rt@cpsc53.UUCP (Ron Thompson) (10/06/85)
Last week I posted a question about the following packages for use on the AT&T 6300. CROSSTALK 16 PC TALK 3 3101 EMULATOR RELAY VM ASCOM I didn't get as many responses as I had hoped, but I did learn quite a bit more than I knew before the poll. ASCOM and RELAY VM were the least used and known of all - the latter with no response. Many thanks to all of you that did answer my request, hope that I can do the same for you someday. Here goes -- CROSSTALK 16 I have used Crosstalk XVI quite a bit and found it quite flexible, although correspondingly complicated to use. I wasn't particularly impressed with it's terminal emulation, especially in trying to use it to log into Unix and edit files with vi, but then I haven't really seen too may emulators which totally live up to their name (something about purses and sow's ears applies, I believe). _____________________________________________________________________ I am using it at the moment. It has a great "script" capability, and we use it here at AT&T-I to manage entire terminal sessions on all kinds of remote computer systems. It has XMODEM protocol builtin (but not Kermit), so we also use it for file transfers. It emulates a VT-100, a Televideo 924, or an IBM 3101 terminal; within a given unix session, I sometimes use two of these; I have "vi" running handily with a modified TERMINFO entry which uses the PC keypad for arrows and other functions. I recommend it highly. _____________________________________________________________________ I have use a Crosstalk on the pc6300 (don't recall right now if it's the latest version), it works quite well for the most part. There is one minor problem: in timing, it probably use delay loops to approximate time in seconds. This results in a 30 second wait-for-connect really only waiting about 12-15 seconds. So when you want Crosstalk to dial and wait 30 seconds for a connect before retrying, you must tell it to dial and wait 60 seconds (the actual command is GO 60/60). _____________________________________________________________________ PC-TALK 3 I have used PC-TALK III with the PC6300. It is completely compatable. However, I do not like PC-TALK III as much as a couple of Public Domain (I THINK THEY ARE PUBLIC DOMAIN) program written by some fellows at Bell Labs. One is SIMTERM and the other is CTRM 1.8. The thing I like better about these programs is that they emulate HP terminals which allow full-screen editing and etc. _____________________________________________________________________ IBM 3101 The 3101 Emulator is a program that emulates an IBM 3101 terminal because an IBM mainframe only understands IBM terminals. I have never used this package, afterall, who would want to use an IBM mainframe. _____________________________________________________________________ We used this for a short time in communicating to an IBM mainframe. If the mainframe (370-type machine) supports it, you can get 3270 emulation off an ASCII line using the 3101 emulation package. However, you can't transfer files back and forth this way, since it operates in "block mode", and file transfer only works in "character mode". Extremely frustrating. For any other kind of remote systems, Crosstalk is far more flexible, and we have not so gradually moved back to Crosstalk. _____________________________________________________________________ ASCOM ASCOM is another "communications package", also flexible but complex. _____________________________________________________________________ -- ............................................................................... | Ron Thompson AT&T Information Systems Customer Programming | | ..akgua!cpsc53!rt Atlanta, Georgia Services Center | | Opinions expressed are mine alone. | ...............................................................................