transmit files in XMODEM,
MODEM7(batch) or TELINK modes
~ MINITEL is menu driven, with all commands accessible by two
keystrokes
~ Most command keys are mnemonic
~ Error handling is simple and straightforward
~ Error recovery usually consists of some default action
~ Illegal baud rate selections result in no change
~ All error messages are in plain English, so you don't have
to memorize secret codes
System Requirements: Serial port, and a modem.
How to Start: From DOS, enter TYPE MINITEL.DOC for documentation. To
run MINITEL, at the system prompt enter MINITEL <ENTER>.
File Descriptions:
IBMMINI EXE IBM PC version of MINITEL MINITEL ABS Abstract
MINITEL DOC Documentation
MINITEL LBR File transfer program
MINITEL DQC Compressed documentation
CRC.TXT
PC-SIG Disk No. #188, version v1
The following is a list of the file checksums which should be produced by
the CRCK4 program on disk #9 (and others). If the CRC numbers do not match
you may have a bad file. To use type: CRCK4 <filespec>
CRCK4 output for this disk:
CRCK ver 4.2B (MS DOS VERSION )
CTL-S pauses, CTL-C aborts
--> FILE: IBMMINI .EXE CRC = CF 1F
--> FILE: MINITEL .ABS CRC = 11 BB
--> FILE: MINITEL .DOC CRC = 2A 6B
--> FILE: MINITEL .DQC CRC = 6C DA
--> FILE: MINITEL .LBR CRC = 69 FA
--> FILE: XXX . CRC = 18 2D
---------------------> SUM OF CRCS = FA 46
DONE
These and other Public Domain and user-supported programs from:
PC Software Interest Group
1125 Stewart Ct Suite G
Sunnyvale, CA 94086
(408) 730-9291
MINITEL.DOC
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
This program is made available free of cost to all non-
commercial users. It is not to be sold or traded in any form.
Please leave any questions, suggestions and problems at my
BBS:
Fido (415)-864-1418
MINITEL is a stripped version of TELINK. The following
functions have been removed: text download, auto-dialing,
telephone directory support, SmartModem modes and controls,
console control character processing, configureable keyboard,
file transmission/reception statistics.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
MINITEL is an asynchronous communications program for any
MSDOS or PCDOS machine. (A version must be configured for a
particular machine.)
MINITEL can receive or transmit files in XMODEM, MODEM7
(batch) or TELINK modes. TELINK mode is described in detail
later, but basically it is a MODEM7 compatible protocol that
supports DOS exact file sizes and dates.
This manual is divided into a number of sections:
Section 1 Operating TELINK
Section 2 Quick Command Summary
Section 3 Command Descriptions
Appendix A File Transmission Format
Appendix B File and Path names
Appendix C Command prompt Line Editing
Appendix D TELINK console details
Index
The first section walks you through operating MINITEL,
and gives you a feel of how it works. Section 2 is a one page
list of MINITEL's commands, followed in section 3 with a
complete descrip tion of each. You will find all commands in the
index. You do not need to read any appendixes to operate MINITEL;
they are provided for more detailed operating and technical
information.
To run MINITEL, you need (besides the computer) 64K
of memory, a disk of some sort, a serial port, and a modem.
You will have to refer to your modem manual for details on
dialing and making connections.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 2
1.00 O P E R A T I N G M I N I T E L
MINITEL is menu driven, with all commands accessible
with two keystrokes. You do not need to enter and exit
"modes" or levels to get where you want. Most command keys are
mnemonic.
Error handling is simple, straightforward and non
dangerous, especially in entering keyboard commands. (Like all
programs, you can bash diskfiles if you try hard enough.)
Error recovery usually consists of some default action; entering
a non-existent command results in a list of available commands;
ente ring a blank line at a prompt quits that command; illegal
baud rate selections result in no change, etc. All error
messages are in plain English, so you don't have to memorize
secret codes.
Running MINITEL is easy: at the system prompt, type:
A: MINITEL <cr>
MINITEL clears the screen, displays it's signon on the
top two lines, and waits for commands. At this point, anything
you type goes directly to your modem; for a SmartModem, you can
dial and make your connection.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 3
Entering Commands:
MINITEL provides fancy line editing whenever you need
to enter filenames or whatever; see Appendix C for details.
MINITEL is always in communication mode; if the modem
were to receive data, it would be displayed on the screen now,
and you could type directly back to it.
With the cursor still in the lower left corner, type
ESCape. The cursor now moves to the upper left corner, and types:
Command: _
If you wait a second or so, the menu is displayed.
Entering one of the command letters from the menu now
executes that command. (How to send an ESCape? Type another
ESCape.) If you type a key that's not a command, MINITEL will
type the menu again (if it's not already there), display your
screen, and return the cursor to where it came from. You can get
the menu at any time by typing the ESCape key, and waiting
about one second.
If you type the ESCape key, followed by a command key
within one second, the command will be executed immediately
without displaying the menu. This provides an expert mode once
you remember the command keys.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 4
2.00 C O M M A N D S U M M A R Y
Here is a quick list of command available in MINITEL.
Text and character oriented commands.
ESC C Save all console conversation.
ESC S Stops the 'C' command.
ESC L Auto linefeeds on.
ESC M Disable Auto line feed (default)
ESC F Full duplex. (default)
ESC H Half duplex.
ESC ESC Send an ESCape.
ESC V Parity selection. (none, default)
File oriented commands.
ESC R Receive file(s) in selected mode
ESC T Transmit file(s) in selected mode
ESC N Select a file transfer protocol
System and miscelaneous commands.
ESC ? List current MINITEL settings.
ESC Q Quit. Closes any text collection file.
ESC B Select a baud rate for the modem. Default is 300.
ESC Y List disk files, sizes and transmission times.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 5
C O M M A N D D E S C R I P T I O N S
All of the following commands act somehow on the disk.
Some create files and write on the disk; with these you can do
things like delete files or change their contents, so some care
is required.
ESC Y List disk file information
The 'Y' command is similar to a DIR command from the
operating system, but gives you more information. You are
asked for the name of files to look for; entering an empty line
is the same as *.*, like the DIR command.
Under MSDOS version 2.00, you can enter a pathname,
specifying the directory you want to look at. If you do not, only
files within the current directory are listed. Wildcards cannot
be used in the directory portion of the path name.
In addition to the file names, MINITEL gives you the
file size, in bytes, and the time it would take to send it,
at the current baud rate.(See the 'T' and 'R' file transmission
commands.)
The transmission times are of course approximate, because
errors sometimes occur, requiring blocks to be resent, and other
variables in both computers. The guesses are a little on the safe
side for that reason. It also takes time for the person running
each each computer to type whatever is necessary to start file
transmission, and of course this cannot be accounted for.
Transmission times are most accurate when sending more than one
file, using the automatic batch mode.
After all the files are listed, the total file count, and
the total size and transmission times for all of the files is
listed.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 6
ESC C Collect text
This asks you for a file name, then starts putting all
text you see on the screen into it. Everything the remote
computer sends you is saved as is. (Control-Z characters are
NOT put in the file if they appear from the modem or console;
this prevents "lost" data. Though one is put at the end of the
file when it is closed.)
The text file can be closed by the S command, or
automatically by the ESC Q command. You will get an error
message if you try an ESC C when one is already in effect.
Text is temporarily stored in memory; every once in a
while it must be written out to disk to make room for more. When
MINITEL is almost out of room, it sends a control-S to the
remote computer, to tell it to pause sending data. Up to 82
characters after the control-S are collected, to give the remote
a chance to stop. Then, the text is written out to the disk, and
a control-Q is sent to tell it that it may continue. This is
done automatically by MINITEL.
Most remote computers will pause when a control-S is
received; if it does not, you will probably lose a few
characters. On systems with hard disks, you won't lose more that
10 or so; with mini-floppies, you may lose up to 40 or so.
If the disk fills up while collecting text, an error
message will appear at the top of the screen. If the screen
happens to scroll while you're not looking, you won't see the
message. Oh well.
When MINITEL is first run, it gets as much memory as
it can (up to 64K) to use as the text buffer. You can see the
amount available using the ESC ? command. The only thing this
affects is how often MINITEL must write saved text to the
disk; the more memory, the less often it must write it out.
ESC S Stop text collection
Stops the collection of text. (The 'C' command.) You get
an error message if you're not collecting text. Appends a
control-Z to the file, flushes it and closes the disk file,
where you can type, print or edit it. If you forget to stop
collecting, MINITEL will do it when you exit via the 'Q'
command.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 7
ESC T Transmit file(s)
ESC R Receive file(s)
The T (transmit) and R (receive) commands are used to
transfer files, to a similar program running on another machine.
Either binary or text files can be transmitted. Error
detection and recovery are done automatically.
There are a number of ways in which files can be
transferred; see ESC N for details. Selecting the right method is
important, as transfers sometimes will not work. MINITEL tries to
automatically choose the right transfer mode, but it is not
always possible.
Invoking either command prompts you for files to be sent or
received. Except in XMODEM mode (again, see ESC N) you can enter
any number of filenames, where each can contain wildcard
characters. Seperate each name with spaces commas or plus signs.
The filenames can contain drive letters, and pathnames on MSDOS
v2.00.
The default mode on CP/M is MODEM7, and on MSDOS is the
TELINK mode. The TELINK mode is identical to MODEM7, except it
"sneaks in" information on exact file size and creation date. If
you use this mode with MODEM7 running on the other computer,
that computer will get four or six errors on the first data
block, by which time MINITEL will figure out that it will not
accept the extra information, and finish the transfers in
MODEM7 mode.
All display transmission status continually on the top two
lines. The current block number being sent, estimated
transmission time left, name, etc is displayed. The time is
constantly recalculated, and may be blank if: (1) less than 1
second, or (2) receiving a file where the file size is unknown.
EXAMPLES:
The following are valid filenames that can be entered for
transmitting files. (XMODEM can only accept a single filename.)
FOO.COM send one file
B:FOO.COM send one file
FOO.* one or more files
B:FOO.*,XYZ.ASM one or more files
FOO.COM,\BIN\*.COM,/WORK/*.ASM many files
AFILE.EXE,BFILE.DOC ANOTHER.FIL many files
These are valid entries for receiving files. Note that
filenames themselves are ignored, since the actual names are
received along with the files.
B: put files on drive B:
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 8
? files to default drive
* same as above
\bin\ put files in \BIN\
foo in default drive
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 9
ESC N Select file transmission mode
MINITEL now supports all popular file transfer modes
currently in use. These are:
XMODEM One file at a time, popular on remote systems,
MODEM7 Similar to XMODEM, one or more at a time,
TELINK Similar to MODEM7, but sends DOS info.
In addition, transfers can be done with the older
CHECKSUM method, or the newer, more reliable, CRC (Cyclical
Redundancy Check). This of course makes for six different ways to
handle files, but it's not really that bad.
When receiving file(s) (ESC R) you must select either CRC
or CHEKSUM properly. Most systems that support CRC say so when
you start the transfer. If you get it wrong, then you'll get a
"timeout" or other error; change to CHECKSUM and it should work.
The methods and how to select one is described below;
first, some suggestions on how to choose the right one.
BULLETIN BOARDS AND OTHER REMOTE SYSTEMS:
Most of these support only XMODEM, so there is usually no
choice! (Fido supports all methods.) More and more systems are
supporting CRC mode; MINITEL defaults to CRC mode. Try selecting
XMODEM and CRC; if that does not work, try XMODEM and CHECKSUM.
TO ANOTHER COMPUTER OR SYSTEM USING MINITEL, TELINK, OR MODEM7:
Using the TELINK method, CRC vs. CHECKSUM is handled
automatically; this is the best way to transfer files from
machine to machine. It handles multiple files, etc so you dont
need to do ESC T and ESC R for each file. If both have MINITEL or
TELINK, then use TELINK and CRC; if either machine has an older
MINITEL or TELINK that does no support CRC, it will switch to
CHECKSUM automatically.
If MODEM7 is used on one or the other, you may have to
select CHECKSUM. TELINK mode will switch to MODEM7 automatically
if necessary.
SELECTING THE TRANSFER METHOD:
After entering ESC N, you will see a small menu. You
select a type by typing the first letter of a selection. At the
left edge, you will se the current setting; just type the right
letter until you see what you want, then type [CR]. This setting
is also displayed by ESC ? and also when actually transferring
files.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 10
MODEM7:
This is the most popular method used to transfer files, and
is available on almost all CP/M and MSDOS machines. The MODEM7
compatible programs can transfer one or more files at a time,
with full error detection and correction. The limitations on
MSDOS are that the original file creation time and exact file
size are lost. For text files this does not matter, but for data
base and spreadsheet files, it can cause great problems.
XMODEM:
Most frequently used on bulletin boards and the like, it is
the original MODEM transfer protocol. It can transfer only one
file at a time, and the user must enter the filename
specifically. (No wild card characters.) It is included mostly
for completeness, and should only need to be used for computers
that do not support MODEM7 or TELINK modes.
TELINK:
The TELINK mode is an extention of the MODEM7 protocol, but
includes extra information on each file sent. After the filename
is sent, the file size, creation time and date are sent before
the first data block. If MINITEL receives this block, it is
used to exactly duplicate the file on the receiving end.
This mode is still compatible with the MODEM7 mode. However,
MODEM7 will get four or six errors while transferring the first
file, while MINITEL figures out that it cannot accept this
data. If it cannot be accepted, then MINITEL will stop
sending this info, and will operate for the rest of the files
in MODEM7 mode.
CRC / CHECKSUM:
Entering C at the prompt will toggle between CRC and
CHECKSUM. The CRC method is a very reliable method of
transferring files; the worst error rate is 99.9969% reliability!
CHECKSUM is probably about 95% or more accurate. Use CRC whenever
possible, CHECKSUM only if CRC isn't supported by the other
computer.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 11
The following commands control the way MINITEL acts to
the remote computer, and you. All of these are "not dangerous",
i.e. you cannot wreck anything with them.
ESC ? List MINITEL status
The current settings of the commands in MINITEL are
listed on the screen, like so:
<Full, half> duplex (ESC F, H)
Auto linefeed <on, off> (ESC L, M)
The cursor is at line 10 column 23
Either:
* Collecting text in file TEXT.FIL, (ESC C, S)
* 4022 saved so far, room for 18101 more
Or: Not collecting text
Currently <300, 1200, 9600> baud (ESC B)
<TELINK, MODEM7, XMODEM> file transmission (ESC N,J)
<no, odd, even> parity selected (ESC V)
Most of these can be changed via a MINITEL command.
The command is listed to the right of each, above. Others are
just internal status: they are:
The cursor is at line <n> column <n>
This just tells you where the cursor is. Some bulletin
boards and editors require you to fit typed lines in some
arbitrary line length; with this you can see how close to the
end you are. It is updated every time you type a key.
Either: Collecting text in file TEXT.FIL,
4022 saved so far, room for 48101 more in memory
-or- Not collecting text
If you have not started text collection with the ESC C
command, you will get "Not collecting text", which means just
what it says.
If you are collecting text, MINITEL will tell you the
name of the file being used, and some simple statistics on it.
The "... saved so far" is the number of characters saved in the
disk file. The "room ..." message tells you about how many
characters will be saved in memory before they need to be
written out to disk. You do not ever need to worry about
the numbers here; MINITEL automatically takes care of saving
text in the disk file. (See the ESC C command description)
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 12
ESC ESCape
Not really a command, it just sends an ESCape to the
remote. The cursor will still go up to the command area, but will
go right back down.
ESC F Full duplex
ESC H Half duplex
Changes the line operating mode. The default is Full.
Half duplex caused keyboard characters to be displayed as they
are typed.
ESC L Enable Auto linefeed
ESC M Disable auto linefeed
When enabled, causes a line feed character (control-J) to
be typed after each carriage return typed. This is independent of
half duplex. The linefeed is sent to the remote.
ESC V Parity selection
The default is no parity. Parity is generated within
MINITEL, and is either none, even or odd. If even or odd is
selected, the parity bit replaces bit 7 of the data byte.
(Obviously only 7 bit data can be sent.) Parity will be
suspended when file transmission or reception is used.
ESC Q Exit to DOS
The 'Q' command exits MINITEL, and returns control to
DOS. If text collection is on (via the 'C' command) text is
saved before exiting.
CAUTION:
You must remember to disconnect from the remote computer.
MINITEL cannot do it when you Quit. You will still be connected
to the remote computer.
Of you do quit, (to change diskettes, or whatever) then
run MINITEL again, do not forget to set the baud rate again, as
MINITEL cannot remember what it was set to when you exited, and
it always selects 300 baud when started.
ESC B Baud rate
Tells you the current baud rate, and lets you change it.
Only 300, 1200 and 9600 are implemented. A blank line or a bad
selection results in no change. Once you type CR, it changes the
rate, and displays the rate now in effect.
(CRC) MINITEL Operating Manual (c) T. Jennings 1983 Page 13
MINITEL supports all popular file transfer modes: XMODEM,
MODEM7, TELINK, in CRC or Checksum modes.
All use an identical technique to transmit the data
in the file; the difference is that batch mode also
transmits the file name, and there is a method to tell the
receiver "no more files".
Batch mode operates in the following manner:
Send filename,
Send data,
Send end of file,
Send filename,
Send data,
Send end of file,
....
Send "no more files".
Single file mode is simply:
Send data,
Send end of file.
BATCH MODE FILENAMES:
In batch mode, the file name is sent before the data.
When the receiver is ready, it sends a NAK character to the
transmitter, telling it that it's ready to receive the file. The
transmitter then sends an ACK to acknowledge that.
The 11 filename characters are sent one at a time, and
the receiver acknowledges each by sending an ACK after each
character. After the last one has been sent, the transmitter then
sends an ___, indicating end of name, at which time the receiver
sends a checksum of all the characters it's received so far. If
the checksum matches the transmitter's checksum, the transmitter
sends an ___, indicating filename sent and received properly. If
at any point during this something goes wrong, the transmitter
sends an ___, indicating a bad transmission, and both computers
abort.
If the first filename character is an EOT, it indicates
that there are no more files, i.e. end of batch mode. Both
computers are then finished with the file transmissions.
Appendix A Block Mode File Transmission Page 14
SINGLE FILE TRANSFER and BATCH MODE DATA TRANSFER
File data is sent 128 bytes at a time, in a 132 byte
block. After a block is sent to the receiver, the receiver either
acknowledges good or bad reception of the block. If good, the
next block is sent, otherwise the block is retransmitted up to
some predetermined number of times. Once the entire file has been
transmitted, an end of transmission character is sent. This
should be also acknowledged by the remote.
The first character sent by the file transmitter
determines what kind of block it is; an ASCII SOH (01 hex) or
Start Of Header, indicates an upcoming block, and an EOT (04
hex), or End Of Transmission, means no more blocks.
If the first byte of the block is an SYN, it indicates
it's a TELINK extended information block. The 128 byte data area
then contains extended system information. The first four byte
are the file size, in bytes, and the next four bytes contain
the MSDOS creation date and time. This block is only sent once
per file, just be fore the first data block. If the receiver
does not properly acknowlege this block (i.e. MODEM7 thinks
it's a bad block) TELINK will not make further attempts at
sending it. In this case, TELINK will write all received
data blocks as is to the disk, which will cause the file size
to be rounded off to the next highest multiple of 128 bytes
(like MODEM7). If the file size is received properly, the file
size will be exact.
The receiver uses one of two ASCII characters to indicate
the sucess of the block just transmitted: ACK (06 hex) to
acknowledge correct reception, or NAK (15 hex), Negative
Acknowledgement, to indicate the block was received incorrectly.
Each block contains a block number, which (not
coincedentally) corresponds to a CP/M file record number. There
are 128 data bytes per block, and all other bytes in the block
are overhead.
The data block format is like so:
SOH SEC /SEC data0 data1 ... data126 data127 CHKSUM
or SOH SEC /SEC data0 data1 ... data126 data127 CRCH CRCL
Where:
SOH is the ASCII Start Of Header character,
SEC is the 8 bit disk record number,
/SEC is the ones complement of SEC, the disk record
number, used for error checking. (later...)
Appendix A Block Mode File Transmission Page 15
data0 ... data127 are the 128 bytes of data. These are
all 8 bit quantities, with no contraints as to the contents.
CHKSUM is an 8 bit checksum of the 128 data bytes. The
idea is that the receiver makes it's own check sum of the data,
adds it to the CHKSUM, and the result should become zero. This is
one of the criteria used in selecting ACK or NAK as the
aknowledgement.
CRCH is the upper 8 bits of the CRC, and
CRCL is the lower 8 bits.
Like the checksum method, CRC is used to validate the
contents of the data block. The CRC is a polynomial that the data
gets passed though. The CCITT method is used, which is:
X^16 + X^12 + X^5 + 1
Each data byte is passed through this, and the result is
sent to the receiving computer, which makes the same calculation.
if both match, then the block was good.
CRC vs. CHECKSUM method is selected just before the file
transfer starts; when the receiving end is ready, it sends an
initial character to tell the sender it is ready. This character
(sent by the receiver) determines the transfer mode: NAK means
CHECKSUM, C (capital C) means CRC. (Older systems don't recognize
the C character; it waits for the NAK, which never comes;
therefore it is important to select the right mode on the
receiving end.
The accuracy of the CRC method is: detects 100% of all
single and double bit errors, all errors with an odd number of
error bits, all burst errors of length 16 or less, 99.9969% of
all 17 bit error bursts, 99.984% of all possible longer error
bursts.
The original XMODEM CRC method and polynomial algorithm was
done by Paul Hanksknecht, of Carpenter Associates, Bloomfield
Hills, MI.
Appendix A Block Mode File Transmission Page 16
MINITEL can be used on any version of MSDOS or PC
DOS. Version 2 or higher of either DOS, however, has a more
complex file structure. MINITEL supports both.
Under older DOS's, (before version 2) only "normal" file
names can be used: The format is:
d:filename.ext
Where:
d: is an optional drive specifier,
filename is an 8 character maximum name,
* or ? being allowed for certain
commands,
.ext is an optional filename extention,
wildcards * and ? the same as in
'filename'.
FRUMP.ASM, *.COM are typical examples.
Under later DOS's, however, full path names can be used
wherever a filename is asked for. This takes the form:
pathname\filespec
Where:
pathname is a valid path name specifier. It
may contain one or more directory
specifiers, seperated by a \, and also / if the
switch character has been set to - in CONFIG.SYS.
filespec is a "normal" filename, described
above.
/BIN/*.COM
/MARCH/DOG/BARF are typical examples.
You can of course enter a "simple" filename in newer
DOS's, as long as the file is in the current directory.
Any filename typed in to MINITEL can be up to 80
charaters long. In any case, see the appropriate DOS manuals
for filename and path name restrictions and operation.
Appendix B Filenames and Pathnames Page 17
Obviously some commands will require more input than just
the ESC/command key; filenames and baud rates are the most
common. MINITEL prompts you for these as necessary. When ever you
are prompted for a filename or whatever, you enter it by typing
the name, and a <cr> when done. Up until you type the <cr>,
however, you can do some simple editing of the line.
Control keys are used to edit the line. Control keys that
areen't used by MINITEL are ignored. The following are
the control keys used:
^C Delete the entire line
^X Same as ^C
^U Same as ^C
^Y Same as ^C
^H Delete the last character typed
^G Same as ^H
^S Same as ^H
DEL or RUBOUT
Same as ^H
Carriage return (CR), linefeed (LF) and ESCape (ESC) are
used to enter the line, executing it.
Two more special keys are:
^R Retype the previous line
^D Retype the last deleted character
These can be useful if you want to enter the same thing
as last time. If you delete the line (using ^C, ^X, etc) you can
get it all back ("undelete" the line) by typing a ^R, and the
last character by typing a ^D. Also, you can get back the line
you used for the last command by typing ^R before anything else.
After you type any other key, (exceptt an editing key) you lose
the old contents.
All commands can be aborted by entering a blank line.
Either enter <cr> at the prompt, or delete the line, then type
<cr>.
Appendix C Line editing Page 18
MINITEL does some processing of the characters you
see displayed on the console. None of this processing affects
the text collected in a disk file using the ESC C command.
This processing is done to ensure a "clean" screen, and
to make sure that MINITEL can keep track of where the cursor is.
All characters have bit 8 stripped off, to make sure
they're 7 bit ASCII. Some terminals respond differently to 8 bit
characters, and some strip them internally. In particular, files
created by popular editors such as WordStar set bit 8 on carriage
returns (CR ) to make "soft paragraphs", and MINITEL would
not otherwise know it was a carriage return.
Certain code sequences make a mess of the terminal
display; these characters can be filtered out using the ESC I
com mand, and not sent to the display. Mainly this is the
control-Z character, which clears the screen on many popular
terminals, such as the ADM-3A, most Televideo models, and the
Hazeltine Esprit.
Tabs are expanded within MINITEL to space over to the
next tab column, which are fixed at every eight columns. Tabs
are put as is into any ESC C disk file.
None of this filtering ever affects characters put into
the text collection file, if one is used.
Index
Auto linefeed........................... 4,10,11
Auto-dialing............................ 1
Baud rate............................... 4,11
Binary.................................. 7
Collect text............................ 6
Collecting text......................... 6
Command key............................. 3
Command letter.......................... 3
Commands................................ 2
Control-J............................... 11
Control-Q............................... 6
Control-S............................... 6
Control-Z............................... 6,6,17
CP/M.................................... 8
CR...................................... 17
Cursor.................................. 3,3
DEL..................................... 16
DIR command............................. 5
Disk.................................... 1,6
Error detection......................... 7
Error handling.......................... 2
Error messages.......................... 2
Error recovery.......................... 2
ESC ?................................... 4,6,10
ESC B................................... 4,11
ESC C................................... 4,6,6,10,17
ESC ESC................................. 4,11
ESC F................................... 4,11
ESC H................................... 4,11
ESC I................................... 17
ESC L................................... 4,11
ESC M................................... 4,11
ESC N................................... 4,7,8
ESC Q................................... 4,6,11
ESC R................................... 4,7
ESC S................................... 4,6
ESC T................................... 4,7
ESC V................................... 4,11
ESC Y................................... 4,5
ESCape)................................. 3
Exit to DOS............................. 11
Expert mode............................. 3
File count.............................. 5
File size............................... 5
File transfer protocol.................. 4
File transmission mode.................. 8
Filenames............................... 7
Files................................... 5
Full duplex............................. 4,11
Half duplex............................. 4,11
Memory.................................. 1,6,6
Menu.................................... 2,3,3
Index
MINITEL................................. 1
Modem................................... 1,3
MODEM7.................................. 1,7
MODEM7:................................. 8
Parity.................................. 4,11
Pathname................................ 5
Quit.................................... 4
Receive file(s)......................... 4,7
RUBOUT.................................. 16
SmartModem.............................. 1
TELINK.................................. 1,7
TELINK:................................. 9
Text.................................... 6
Text collection......................... 6
Text download........................... 1
Text file............................... 6
Transmission status..................... 7
Transmission time....................... 5
Transmission times...................... 5
Transmit file(s)........................ 4,7
Wildcards............................... 5
XMODEM.................................. 1,7
XMODEM:................................. 8
^C...................................... 16
^D...................................... 16
^G...................................... 16
^H...................................... 16
^R...................................... 16
^S...................................... 16
^U...................................... 16
^X...................................... 16
^Y...................................... 16
Directory of PC-SIG Library Disk #0188
Volume in drive A has no label
Directory of A:\
CRC TXT 841 11-15-84 7:51a
CRCK4 COM 1536 10-21-82 7:54p
IBMMINI EXE 30208 4-11-84 2:31p
MINITEL ABS 384 4-11-84 2:30p
MINITEL DOC 42624 4-11-84 2:54p
MINITEL DQC 21888 4-11-84 2:31p
MINITEL LBR 52736 4-11-84 1:30p
XXX 512 6-03-84 10:43p
8 file(s) 150729 bytes
8704 bytes free