[comp.sys.mac] NCSA/LU Telnet available

roland@dna.lth.se (Roland Mansson) (12/14/89)

NCSA/LU Telnet 2.3                              89-12-14
==================

Introduction
------------
NCSA Telnet is a combined telnet client and FTP server program for the 
Macintosh.  It emphasizes a convenient, powerful user interface and 
can be configured to match the characteristics of your TCP/IP hosts.  
We have included support for a wide variety of Ethernet options.  
Complete user documentation is available; printed, or in Macintosh 
Microsoft Word format files. [From the original NCSA Telnet readme 
file].

This version, NCSA/LU Telnet 2.3, is based on the sources for NCSA 
Telnet 2.3 and adds the following features:
* support for national characters
* support for printer redirection
Hopefully NCSA will integrate them in a future version.

In this document, "telnet" refers to NCSA/LU Telnet and "original 
telnet" to NCSA Telnet.


Availability
------------
NCSA/LU 2.3 is available via anonymous ftp from pollux.lu.se 
(130.235.132.89) in the directory ~ftp/pub/mac/telnet. Get FILES first 
to get descriptions of the other files at pollux.
NOTE: pollux may get a new IP number in early January. Send me a mail 
if you have problems to connect to it.

Original telnet is available via anonymous ftp from ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu 
(128.174.20.50) in the directory NCSA_Telnet/Mac. Some files (incl. 
documentation and source) are also available at pollux.


Documentation
-------------
Original telnet comes with extensive documentation (in MS Word 
format). The additions in NCSA/LU telnet are documented in this file 
(README). The exact differences are listed in MODIFICATIONS and diffs 
to the original source can be found in ncsadiffs.hqx.


Copyright
---------
All changes to the original code are public domain.

The original telnet (incl. source and documentation) is also public 
domain. It is developed at the National Center for Supercomputing 
Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.


National characters
-------------------
Most European countries have additional characters in their alphabets. 
These characters usually have different ASCII codes in Mac ASCII and 
US ASCII, and don't always work with terminal emulators. Original 
telnet's standard way of handling national characters is just to strip 
off the high bit.

This version has three 'TRSL' resources for translations between 7 and 
8 bit characters. Being resources, they can easily be configured for 
different countries. Those included in this version are for Swedish 
ASCII.

In the Settings menu, there is a new item, National Chars. When 
unchecked, telnet converts 8 bit chars to 7 bit chars, without 
preferences for any country. This is a more intelligent version than 
just stripping off the high bit, and should be an advantage even for 
Americans. The translation is based on resource TRSL #257.
Example: "a with a circle" will be translated to an ordinary a.

If National Chars is checked, another translation table (TRSL #259) is 
used. This table has to be configured for each country.
Example: "a with a circle" will be translated to a "}", since "a with 
a circle" and "}" share the same 7 bit ASCII value in Sweden.

When characters are received by telnet they are translated (from 7 to 
8 bit) only if National Chars is checked (TRSL #258).
Example: "}" will be either be passed on unmodified (National Chars 
unchecked) or translated to "a with a circle" (National Chars 
checked).

In brief:
* when a character is sent from telnet (keyboard, paste, send macro)
	if national chars is on then
		translate with resource TRSL #259
	else
		translate with resource TRSL #257

* when a character is received by telnet (output, echo)
	if national chars is on then
		translate with resource TRSL #258
	else
		don't translate at all

The format of the TRSL resources is simple. Each resource is 
considered as an array, and the character code of the character to be 
translated is the index. The value at the position of the index is the 
character code for the translated character.

In brief:
	translated_char = TRSL_resource[untranslated_char]

Each TRSL resource must have a length of exactly 256 bytes.

To make it easier, there is a resource with no translation at all 
(TRSL #256). Copy it, make the modifications you need, renumber it, 
and you are done. TRSL #256 is not used in any way by telnet.

The Preferences dialog box (Edit menu) has an extra checkbox named 
National Chars. It determines if national chars is the default (or 
not) for new connections.

NOTE: Be sure to uncheck "Remap option key to control" and "Remap 
backquote to ESCape" if you use a non-US keyboard or system.


Printer redirection
-------------------
This version of telnet supports printer redirection (printer 
controller mode). Everything received after "<ESC>[5i" and up to 
"<ESC>[4i" is sent to the printer chosen in the Chooser.

The text to be printed is temporary saved in a file in the System 
Folder. When the code for end-of-printer-redirection arrives, you are 
prompted with the standard print dialog. The left margin is about 18 
mm (enough for perforation). 

There are no page numbers on pages printed via printer redirection, 
but there are on those printed with Print Selection (File menu).

Of course, national chars works with printer redirection and "Print 
Selection".



-- 
Roland Mansson, Lund University Computing Center, Box 783, S220 07 Lund, Sweden
Phone: +46-46107436   Fax: +46-46138225   Bitnet: roland_m@seldc52
Internet: roland_m@ldc.lu.se   or   roland_m%ldc.lu.se@uunet.uu.net
UUCP: {uunet,mcvax}!sunic!ldc.lu.se!roland_m    AppleLink: SW0022