vishniac@wanginst.UUCP (Ephraim Vishniac) (12/11/85)
I found the following bulletin about MacTerminal 2.0 on a local bulletin
board, Mass Mac & Electric (617-231-2810). I believe it was originally
posted to CompuServe.
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Primary Differences Between MacTerminal Versions 1.1 and 2.0:
Submitted by Mike Boich, who is not an Apple Employee, and makes no promises
on their behalf!
Acting as an independent contractor, I have made the changes listed below
to MacTerminal. I released the final software to Apple on Friday, Dec 6.
This should place it in the dealers by late Dec/early Jan. (my guess)
MacTerminal 2.0 is primarily a bug fix release. Some enhancements are
included for IBM 3278 users (not too exciting for most MAUGers),
1. MacBinary File transfer
In addition to the MacTerminal 1.1 "Mac to Mac" file transfer, version
2.0 supports the MacBinary standard. Also, CRC error checking is supported
in all modes except MacTerminal 1.1 (Mac-Mac).
2. 25th (status) line in IBM 3278 mode. When using the AppleLine protocol
converter, status information is displayed on the 25th line rather than
being mulitplexed with the 24th data line.
3. LaserWriter support. MacTemrinal 1.1 had many LaserWriter problems. Worst
of all, the Laserwriter substituted Helvetica rather than Courier for the
MacTerminal font, which made a mess of columnar listings. Printing speed
is also improved.
4. The backspace and delete keys can now be swapped.
5. The file transfer dialog now includes an option called "save screens
before clearing", which scrolls the contents of the screen off top
before clearing, so that information isn't clobbered by a screen clear.
This defaults to off.
6. The delay between characters setting (also in the file transfer dialog)
now controls the option-click cursor key speed as well as file transfers.
For those unfamiliar with this feature, it is intended to provide you with
a means of generating arrow-key sequences with the mouse. By holding down
the option key and clicking somewwhere on the screen, MacTerminal will
send the series of arrow key sequences to move the cursor from its current
location to the place where you clicked. This is of no use on Compuserve,
but quite useful with DEC screen editors. A problem however, was that many
hosts expect these characters to arrive at manual typing speeds, and are
easily overrun by a series of them, even with flow control enabled. By
placing a delay of 2-5 ticks (60ths/sec) between arrow keys, this problem
usually goes away.
Also, holding option _and_ command down will cause the system to take
the shortest path, rather than the somewhat circuitous path it normally
uses.
7. In Mac-Mac file transfers, if the file already exists, the string
"via MacTerminal" is still appended. Now, however, if _that_ file
already exists, it is scornfully deleted.
In MacBinary mode, MacTerminal works just like Red Ryder 6.2: The user
is prompted for a file name (and volume/subdirectory) before the transfer
begins. If the file turns out to be MacBinary, we try to use the file's
original name. If this file already exists, we use the name supplied by
the user.
8. Several crashers were fixed. The one that comes to mind is disk full
while pasting or sending a text file. (Caused stack/heap overflow).
9. "Wait for call" now waits for a call, and tries to convince the modem
_not_ to answer the phone at any other time.
10. Memory management was revamped. Using the scrapbook in 128K systems, for
example, while not a total pleasure, shouldn't cause any problems.
MacTerminal will force you to close any desk accessories before
reactivating the terminal window, however.
11. Increased throughput. This is probably more noticable at higher baud
rates, but MacTerminal 2.0 receives and displays characters about
1.5 times as quickly as version 1.1.
12. Holding down the option key when choosing either the "Clear lines
off top" or "reset" menu items will skip the confirming dialog box.
Other bugs too numerous to detail here, but including:
VT102 escape sequences didn't always terminate properly.
Disk space calculation was occasionally out to lunch.
Copying large scraps caused problems.
IBM 3278 HOME key didn't work.
Pasting multi-line text selections into IBM 3278 documents
caused ENTER to be sent after each line.
For those of you who were hoping for macros, auto-logon, etc., I
sympathize, but that niche is being filled rather nicely by Smartcom,
Red Ryder, MicroPhone, etc.
However, I have a desk accessory under construction that provides a
modest implementation of these facilities for MacTerminal. I hope to
place this in the freeware or shareware domain in the next 60 days or
so, possibly with the support of Apple. I'll keep you posted on this
situation.
Mike Boich.
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Ephraim Vishniac
[apollo, bbncca, cadmus, decvax, harvard, linus, masscomp]!wanginst!vishniac
vishniac%Wang-Inst@Csnet-Relaywbell@utcs.uucp (Warren Bell) (12/16/85)
Questions: - when??
- will there be an "upgrade" policy for 1.1 owners?
- does it fix the often-reported bug of saving to the disk even
when "save off the top" is not selected?
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University of Toronto Computing Services Warren Bell
UUCP: {cbosgd,decvax,harpo,ihnp4,utcsri,{allegra,linus}!utzoo}!utcs!wbell
BITNET: wbell at utoronto