allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (09/12/89)
Practical Peripheral modems are (supposedly) shipping with a terminal program called Macknowledge (which I assume is no relation to the Acknowledge communications "toolkit"). The blurbs provided in the P.P. ads don't tell me very much about what I want to know about it: * Does it emulate VT100? (MS-DOS-oid "ANSI" is *not* acceptable.) * Does it emulate VT102? (I.e. insert/delete line and character) * Does it handle the DEC line-drawing set? * How many "function keys" does it support, and how? Keyboard macros? Mouse-y clickbuttons like RedRyder (9.4, I have no knowledge about 10.x)? (If it requires the extended keyboard, forget it.) * Does it have any scripting capabilities? Icon-based setup is all well and good, but doesn't stand up to the real world all that well. * What's the maximum speed it handles *well* on an SE? I plan to get a real communications program (probably MicroPhone II) in the future, but upgrading my Mac RAM and getting an external modem are the top priorities at the moment and MPII will probably have to wait. Thanks in advance, ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@NCoast.ORG uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu bsa@telotech.uucp, 161-7070 BALLBERY (MCI), ALLBERY (Delphi), B.ALLBERY (GEnie) Is that enough addresses for you? no? then: allbery@uunet.UU.NET (c.s.misc)
c8s-an@franny.Berkeley.EDU (Alex Lau) (09/13/89)
I haven't tried (nor have I heard of anyone who has tried) the Macknowledge software, but it is software produced by the Acknowledge telecommunications toolkit as an "example" of what you can do with Acknowledge. ---Alex
svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) (09/13/89)
In article <1989Sep12.003227.7169@NCoast.ORG> allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >Practical Peripheral modems are (supposedly) shipping with a terminal program >called Macknowledge (which I assume is no relation to the Acknowledge >communications "toolkit"). The blurbs provided in the P.P. ads don't tell me >very much about what I want to know about it: > First of all, Practical Peripheral's modem are bundled with MicroPhone version 1.5, while Prometheous Modems are bundled with MacKnowledge. I would check as to which you are buying... Now for the details...A couple of months ago Prometheous bought the Acknowledge package (the whole thing, they now own it) from SuperMac and they went ahead and create MacKnowledge using Acknowledge (hence the similar name:-) MacKnowledge is a general purpose communications application, conceptually similar to MicroPhone or Red Ryder, but with this 'funky psuedo-iconic' interface. >* Does it emulate VT100? (MS-DOS-oid "ANSI" is *not* acceptable.) Yes, but not well... >* Does it emulate VT102? (I.e. insert/delete line and character) No >* Does it handle the DEC line-drawing set? I believe it handles the VT100/DEC graphics character set >* How many "function keys" does it support, and how? Keyboard macros? I do not believe that you can assing keyboard equivs to scripts w/o putting them into the menuBar and then giving the menu a keyEqiv. There is no keyboad remapping capability if that is what you need and it does not support the FKeys on the Extended keyboard. > Mouse-y clickbuttons like RedRyder (9.4, I have no knowledge about 10.x)? > (If it requires the extended keyboard, forget it.) There 'icon pallette' is equivalent to the buttons in RedRyder and MicroPhone II (ie. clicking one launches a script) >* Does it have any scripting capabilities? Icon-based setup is all well and > good, but doesn't stand up to the real world all that well. It has the complete power of Acknowledge's TAL, if you want to learn TAL... >* What's the maximum speed it handles *well* on an SE? If you mean how does it keep up with incoming text, it maxes out about 4800 baud... > >I plan to get a real communications program (probably MicroPhone II) in the >future, but upgrading my Mac RAM and getting an external modem are the top >priorities at the moment and MPII will probably have to wait. > Sounds like a good move to me... >Thanks in advance, >++Brandon > No problem... Disclaimer: I am part of the MicroPhone II Development Team, an although baised as to my choice of comm product, I do evaluate all of our competitors fairly. -- +--------------------------------------------------+ Leonard Rosenthol | GEnie : MACgician Lazerware, inc. | MacNet: MACgician UUCP: svc@well.UUCP | ALink : D0025
LaserMan@cup.portal.com (Bob LaserMan Murrow) (09/16/89)
Macknowledge... I programed in TAL and wrote a Point and Click interface for Portal. It achieved 14KBaud with a TeleBit TrailBlazer 19.2 modem. I would recheck the 4800 baud max you got. It may be how you were set up. Bob
allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) (09/16/89)
As quoted from <13584@well.UUCP> by svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol): +--------------- | In article <1989Sep12.003227.7169@NCoast.ORG> allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: | >Practical Peripheral modems are (supposedly) shipping with a terminal program | >called Macknowledge (which I assume is no relation to the Acknowledge | | First of all, Practical Peripheral's modem are bundled with MicroPhone | version 1.5, while Prometheous Modems are bundled with MacKnowledge. I would | check as to which you are buying... +--------------- Crossed neurons, as usual. I meant to say the Prometheus Promodem; I originally looked at the Practical Peripherals modem, but the folks I spoke to at P.P. claim that they ship with "Microphone v1.5". This does not sound very much like Microphone II 3.0, so I decided to get the ProModem. +--------------- | >* How many "function keys" does it support, and how? Keyboard macros? +--------------- Many people seem to be misunderstanding the question I asked. Keyboard macros, etc. are methods used in various Mac communications programs to implement the function keys found on most terminals. I was asking which, if any, of those methods was used in Macknowledge. I guess I'll have to wait until the package gets here next week and check the manual. ++Brandon -- Brandon S. Allbery, moderator of comp.sources.misc allbery@NCoast.ORG uunet!hal.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery ncoast!allbery@hal.cwru.edu bsa@telotech.uucp, 161-7070 BALLBERY (MCI), ALLBERY (Delphi), B.ALLBERY (GEnie) Is that enough addresses for you? no? then: allbery@uunet.UU.NET (c.s.misc)
svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) (09/18/89)
In article <1989Sep15.232029.7081@NCoast.ORG> allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery) writes: >Crossed neurons, as usual. I meant to say the Prometheus Promodem; I >originally looked at the Practical Peripherals modem, but the folks I spoke to >at P.P. claim that they ship with "Microphone v1.5". This does not sound very >much like Microphone II 3.0, so I decided to get the ProModem. > It is NOTHING like MicroPhone II v3.0. Software Ventures currently has two products on the market, MicroPhone and MicroPhone II. MicroPhone is the entry level communications product while MPII is the high-end product which is getting all the development work. We currently only bundle MicroPhone with modems, but there is always an upgrade path from MicroPhone to MicroPhone II. >+--------------- >| >* How many "function keys" does it support, and how? Keyboard macros? >+--------------- > >Many people seem to be misunderstanding the question I asked. Keyboard >macros, etc. are methods used in various Mac communications programs to >implement the function keys found on most terminals. I was asking which, if >any, of those methods was used in Macknowledge. > If all you need are the PF1-PF4 that the VT100 uses, then Macknowledge uses the same mechanism that MicroPhone, Smartcom, etc. uses which is to map th Mac keypad to the VT100 keypad. This then equates the Clear.=,/, and * t the PF1-PF4. (MPII v3.0 also has a new TearOff Keypad menu for thos that don't have a keypad or can't remember where the PFKeys are). If you are talking to a 327x or other system which uses other PFKeys then you have to use scripts/ macros since they are not part of the VT100 set. Usually they are emulate using the ESC follwed by th # of the key (ie. PF5 = ESC5). You can do this in Macknowledge, but there is no keybinding without usijng menuKeys. >I guess I'll have to wait until the package gets here next week and check the >manual. > Please post your own review of the software, I am curios to see how a real user of the product feels abou it. -- +--------------------------------------------------+ Leonard Rosenthol | GEnie : MACgician Lazerware, inc. | MacNet: MACgician UUCP: svc@well.UUCP | ALink : D0025
svc@well.UUCP (Leonard Rosenthol) (09/18/89)
In article <22178@cup.portal.com> LaserMan@cup.portal.com (Bob LaserMan Murrow) writes: >Macknowledge... I programed in TAL and wrote a Point and Click interface for >Portal. It achieved 14KBaud with a TeleBit TrailBlazer 19.2 modem. I would >recheck the 4800 baud max you got. It may be how you were set up. >Bob If I misled anyone as to the general speed of Macknowledge, let me apologize, what I meant to say (and thought I did) was that the TEXT THROUGHPUT on the terminal screen maxes out at about 4800 baud, though some of the xfers can take place as high as 12-13Kb (on a 19.2 connection). Also remember that the only standard(!) protocol that Mac/Acknowledge supports is XMODEM... -- +--------------------------------------------------+ Leonard Rosenthol | GEnie : MACgician Lazerware, inc. | MacNet: MACgician UUCP: svc@well.UUCP | ALink : D0025
paul@taniwha.UUCP (Paul Campbell) (09/18/89)
In article <22178@cup.portal.com> LaserMan@cup.portal.com (Bob LaserMan Murrow) writes: >Portal. It achieved 14KBaud with a TeleBit TrailBlazer 19.2 modem. I would >recheck the 4800 baud max you got. It may be how you were set up. Here, here! I use Acknowledge as a terminal emulator all day, every day at 19200! Paul -- Paul Campbell UUCP: ..!mtxinu!taniwha!paul AppleLink: D3213 "Free Market": n. (colloq.) a primitive fertility goddess worshipped by an obscure cult in the late 20th C. It's chief priest 'Dow Jones' was eventually lynched by an enraged populace during an economic downturn (early 21st C).