damley@utgpu.UUCP (08/15/87)
Here at the University of Toronto, we are currently looking for a
communications package which will provide some basic features such
as VT100 emulation, support KERMIT and XMODEM primarily, a good
script/command language capability and, of course, a reasonable
cost. It will be used by a variety of people with varying
expertise on Macs. If anyone has any suggestions of such a
package(s), please post the information. I will summarize the
results and post them.
Thanks in advance.
aliciachuq%plaid@Sun.COM (Chuq Von Rospach) (08/21/87)
[I'm posting this for someone who's posting is broken. Please respond
to sun!warp!rock -- chuq
I have looked at MacTerminal, MicroPhone, VersaTerm, MockTerminal, and
inTouch. MacTerminal is pretty vanilla, and pretty feature-less as
well. It seems in many respects to have little more than the power of
MocTerminal (from CE Software, the people who gave us the whole Mock
package- MockWrite, MockChart, MockTurtleneck - a group of very nice
desk accessories) as far as a quick and clean (not to be confused with
"Quick & Dirty") terminal emulator. I quickly outgrew its usefulness
after being introduced to inTouch (rather expensive $150 retail, $90
mail-order). inTouch (now inTalk, from Palantir Software - and where
have you heard that word before?) is a very powerful package that
includes not only one of the most powerful scripting languages I've
seen for a telecom package, including branching, logic, if-then-else,
timers, etc, but also emulates at least a dozen different terminals,
some I've never heard of. inTalk has more power than most people would
need, but is uniquely suited for those who need to log in to CompuServe
or the Source and get an actual graphic representation of the weather
map on their screen! (You have to do a screen dump to save it though.)
The product also has 4 levels of 8 function keys, and any number of
these sets can be loaded in. You can have these "on-screen" function
keys call a procedure that will log you in.
After I started with inTouch for about a month or so, I heard everyone
talking about Red Ryder. I was not sure if it was a wagon or what. I got
a copy through A32 and started playing with it. The documentation was
very good, and humerous too. I called the author on the phone and
actually got support, there were a zillion updates and 3 levels of 10
function (macro) buttons. The procedures are easier to write than
inTouch, though less powerful. However, I have rarely needed the power
of inTouch's CCL (Communication Command Language). I did not need it
to log in for me at 3 am in the morning and collect my mail. With RR
though I have a macro key that calls a procedure that logs me into my
favorite BBS (or work), steps through all the message sections and
saves all the new messages to an ASCII file for reading off-line. (Or
better yet, upload the file to Sun and print it out so I don't kill my
eyes. A week's worth of news messages on my favorite local BBS runs 60
pages!) RR does provide something that inTouch does not provide, but
MicroPhone does, and that is it will watch you do something and record
it as a macro procedure. This means you can pull down the menu item
that says "Write a Procedure for Me", login to Sun, or do a routine
task, end the recording session, and voila, you have a double clickable
icon that will log you in to Sun! MicroPhone will allow you to build
custom buttons for the same thing. RR will let you either call a
procedure or bind it to a function (macro) button.
The only possible complaint to RR is that it has enough settings to
confuse a novice telecommunicator, but it did not take me too long to
figure it out, and the documentation is very helpful. The other
settings configure terminal type, file transfer protocol, screens to
save, etc. But most important of all is the price. $40, for the
registration fee, you can't beat that, and FREE if you're an
increadibly dishonest sinner.
Two other advantages:
1) It has been constantly upgraded, although version 10.0 brings it out
of the shareware category, but includes a great laser-written
manual, I've heard.
2) You will belong to an elite club of Red's all over the country.
Many of the local BBS use Red Ryder Host, a very powerful
electronic bulliten board system that allows for private and public
messages, as well as a file section with tons (depending on the
SYSOP's disk space) of public domain software. It is a great place
for news, tips, and help for the confused. A32 uses it, MacInfo in
Newark (last month's MACazine called it the BBS of the Month - and
it's really good) uses it, and I believe BMUG in Berkeley uses it.
I do not think SMUG does.
In any event, I use it and plan to get the upgrade for 10.0
immediately, I've seen a beta version and it is hot.
Chuq Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ
We live and learn, but not the wiser grow -- John Pomfret (1667-1703)