From: ss%uucp@BLOOM-BEACON.MIT.EDU
Subject: ANNOUNCE: Seyon 1.6 (X-based telecom program)
Followup-To: comp.os.linux
Summary: version 1.6 is out
Keywords: X telecomm Windows Seyon comm
Organization: University of Helsinki
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 22:11:58 GMT

Version 1.6 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). 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. (Note: be forewarned that the
FAq has not been updated sine the last release, so there may be things
in it that are outdated and no longer apply).

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.

    If you use Seyon and like it, please let me know by email. This
    will give me the incentive to continue maintaining it. Also let me
    know how it works out whenever you upgrade to a new version.

Portability:
============

    Seyon is known to run on linux and SVR4. It is also known to
    compile cleanly on Ultrix and OSF/1. Seyon is POSIX-compliant so
    it should compile cleanly on any POSIX system. Seyon should also
    compile cleanly on most SYSV-type systems and BSD systems that
    have that support the termios or termio extensions. For BSD
    systems with only the sgtty interface, you have to replace the
    termios (or termio) code in Seyon with the sgtty equivalent. There
    is not much such code in Seyon though, so porting should generally
    be painless.

    Before compiling Seyon on any platform, take a look at the file
    config.h and modify it according to your system (linux users do
    not need to do that, it's already suited for their system).

    If you compile and run Seyon successfully on any platform other
    than linux, please let me know.

    The code right now is not very clean and not well-documented, but
    I'm working on that. If you encounter a problem while porting,
    send a letter to me or to the Seyon mailing list and I'll help as
    much as I can. especially with explanations on what the various of
    the code do. See the FAQ on how how to joing the list.

    Read the file PORTING for more information.

Changes:
========

Version 1.6
    * You can now change the modem device interactively from the 'Set'
      console. You can even do that in a script, use the keyword
      'port'.
    * Support for the environment variable MODEM has been dropped.
      You can set the modem device on startup either via the resources
      or at the commend line.
    * Running a script by the switch '-script' in startup was broken
      (apparently for some time but nobody told me, I found out by
      accident). It has now been fixed.
    * You can now start a script interactively from the command
      center. Use 'Script' under the 'Misc' button.
    * Fixed the lock routines. Seyon now supports two types of lock
      files: ascii (compatible with HDB uucp), and binary (for other
      uucp programs). You choose which type of lock interface by
      defining the appropriate flag in config.h before compiling.
      Thanks to rick@rick.att.com for supplying information about the
      different types of lock methods. Anthony Rumble originally
      pointed out the problem.
    * Added a new resource, hayesHangup. If this set to on, Seyon will
      use the Hayes hangup command sequesnce. Otherwise, hangup is done
      by dropping DTR. This should normally be set to off (default),
      unless your modem doesn't hangup when DTR is dropped. Consult
      your modem manual for more details.
    * Seyon now uses the correct Zmodem signature (thanks to Ralph
      Brown for supplying me with that). You should no longer have
      any problem with Seyon not recognizing Zmodem auto-downloads.
    * Although not very apprent on the surface, the dialing routines
      have undergone a major revision. The code is now much cleaner
      and uses pseudo-signals to do much of its work.
    * You can now upload a text file by using 'Divert' under the
      'Misc' button. This sends the file (slowly) to the remote host
      as if typed on the terminal. You can start an editor an 'divert'
      the file there as if you were typing the file, useful for
      composing messages on-line on bulletin boards.
    * Seyon's look is slightly revised, and the command center now has
      two  rows of buttons by default, so it's a bit less wide.
    * Related to the above: you can now rearrange the number of rows
      of buttons in the command center in a much easier way. Just
      specify the the resource Seyon.width, and the number of rows will
      be calculated automatically to fit the requested width.
    * If the app-defaults file is left from an older version, Seyon
      now tells the user what version that was.
    * Various other small fixes and enhancements.
    * On the down side, I have not updated the FAQ since the previous
      release, and 'don't feel like it'. If you want something added
      to the FAQ, send it to me, and I'll gladly add it (or if someone
      wants to be the maintainer of the FAQ, let me know).

/M. Saggaf                   
 alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu     


--
/M. Saggaf                   
 alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu     



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