Need a really dumb PC/Win RS232 terminal program. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 09:15:15 pm
content: I making another Verilog based RS232 utility, this time with an ASCII user interface.Now, since Hyperterm is no longer part of windows, and it kinda sucked anyway. I'm looking for a good cheap small terminal software. I just need ascii text, 921600,8,n,1 baud. Something small, like under 400kb, preferably no required setup/install.Any recommendations?

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 09:33:11 pm
content: TeraTerm is probably the best terminal out there currently. Check for yourself if it fits your criteria, but I use it for all serial needs on Win and it worked fine for me.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 09:35:31 pm
content: - PuTTY (which I use the most for that, ~1 MB if you only take the putty.exe executable that is needed here):https://www.putty.org/- YAT (more features, but requires ~10 MB!):https://sourceforge.net/projects/y-a-terminal/files/Under 400 KB I do not know of anything. Maybe someone else.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 09:51:45 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 13, 2022, 09:33:11 pmOMG, 12mb...

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 10:00:19 pm
content: So? Are you really that worried about disk space? I guess keep looking for things that may not exist then.Also, HyperTerminal is still available for download. But it is a 17 MB installer, so I guess that excludes it too.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 10:12:16 pm
content: I'ts not a disk space issue.Here:https://www.compuphase.com/software_termite.htmThe .exe is only 139kb, and it runs on it's own. No other system reg modifications or BS.I'm not sure why you need a bigger program to take keyboard key-presses and send them out the RS232 while showing me what's being received back in.Why waste system memory and hd space for such a simple task.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 13, 2022, 10:18:00 pm
content: TeraTerm does quite a bit more stuff that I personally use all the time. Like sending and receiving files over X/Y/Z-modem protocols, or even sending and receiving large plain text files.If you don't need any of that, then use Termite. I personally find it extremely limited. I don't often need to do large file transfers, but when I do, I'd rather use the same tools I already know how to use.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 03:05:02 am
content: At a middle ground, this 750Kb 'Kitty' seems much more capable:https://www.fosshub.com/KiTTY.html

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 05:50:36 am
content: With Windows I used to use Termite. Unpack only, or install.https://www.compuphase.com/software_termite.htm

author: Wiljan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 06:12:00 am
content: TerraTerm +1

author: ali_asadzadeh
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 06:37:35 am
content: Use Termite,It's the best simple soliton with no setuphttps://www.compuphase.com/software_termite.htm

author: Wiljan
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 08:14:51 am
content: Also like the "Hercules" small 1.2Mb and hex support and a nice feature to send predefined strings even as hex and it also have UDP and TCP supporthttps://www.hw-group.com/software/hercules-setup-utility

author: m k
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 09:36:19 am
content: Quote from: BrianHG on August 13, 2022, 09:15:15 pmI'm quite sure I did some console hacks during old DOS era but can't really remember how.What "type com1" does, can you send anything?https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/terminal-basics/command-line-windows-mac-linuxhttps://retrocomputing.stackexchange.com/questions/8078/ms-dos-save-data-from-com1-to-file-and-display-on-console-at-the-same-time

author: mon2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 01:54:19 pm
content: If you are open to writing your own - should not be that difficult - consider PowerBasic. Developed by the former Borland software team that wrote Turbo Basic.The compiled code is lean and mean, no fat.There is the GUI version of Power Basic and also the console version. Both are excellent tools and highly recommended.

author: ataradov
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 04:58:00 pm
content: Writing your own is "easy" for a simple sender and receiver of the bytes. But most normal terminal emulators would also support VT-100 emulation, which is often used in embedded systems. And implementing that is a huge waste of time to save a few MB of hard drive space. There is a lot more to terminal emulators than you normally think about. Things usually just work, so you don't notice it.And that's not even taking into account that the size on the disk does not correlate with the amount of RAM used by the program. That small Termite may allocate 500 MB of memory.

author: ledtester
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 05:23:11 pm
content: There's always the venerable Bray terminal program - only a 325k download:https://sites.google.com/site/terminalbpp/Downsides are last updated in 2014 and apparently still some bugs (although I never ran into any of them).But I would look into YAT (yet another terminal program):https://sourceforge.net/projects/y-a-terminal/Last updated this past week and touts a lot of features useful for engineers and programmers.

author: emece67
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 05:34:02 pm
content: .

author: richnormand
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 06:20:59 pm
content: I have used TerraTerm and PuTTY for decade.Both no nonsense and gets the work done.Also look at SamSpade (internet), HTTrack (website copy) and HxD (hex file editor).All basic functions but still work after all this time.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 07:57:43 pm
content: Quote from: ataradov on August 13, 2022, 10:00:19 pmI'm trying to make use of old Pentium grade laptops as simple terminals. The smaller the program, the better.

author: Bassman59
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 14, 2022, 11:09:46 pm
content: Quote from: BrianHG on August 13, 2022, 09:15:15 pmMaybe run the Unix utility screen from MinGW?