From: ss%uucp@bloom-picayune.mit.edu
Subject: ANNOUNCE: Seyon 1.8 (X-based telecom program)
Followup-To: comp.windows.x.apps
Summary: version 1.8 is out
Keywords: X telecomm Windows Seyon comm
Organization: MIT
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:27:57 GMT

Version 1.8 of Seyon is released. You can get it from sipb.mit.edu
(/pub/seyon) and export.lcs.mit.edu (as well as linux ftp sites:
nic.funet.fi and sunsite.unc.edu). The beta version of this release
was reported to run on many Unix platforms: Linux, SVR4, SVR3.2,
Ultrix 4.2, SunOS 4.1, Domain/OS-12 (Apollo), and 386BSD. (I
personally verified that it compiles "out of the box" on linux, Ultrix
(cc and gcc), and 386BSD (thanks to ref.tfs.com). Please read the
change log, as this release has many added features and ones that have
changed from the previous version. This release has a more complete
manual page that I have put a lot of effort into making as accurate
and up-to-date as possible, so please take a look at it.

The following is an introduction to Seyon, then the change log.

Introduction:
=============

    Seyon is a complete full-featured telecommunications package for
    the X Window System.  Some of its features are:

    Dialing directory that supports an unlimited number of entries.
    The directory is fully mouse-driven and features call progress
    monitoring, dial timeout, automatic redial, multi-number dialing,
    and circular redial queue. Each item in the dialing directory can
    be configured with its own baud rate, bit mask, and script file.
    The dialing directory uses a plain-text phone book that can be
    edited from withen Seyon. Seyon also supports manual dialing.

    Terminal emulation window supporting DEC VT02, Tektronix 4014, and
    ANSI. Seyon delegates its terminal emulation to xterm, so all the
    familiar xterm functions such as the scroll-back buffer,
    cut-and-paste utility, and visual bell are availabe through
    Seyon's terminal emulation window. Using xterm also means that
    Seyon has a more complete emulation of VT102 than other any Unix
    or DOS telecommunications program. Other terminal emulation
    programs can also be used with Seyon to suit the user's need; for
    example, color xterm can be used to provide emulation for color
    ANSI (popular on many BBS systems), and xvt can be used if memory
    is a bit tight.

    Script language to automate tedious tasks such as logging into
    remote hosts. Seyon's script interpreter uses plain-text files and
    has a syntax similar to that of sh, with a few extra addtions. It
    supports many familiar statements such as conditional branching by
    if-else and looping by goto. Scripts may be assigned to items in
    the dialing directory for automatic execution after a connection
    is made.

    Unlimited number of slots for external file transfer protocols.
    Protocols are activated from a mouse-driven transfer console that
    uses a plain-text file, editable from withen Seyon, for protocol
    configuration. Seyon prompts the user for filenames only if the
    chosen protocol requires filenames or if the transfer operation is
    an upload, for which Seyon also accepts wildcards. Multiple
    download directories can be specified for the different transfer
    slots.

    Support for zmodem auto-download. Seyon detects incoming zmodem
    signature and automatically activates a user-specified zmodem
    protocol to receive incoming files. Zmodem transfers can thus be
    completely automatic and require no user intervention.

    Translation modes. Seyon can perfrom useful trasnlations on the
    user's input. From example, Seyon can translate backspace to
    delete (useful on may Unix systems), newline to carriage return
    (useful on many BBS hosts), and my favorite, meta key tranlation:
    to send keys pressed while the meta (ALT) key is held down as an
    escape (ESC) followed by the key press. The latter mode simulates
    the meta key on hosts that do not support 8-bit-clean connections
    and makes possible the use of the meta key in programs like Emacs
    on such hosts.

    Other features: interactive setting of program parameters, on-line
    help, software (XONN/XOFF) and hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control,
    session capture to a file, and temporary running of a local shell
    in the terminal emulation window.

    Seyon is intended to be both simple and extensively configurable.
    Almost every aspect of Seyon can be configured via the resources
    to suit the user's taste.

Changes:
========

Version 1.8:
    * The transfer window has been completely revamped, just like the
      dialing directory (see below). Only the protocol titles now
      appear in the window (those can be as descriptive as you like).
    * Since the dialing directory and transfer console no longer show
      the actual phone and protcols files but only a pretty summary,
      the syntax of those files has been made much more flexible. They
      now accept whole-line comments and blank lines, so you can put
      as much comments there as you like. Examples are provided.
    * Provided examples for the phone and protocols files with
      extensive documentation (thanks to the new syntax fexibility).
      Please look at them to take full advantage of the convenience
      they provide.
    * The dialing directory have been completely revamped. No more
      ugly keywords on the display, replaced by a standard, concise,
      and informative dialing directory. The keywords still work of
      course, it's just that you see only their summary on the dialing
      directory, rather than the phone file syntax itself.
    * For the new dialing directroy, added the resource dialDirFormat.
      This is a string that specifies the format of the dialing
      direcotry. The default is '%-15s %-15s %6s %1c%1c%1c %1c%1c %s'.
      Briefly: the fields represent the host name, number, the baud
      rate, bits, parity, stop bits, whether there is a custom prefix,
      suffix, and the script name. You can understand more what each
      field refers to by comparing with dialing directory, fields that
      use the current setting (via the keyword CURRENT) are designated
      by a question mark. Notice that you cannot change the order the
      items in the dialing directory appear at, only the format.  For
      example, since the numbers I call are all 7-digits, my host
      names are short, and I never use baud rates above 9600, my own
      format string is %-10s %-8s %5s-%1c-%1c-%1c %1c%1c %s, the
      default is just too wide for my taste, and I like dashes between
      the bits, parity, ans stop bits fields.
    * Renamed the resources dialAutoOpen and dialAutoClose to
      dialDirAutoOpen and dialDirAutoClose, respectively, to reflect
      their functions more precisely.
    * Add an important feature: the ability to completely specify the
      communication parameters by number of bits (charcter size),
      parity, and stop bits. Like eeverything else in Seyon, you can
      set those in about a half dozen ways. First, the resources
      defaultBIts (default is 8, valid arguments are 5, 6, 7, and 8),
      defaultParity (default is 0, valid arguments are 0 (no parity),
      1 (odd parity), and 2 (even parity), and defaultStopBits
      (defaults is 1, valid arguments are 1 and 2). You can set them
      in a script through the keywords bits (e.g. set bits 8), parity,
      and stopBits. You can also set them in the dialing directory by
      specifying the fileds BITS, PARITY, and STOPB (you can also give
      the argument 'CURRENT' to those fields. Finally, you can set
      them interactively under the settings window (in two ways,either
      directly or via a short cut).
    * The resource sevenBitMask and the script keyword 7bit are gone.
      they superseded by the above.
    * Added a new button: 'About'. Among other things it tells you
      exactly what revision number of Seyon you're using. The help
      button is moved under About.
    * Some cosmetic changes; for example, Seyon messages in the status
      area are now centered.
    * Added support for fallback resources. Seyon no longer need its
      app-defaults file except for color (using color in fallback is
      not a good idea).
    * Added a new button under the 'Misc' window: Suspend. This just
      suspends the terminal and runs a local shell in the terminal
      window. 
    * Seyon now supports two new speeds: 56700 and 115200 bps. This is
      avialable only for linux, as there is no portable way of doing
      it. This feature is not guaranteed to stay.
    * Added a new script command: send_break. Should be obvious what
      it does.
    * Fixed a nasty bug (race condition) when Seyon is invoked with
      the -script switch. That should work fine now.
    * New resource: dialAutoOpen. If set to on, the dialing directory
      is automatically poped up when Seyon is started.
    * The resource funMessages is now used to specify the messages
      only. Use the new resource showFunMessages to enable or disble
      the display of those messages (defaults to on).
    * Added a new feature: the ability to send a string when the
      session (user's input to the terminal) is idle longer than a
      specicified amout onf time. The string is sent automatically at
      that regular interval to keep the session alive (e.g. avoid
      auto-logout). The resources governing this feature are:
      idleGuard (default is off), idleGaurdInterval(default is 300
      seconds), and idleGuardString (default is " ^H", i.e. space then
      backspace). The corresponing script keyword is idleGuard (you
      can only enable or disable it in a script). The string is sent
      with the current translations, so it would be <Spc><del> if
      backspaceTranslation is on.
    * You can now put '~' in 'transmit' to effect a pause of 1 second,
      i.e. transmit "ATZ~~ATS0=0" is equivalent to
                    transmit "ATZ"
                    pause 2
                    transmit "ATS0=0"
    * Changed the default color for toggles to look better with Xaw3d.
      If you're not using Xaw3d, I advice to get it and link Seyon
      with. Seyon looks much "cooler" with Xaw3d.

Have fun,

/Muhammad M. Saggaf                 | Stop the genocide
 alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu            | Save Bosnia
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x.apps,comp.windows.x,comp.sys.sun.apps