From: jgrimm@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com (Jeffrey Grimmett 9999)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.datacomm
Subject: Amiga Comms (was RE: Amiga Kiosks?)
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:24:54 GMT
Organization: NCR (Torrey Pines Development Center)
Disclaimer: This posting does not neccessarily reflect the opinions of NCR.

In article <kehlet.06db@kehlet.adsp.sub.org> kehlet@kehlet.adsp.sub.org (Jesper Kehlet) writes:

>> Seriously, if you are writing a comm program, more power to you.  Just make
>> sure you address all your gripe's with NComm and combine the best features
>> of all the good programs out there.  (personally, a lookalike of Access! would
>> be great!).
>
>It's finished and ready for shipping at a price of US $50 or so when it
>reaches you.
>
>A demo will be out soon, so I need to know how to put that one up for ftp.

A demo would be nice.  I'm a bit spoiled by the try-before-you-buy concept
at this point.  I've been burned by Baud Bandit and MindLink, and am not
likely to spend 50 clams on another comm program unless I am *very* impressed
by it.

BTW, if you can get it to a SAN or ADS fidonet node, you'll get even better
coverage.

>> Not using the XPR libraries, are we?
>
>Sure ain't!  ;-) Built-in transfer protocols to reduce the library
>overhead, that is of great importance when doing file transfers...
>
>XPR *WILL* be available in the future, but why use them if the built-in are
>faster and even more reliable?

Good.  Although there are legit gripes about XPR, it helps to have that
ability in case someone wants to use something you didn't want to implement.
Even with his superior ZModem, Jack Radigan still gets ragged on about
not having XPR abilities in JRC, though I'd bet not 1 in 5 of the gripers
would actually use it :-)

>Besides you get a lot more flexibility with built-in protocols.

From the programmer's point of view, yes.  From the user's pov, no.  Not
unless you already include every protocol under the sun, and they are indeed
better than the XPRs.

>And now for the NComm bug stuff:
>
>	- When trying to open the serial ports in shared mode (3 lines,
>
>	- NComm in general opens the serial port in a bad way.  It simply
>
>	- It's SLOW in file transfers.  It uses XPR and very badly

All but the last, I haven't had trouble with.  The last one, I have noticed
*plus* seen the same thing in Term.  I have the feeling this is an XPRZModem
bug instead (tons o' errors, too)

>	- The ANSI is awfully implemented.  I have experienced problems
>	  with at least 30 BBS's here in Denmark and more than 50 foreign
>	  ones.  I think this relates to the fact, that NComm uses CON:
>	  compatible ANSI, so it's very non-compatible.

I've seen some problems with a few FSE's out there, and that is primarilly
why I switched to JRC in the first place.  However, JRC I do beleive uses
the CON: device, too (pipe in anytime, Jack) so if that's the case, we
can't really blame Con:  Either way, ANSI doesn't work right, agreed.


-- 

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Jeff Grimmett [SuperBitMap BBS]        | fido!1:202/1401.0 [619-460-7290]
NCR -- Torrey Pines Development Center | Jeffrey.Grimmett@TorreyPinesCA.ncr.com
==========    "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain."   =============
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