page@ulowell.UUCP (08/03/86)
I originally rec'd a message from James Conley, jec@iuvax, asking me to do a review of Amigaterm. Seems that there is some confusion as to what Amigaterm is. I have two programs named ``Amigaterm''. One is a public-domain program that emulates an ANSI terminal. It appeared in net.micro.amiga and is on one of the public domain disks that Fred Fish (fnf@well) distributes. The second ``Amigaterm'' is a commercial product marketed by Commodore. Originally, it was to be called ``Telecraft'', but I guess some marketing types at CBM didn't go for the 'Craft' line, so it got renamed. It is NOT the same program as the PD Amigaterm. Until I got my (demo, no manual) copy of Amigaterm, I had been using Online! for a terminal program. Before that, I used MaxiComm - quite a long time ago, actually. I have tried the various PD terminal programs but all seemed to be weak in VT100 emulation and other features - and I don't have the time to hack them into a usable (for me) shape. Anyway, the two selling points of Amigaterm are that it can accept data at 19200 baud (and display it on the screen that fast) and that it had a 'wide' screen mode. Since I sometimes use an Amiga at 9600 baud to a VAX, I thought I'd try it out. It does indeed run fast. I have used it at 1200, 9600 and 19200 baud, it works well at all speeds. The emulations supported are VT52, VT100, ANSI, and AMIGA (I don't know what 'AMIGA' means). I have only used it as a VT100, and it seems to work well. It does appear to have some missing functionality here, in that smart-editing commands (insert line/char, delete line/char, delete to end of screen) reposition the cursor as they should but don't erase the text from the screen. This is at all baud rates. To be fair, I think it is just my UN*X Termcap description that is causing the problems, but haven't checked it out yet. In any event, the VT100 emulation is better than what Online! provides. I have not tried the 'wide' mode - it is 128 columns (close enough to 132, I guess), or so the menu says. When the program starts up, it looks in the font directory. I have erased all my fonts, so the directory is empty. I have not tried putting fonts there, but suspect if I did I would get the 128 column mode. Consequently, I have not seen the 128 column mode. As far as other features of the package, it supports normal text, XMODEM and Compuserve B file transfer protocols. HVP is not supported as in the Online! package. Session logging (to disk or printer) is supported - text gets logged immediately, rather than every 64K or so. I think this is a win in the long run. You can view any Amiga file locally, but no directory feature (from within the terminal program) is supported. I just RUN the program so I can still use ZLI to do other things like DIRectories. A startup script is supported. However, the program asks you for the name of the file on each startup. I don't see the need for this. Another nit-pick is that Auto Line Wrap mode is not a parameter that gets saved in the startup script, so I have to set it each time I start up the program. The VT100 is the same way; I never liked that either! Amigaterm does not have a macro facility like Online! does. It also cannot remap keys for you (I used to swap BS and DEL when I was using Online!) or have any character translation tables. Lastly, only function keys F1 through F5 are supported as meta keys. I don't know the reason for this (seemingly arbitrary) restriction. Now that I've covered what I feel are most of the major points, I should say again that I have a demo version, and it came with no manual. The problems and limitations I described above may have been fixed, or possibly they aren't really limitations; I just don't know about them because I don't have a manual. In short, if you see the package at your dealer's (I don't know if it is available; my local dealer told me he didn't order any because he thought Online! was enough - I changed his mind), start it up and look at the items in the menu, they're pretty self-explanatory. I suspect the only two questions you'll have after that are 'does it really keep up at speeds as high as 19200 baud?' and 'is the VT100 emulation any good?' -- and in my opinion, the answer is yes to both. I like Online! for its programmability, but since I've had Amigaterm, I haven't used Online! at all. ----- Comments on this non-review welcomed. I am not affiliated with any of the parties responsible for products mentioned above, and will not make/lose any money should you decide to/not to purchase any thing. Oh, scratch that - I am affiliated with the company that makes ZLI, but it's not available yet so you can't buy it anyway. ..Bob