[comp.sys.mac] MicroPhone II v2.0 & v3.0 comments

tempest@csuchico.EDU (Kenneth Lui) (01/27/89)

I'm glad to see that someone who's actually involved with the development
of MicroPhone II is on the network. I was at the MacWorld Expo last weekend
and was surprised to see the Software Ventures booth at Moscone Center
rather than Brooks Hall (an apparent error in the exposition program...so I
was told).

I got a chance to test out Zmodem--the person was nice enough to let me
dial out to my university (indirectly, via a local call, of course). Here's
what happened: it didn't work. Apparently, the Alpha version that was
being demoed at the show floor does not have an option to receive ordinary
binary files. The only two major choices were TEXT or MacBinary. The
transfer ended after MP II v3.0 tried to interpret the MacBinary header.
Since I dialed up my campus' Unix machine and not a Mac, all it sent were
plain binary files. The representative assured me that this minor problem
will be corrected when v3.0 is released this April; I hope so. The
auto-downloading feature worked great, however.

Sending appears to work, but the resultant binary file had the MacBinary
header, so I couldn't test its integrity (it was a compressed file).

I've some questions and comments about the upcoming release of MicroPhone II:

1. Has any of the scripting limits been increased? Things like maximum
number of lines per script, and so on.

2. Will it be possible to implement an option to have the cursor *not*
flash? The annoying thing with the cursor (and text) is that it doesn't get
updated fast enough when doing quick typing. What I mean is if I were to
auto-repeat a key at 2400bps, the characters (as well as the cursor) would not
echo until I've released that key. I checked the Alpha version and it
appears that this option was not even considered.
**This quirk is very annoying!!** This problem started appearing when I
switched from using System 5.0 to System 6.0.2.

Any comments?
Thanks in advance,

Ken
tempest@csuchico.EDU

dudevoir@isl.Stanford.EDU (Glen P. Dudevoir) (01/29/89)

Could someone please post a pointer to a program running under BSD Unix
that implements zmodem. (or better yet post the sources.)

Thanks.  Glen

bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Brian Martin) (01/30/89)

In article <383@isl.stanford.edu> dudevoir@isl.stanford.edu (Glen P. Dudevoir) writes:
>Could someone please post a pointer to a program running under BSD Unix
>that implements zmodem. (or better yet post the sources.)

The programs rz and sz implement the zmodem, ymodem and xmodem protocols.
They were posted over a year ago to one of the unix sources groups, and
should be available at your nearest unix archive site. Just unshar,
run make, and you should be ready to run. The zmodem protocol
works fine with the recently posted Zterm, though I've found its
vt100 emulation isn't quite up to par for talking with our Vax (I'm using
Red Ryder right now).

-- Brian
====
    Brian K. Martin, M.D.
    Department of Psychiatry
    John A. Burns School of Medicine
    University of Hawaii
      and
    Martin Information Systems, Ltd.
    1103 9th Ave., Suite 203
    Honolulu, Hawai`i 96816-2403
    Voice (808) 733-2003
    Fax (808) 733-2011

ARPA: uhccux!bmartin@nosc.MIL
UUCP: {uunet,dcdwest,ucbvax}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!bmartin
INTERNET: bmartin@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu

leonardr@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu (01/31/89)

tempest@csuchico.EDU(Ken ??) writes in comp.sys.mac

>I'm glad to see that someone who's actually involved with the development
>of MicroPhone II is on the network. 
>
	Glad to be here....
>
>I got a chance to test out Zmodem--the person was nice enough to let me
>dial out to my university (indirectly, via a local call, of course). Here's
>what happened: it didn't work. Apparently, the Alpha version that was
>being demoed at the show floor does not have an option to receive ordinary
>binary files. The only two major choices were TEXT or MacBinary. The
>transfer ended after MP II v3.0 tried to interpret the MacBinary header.
>Since I dialed up my campus' Unix machine and not a Mac, all it sent were
>plain binary files. The representative assured me that this minor problem
>will be corrected when v3.0 is released this April; I hope so. The
>auto-downloading feature worked great, however.
>
	Ah, so you are the one who came by while I was out... You are correct
that the ALPHA versions ZMODEM had problems with standard binary transfers
(and this was known going into the show, the guy who did the demo was not
aware of it however - and we shot him afterwards..).  We have since fixed this
problem (but remember we haven't even gone BETA yet, so we can do this!!)
	There will also be an option for standar binary sending, we took it out for
the show since it didn't work and didn't want anyone trying it :-)

>Sending appears to work, but the resultant binary file had the MacBinary
>header, so I couldn't test its integrity (it was a compressed file).
>
	Sending and recieving of MacBinary files works beautifully as we have been
testing it with numerous BBS' and other services and have not had any problems.

>I've some questions and comments about the upcoming release of MicroPhone II:
>
>1. Has any of the scripting limits been increased? Things like maximum
>number of lines per script, and so on.
>
	Wow!  If you hit the current max number of script lines now - you should
SERIOUSLY rethink your scripting habits...However, yes we have raised the
number of scripts, lines per script, etc.  We have not yet set EXACTLY what
these numbers will be, but they will be increased.   If you have specific #'s
in mind, let me know.

>2. Will it be possible to implement an option to have the cursor *not*
>flash? The annoying thing with the cursor (and text) is that it doesn't get
>updated fast enough when doing quick typing. What I mean is if I were to
>auto-repeat a key at 2400bps, the characters (as well as the cursor) would not
>echo until I've released that key. I checked the Alpha version and it
>appears that this option was not even considered.
>**This quirk is very annoying!!** This problem started appearing when I
>switched from using System 5.0 to System 6.0.2.
>
	We will have a NON-BLINKING cursor option in 3.0 (it's been requested 
enough and it is easy to implement) and we are looking into the auto-repeat
problem.  This will be fixed in 3.0 (assuming I can find the problem :-) with
 user-configurable option (since I like it that way it works...)

>Any comments?
>Thanks in advance,

	Just a couple....

	If anyone has any comments, suggestions, etc. for MicroPhone II v3.0 please
feel free to send them to me (ie. mail is safer, but feel free to post..) as
we are closing on the beta date....

+---------------------------------+-----------------------------------+
+   Leonard Rosenthol             +  fact, then again you might decide+
+   Software Ventures Corp.       +  that it really isn't, so you     +
+                                 +  never know, do you??             +
+   leonardr@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu     +                                   +
+   GEnie:  MACgician             +  MacNET: MACgician                +
+   Delphi: MACgician             +  AppleLink: D0025                 +
+---------------------------------+-----------------------------------+