haar%gmr.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA (01/08/86)
Fellow CP/Mers: I have been looking for a VT100 emulation program for my CP/M system. I recently downloaded a library called GATE from the Royal Oak RCP/M system. Gate is a Generalized Asynchronous Terminal Emulator, that is customizable by way of terminal definition tables. The version I have is rev 0.85 . The documentation (dated May 6, 1985) refers to an upcoming version 1.0 . This is a pretty good, general purpose emulator, but does not quite meet my needs. It has a built-in ANSI standard terminal definition. This is not a full VT100 emulation. In particular, it does not have the aux keypad that the editors on my work computers (VAXen/VMS) need. I cannot add these because the function key definitions in the table are limited to ten (I need at least 18). Also, it is set up for direct port I/O for both the local terminal and the communications to the remote system. This doesn't work for me because my system has the display output and the keyboard input on different ports. What I would like to do is use BDOS calls for console input/output. The documentation talks about patching in user code for I/O, but the work areas it points to seem to already have code in them. (Source code was not distributed with the program.) My system is an S-100 bus, Z-80 CPU running CP/M Plus (3.0). I use a VDB8024 video display board and a serial keyboard (Keytronics) on a home-built interface. Does anyone know of a later release of Gate, or a better terminal emulation program (either P.D. or commercial, but customizable), or have more information about customizing GATE ? Much thanks for any help. Bob Haar (313) 575-3193 G.M. Research Labs Net address: HAAR.GMR@CSNET (since I am on CSNET, I cannot do FTP, but can get most P.D. software from local RCP/M systems.) P.S. a plea to software developers - If you are writing CP/M software, please use the standard BDOS calls for I/O rather than direct I/O or BIOS calls. Also, if you are distributing public domain software or "freeware", please include source code.