elliott@yosemite.steinmetz (08/11/88)
In article <8808090328.aa01328@SMOKE.BRL.MIL> A1T@ECL.PSU.EDU (Andy) writes: Describing his problems with ATP > 2: > 1) The cursor key sequences - I ALWAYS need the escape sequences (esc O A > or esc ] A)... Those are available, always, with the Closed Apple key. As I mentioned earlier, I'm planning to make it a user-settable default to reverse the meaning of the closed-apple key, so it will soon be possible for them to work the way you'd like. However, forcing them to always work that way would be unacceptable for those of us who use UNIX. In any case, your next problem is a more serious one, and may mean that ATP will never be right for you: > 2) When I'm using EDT under VMS, and I press the HELP key, Kermit handles > things just fine, with some fascimile of the graphic characters. > the picture of the keypad LOOKS like a keypad, and the pictures of the > arrow keys are recognizable. ATP gives me little v's and things. Looks > HORRIBLE! This is true; ATP does not attempt to display VT100 graphics characters. Since those characters are not avaliable to the video display hardware, to do it right I would have to use hi-res graphics, and the 6502 is simply not fast enough. What you seem to be implying is that Kermit approximates them using MouseText. This is an interesting idea I may pursue, but I do not expect that it can do a terribly thorough job, and I'm not really interested in doing things in a halfhearted way. Also, remember, not all apple users HAVE MouseText. I don't, for example. >so, since ATP seems to have nothing BUT emulation (so far), it's out of > the question. It's clear you haven't taken much time to explore ATP or you wouldn't make such a statement. I can understand you not WANTING to take the time to learn about ATP's features and strengths, but that is different from saying they don't exist. People have different priorities and philosophies, as do programs, and there are matches and incompatibilities. ATP's philosophy and goals don't seem to match your needs, and that's okay. It doesn't reflect badly on either of us. In the environments where I use telecommunications, ATP excels and Kermit simply does not work. (Kermit loses tons of characters once I reach the bottom of the screen, and is hopeless to keep up with Emacs). ATP goes to great lengths NEVER EVER to drop a character, even on an unenhanced //e like I have, even during disk access. This something I require, but not everyone does. On the other hand, Kermit fakes VT100 graphics, and supports a keypad and "help" key, things which I do not have (what is a "help" key? Is it something on the //gs keyboard?). These are things you require and I don't... >Here's a new feature: Autodialing... My modem is autodialing, but not hayes > ...I tried making a z-link macro, maybe it was too fast or > something. My modem only recoginzed about every 3rd character. One of those nonexistent features that ATP has besides terminal emulation is its macro language; it will let you write programs that recognize when the modem tells you the line is busy and issue a redial command. It also will let you put pauses between characters or wait for them to be echoed back. You might want to lobby for something similar to be included in a terminal program that you like. >About quitting: No, I don't want to use a shell like ECP or davex... >[lots of stuff about BASIC.SYSTEM] I can understand not using command shells with a one-disk system. Before I got my hard drive and Davex, the only program I ever really used was ATP. I do most of my computing on bigger machines using my apple as a terminal. However, I was not "raised on ProDOS"; I have been programming on Apples since before the days of the ][+. It's really only the advent of ProDOS, these command shells, and the like, that have kept me interested in programming on the //s, since I have access to vastly more powerful UNIX boxes. Applesoft is dead to me, and I wouldn't even keep a copy of BASIC.SYSTEM around except that I still need it to EXEC executioner files. This is another example of major differences in our interests. So, basically, I wish you the best of luck in finding a program that does what you want; I expect to continue to have fun writing new features for ATP. I've ordered the Kermit book, and am trying to force myself to implement Kermit before I get down to my pet project of a visual editor segment that works remotely too. . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . ... . . Jim Elliott / ...!seismo!uunet!steinmetz!crd!elliott / userE2U7@rpitsmts.BITNET "Don't look, son, it's / Jim_Elliott%mts@itsgw.rpi.edu [school] a secular humanist!" / (or) elliott@ge-crd.arpa [work] . . . . . . ... . . . . . . . . . . ... . .