152 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
152 lines
7.9 KiB
Plaintext
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
AGTxT069 AGATE MANUAL Tony Marques
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
LEGALITIES
|
|
|
|
AGATE is copyright 1991 by Tony Marques, and is released as ShareWare to be
|
|
freely transfered and copied for the purpose of distribution. However, as
|
|
ShareWare there is an expectation that users register the software with the
|
|
author, and offer whatever they may feel the software is worth. Registered
|
|
users shall be entitled to any future updates. AGATE bears no warrentees or
|
|
guarantees and it shall not be libal for any damage or loss inccured during
|
|
it's use or possession.
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Tony Marques 2602 Molitor Street, Terrace, B.C., V8G-3A2, Canada
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
AGATE was archived as AGATE069.SHK and contains the following members:
|
|
|
|
AGATE.SYSTEM - system file - essential component
|
|
AGATE.SCREEN - title screen - not necessary for execution
|
|
AGATE.URDATA - user data - essential component
|
|
AGATE.PIECES - AGATE pieces - essential component
|
|
AGATE.FONTS8 - graphic fonts - not necessary for text operation
|
|
AGATE.MANUAL - 'documentation' - not necessary for execution
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
REQUIREMENTS
|
|
|
|
AGATE requires an enhanced Apple II computer with 128k. AGATE will disconnect
|
|
the 64k ProDOS /RAM disk located in Slot 3, Drive 2 on 128k machines. AGATE
|
|
does not support disk swapping so source and destination paths have to be
|
|
on-line when performing select disk functions. Consequently, multiple drives
|
|
are recommended. It is also recommended that AGATE be placed on a /RAM or
|
|
/HARD disk when used.
|
|
|
|
WARNING: To ensure that AGATE is compatible with your /RAM disks, it is
|
|
recommended that the first time you use AGATE check the validity of your /RAM
|
|
disk before and after use. It has no problems with AE /RAM or GS /RAM disks
|
|
and most others.
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
ON-LINE
|
|
|
|
AGATE has not been provided with dialing facilities and acts as a dumb
|
|
terminal. Consequently, dialing and other modem commands must be issued by
|
|
users using the basic 'AT' commands. Refer to your modem manual to learn about
|
|
the 'AT' command set and how to use them.
|
|
|
|
Basic commands include:
|
|
|
|
ATE1 - 'AT'tention, 'E'cho on ('1') - turn on echo while in command mode.
|
|
ATD911 - 'AT', 'D'ial '911' - 'T'one or 'P'ulse may prefix the
|
|
number to determine dialing mode.
|
|
+++ - three '+' with brief pauses - enter command mode after connected
|
|
ATH - 'AT', 'H'ang up - after '+++'
|
|
ATO - 'AT', 'O'n-line again - after '+++'
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
EMULATION
|
|
|
|
AGATE's ANSI (DEC VT100) emulation has been further refined and now also
|
|
supports ANSI Music (which may someday be tuned for all computers).
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
OMEN (OA-A)
|
|
|
|
The option menu allows you to configure some stuff. The left and right arrow
|
|
keys shift menus while up and down select settings. Pressing OA-S saves
|
|
whatever you have chosen to disk.
|
|
|
|
Of the several options two need to be explained.
|
|
|
|
SAY -o This option allows you to tell AGATE the system speed of your
|
|
SPEED computer. AGATE is incapable of setting or reading the system speed
|
|
and so it relies on you to SAY what the system speed is. The value of
|
|
the system speed controls the cursor blinking rate, the length of the
|
|
tones, and most crucially timing during file transfers. This is a
|
|
MOST important setting.
|
|
|
|
KEY -o This option re-interprets keystrokes. Naturally, keys pressed in
|
|
MAPPING conjunction with the solid apple key have their most significant bit
|
|
set and so they are interpreted as an IBM characters.
|
|
o KEYPAD allows those users without SA-Q W E --> 7 8 9
|
|
keypads to more easily emulate them. A S D --> 4 5 6
|
|
Uppercase is important. Z X C --> 1 2 3
|
|
o ARROW causes the arrow keys to send the ANSI sequences as opposed to
|
|
the true arrow control codes. To allow you to send the actual arrow
|
|
control codes while this option is active, solid apple combinations
|
|
will send the arrows.
|
|
NOTE: LFT and CTRL-H, RGT and CTRL-U, DWN and CTRL-J, UP and CTRL-K
|
|
are all synomous on Apple computers.
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
FILE UTILITIES
|
|
|
|
Generally, AGATE ignores all file errors. AGATE is also incapable of handling
|
|
volumes which are off-line so it is necessary to keep the SOURCE and DESTIN
|
|
paths in the drives at the same time -- no disk swapping is supported.
|
|
|
|
PIZZA AGATE supports unZIPing and is capable of unSTOREing, unSHRINKing,
|
|
EXPLODING members of .ZIP archives. AGATE is currently unable to
|
|
unREDUCE members, but because of it's GREAT rareity no one should
|
|
miss it's presence. AGATE recognizes ZIP files by their .ZIP
|
|
extensions. PKZIP and ZIP are rigistered trademarks of PKWARE.
|
|
|
|
.ALZ Before writing PIZZA, I gained some practical experience in the field of
|
|
data compression by writing my own shrinker. The 12bit LZW algorithm
|
|
is capable of producing compressed files smaller than either LZW/1 from
|
|
SHKiT or LZW/2 from GSHKiT, and this is taking into account the overhead
|
|
produced by NuFX archives. It is not as effective as SHRINKing as
|
|
implemented within PKZIP, but not because I am not capable.
|
|
o To prevent it from becoming used as a compression utility, this
|
|
implementation intentionally lacks any means of preserving file
|
|
attributes including filename or filetype, and it also is devoid support
|
|
for multiple members, disk archival, or other any other features
|
|
o Compressed files are named 'FILE.ALZ', but they may be renamed and any
|
|
file may be decompressed which has the '.ALZ' suffix. Decompressed
|
|
files create or replace 'FILE.UNC'.
|
|
|
|
VIEW The view option may be slowed with the Open Apple or stopped with the
|
|
Solid Apple. The space bar pauses while ESC abort the viewing.
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
TRANSFER PROTOCOLS
|
|
|
|
Currently, only YMODEM and ZMODEM downloading has been implemented.
|
|
|
|
Those of you who feel that the user interface is lacking, I must agree.
|
|
|
|
YMDMR This YMODEM implementation, by default, supports YMODEM-4k as proposed
|
|
by Morgan Davis, but will also fall back supporting XMODEM-1k or -CRC,
|
|
and even plain XMODEM. Optionally, you may select to use 4MODEM by
|
|
responding 'Y' to the initial prompt. This variety of YMODEM has been
|
|
implemented within METAL and ACOS, but it is also called YMODEM-4k.
|
|
Files downloaded without BATCH (i.e. with any of the XMODEMs) will be
|
|
downloaded under the name 'DOWNLOAD'. Finally, all downloads will be
|
|
placed within the current DESTIN path and will replace existing files.
|
|
o ESC - Abort
|
|
|
|
ZMDMR The ZMODEM implementation will again download to the DESTIN path, but
|
|
it will not replace existing files. Instead, it will attempt to resume
|
|
the file transfer from the end of the file, and allow you to resume
|
|
incomplete, interrupted, or aborted transfers.
|
|
o ESC - Abort TAB - Skip file
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|
|
Tony Marques 2602 Molitor Street, Terrace, B.C., V8G-3A2, Canada
|
|
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
|
|