[net.micro.amiga] CLI process on the serial port

john13@garfield.UUCP (09/29/86)

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This is in reply to those who were asking about running processes through
the serial port:
"...some brave soul...write a DOS driver for it."  --Matt

There already is one! A package called the Metacomco toolkit has a
device driver called "auxcli". This part of it consists of the driver,
which you install in L: on workbench, a "mount" command you put in C:
on workbench, and "mountlist" which you put into DEVS: on workbench.
once this is done, you say "mount aux:" and it begins recognizing
the device driver. To open a CLI for the serial port, you say "NewCli
aux:". All printf-oriented output is then directed to ser: , and ser:
read for CLI commands. No CLI window appears on the host Amiga.

I have sucessfully used this package to phone from another location and
run most of the CLI commands without problem. ED was an unfortunate
exception, as were those programs which opened their own windows - they
looked for input from the keyboard still. However, ser:ed should be
little problem for an ambitious hacker, and it was great to be able to
leave the machine running and still control it from wherever I happened
to be! With just a null modem cable, it functioned fine as a dual-user
machine. The only drawback is, as I have said, that the majority of
useful programs didn't default to standard input/output. 

The rest of the Toolkit consisted of...lemme see...a "browse" command,
like less, a compact/uncompact, an Alib, some more technical stuff for
debugging which I didn't pay close attention to at the time. Overall I was
impressed, but left with the feeling that a LOT more could have been
included - the entire Toolkit came nowhere near filling up the disk it
was on. Oh yeah, and a Pipe: device too, usage something like
pipe:dir
pipe:more
to do a dir | more. Too bad I didn't look more closely at it when I had the
chance, but you get the idea - a set of programmer's utilities (although
the auxcli could be very useful to just about anybody with a modem or
extra terminal).

Disclaimer: This is all clouded by about a month that has gone by since I
saw it, so I may have left out some things.

Frightening thought: If the existence of the Toolkit is not widely known,
does this mean that people also have not heard of Grabbit (arrived same
day as the Toolkit)??? If so please let me know and I will post a
thorough review.

Capsule Grabbit review: super-dooper SaveILBM, screendump, and palette
menu all hidden away until you hit a 3-key sequence. Only ~10K!

John Russell
UUCP:	{akgua,allegra,cbosgd,ihnp4,utcsri}!garfield!john13
CDNNET:	john13@garfield.mun.cdn

rdavis@convex.UUCP (10/04/86)

> menu all hidden away until you hit a 3-key sequence. Only ~10K!

Is that 10K dollars, or 10K bytes?		B-)

Ray Davis