From: ernie@tartarus.uwa.edu.au (Ernest Ong)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: modem-program
Date: 15 Oct 1992 01:10:51 GMT
Organization: The University of Westrn Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: tartarus.uwa.edu.au
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

I don't know how to use this news reader so pardon the way ive done this

right.... I am the one that wrote that Modem program that goes at >19200
baud rates.  The A5000 has a chip in it that comes straight off the PC
world. It handles Parallel/Serial/IDE/Floppy Drives & someother stuff
(Mouse, but the Arcs doesn't use it). Anyway the Chip (Part No. 82C710
by CHIPS tech.) serial side, according to its DATA sheets, can go up to
115000 baud rate.  So I wrote a little bit of
"ILLEGAL/UNDOCUMENTED/HACK" software, that accesses the hardware direct
and modifies the internal registers to get >19200. Mind you the program
only does so when you specify the machine to be an A5000 & selected baud
rate >19200, so that it will work on other machines.

About the program:
Its called !ZAnsi. (Not very creative I know)
It emulates a VT100 & VT220 termianls. Its not perfect considering I
  dont have any manuals for them. So I had to sit on the termianls at
  school and press escape sequences galore. I would appreciate if anyone
  has got any text files that says what all the escape sequences are and
  do. Or for any other terminal.
It handles ASCII capture, XModem, XModem 1k, & ZModem file transfer
protocol. The ZModem has inbuilt a transparent way of transfering a
files filetype. That is if 2 Arcs are connected together running my
prog. the filetype is preserved over the transfer. Ive yet to come
across a system that hangs or complains because of this, so let me know
if so.
Also there is a Security option, so if you want youre connection to
remain private, it scrambles/descrambles ALL the data that is txfered.
It uses its own routines so youll need both sides to be running my prog.
Theres also a chat mode where the upper half shows whats comming in &
the bottom half shows what youre typing. I'm thinkink of putting into it
a bi-modem style of connection (for those of you who have never seen
Bimodem it allows you to Send/Recieve a file(s) & chat all at the same
time). Since I dont have bimodem serial specs, ill have to develop my
own routines (& call it trimodem or something).

About releasing the program:
1 - I was thinkning of releasing it to a magazine, that way everyone could
    get a hold of a copy & I would get some money for it.
2 - release it as if-you-like-it-ware were all the features aren't
    disabled but you get an anoying message whenever you select an
    option & every 5mins or so. So to get rid of this you would have
    to register (by sending me $$$).
3 - A local dealer has approached me, saying that he has shown the prog
    to acorn (Australia) & they wish to publish it. This probably means
     that they get control over it & a lot of people miss out because
    it has got an Acorn price on it. Eventhough this is probably the
    most cost effective for myself, I dont think ill go with this
    option.
4 - Release it onto a PD base (Newcastle or something) & hope people
    appreciate work & support any more future enhancements. But how
    many people DO ever send contributions on fully working prog.

I would appreciate anybody who can shed a light on their experiances
about releasing software, since I never have.

Regards Alfred

P.S. I would put a concluding Logo or something but does anybody read it
or care its there.