daven@ibmpcug.co.uk (D R Newman) (01/10/90)
I found that the best program for my purposes was a program Odyssey, sold by Micropack Ltd. of Aberdeen, Scotland (0224 631100) for 70 pounds. 1. It has a robust implementation of MNP2, 4 and 5 in software - so I don't have to spend the extra money for an MNP modem (an extra 300 pounds over here). 2. It supports Xmodem, WXmodem, Ymodem, Batch Ymodem, Kermit, Zmodem and Ymodem-g fiel transfer protocols. The MNP engine knows about file transfers, so it uses an appropriate block size on uploading. 3. It has two built-in, wordstar-like editors. One is for files, the other is for the review buffer - i.e. you don't just scroll up the last few pages received, you can edit it, cut and paste, and save to disk. And the file editor allows you to paste a block of text, perhaps a message, to the remote system. 4. It does some internal multitasking, so you can edit files while a file is being transfered or text is being received on the screen - but you cannot run it in the background like Mirror. 5. It has a good script language, not quite up to Telix SALT standards, but with commands to allow event-driven programming - you can watch for 32 different strings simultaneously. The scripts are compiled when called from Odyssey, or you can precompile them so they run faster. I've used the script language to overcome some of the few shortcomings of the program - Odyssey does not time and log your calls, but you can do that under a script. I've written two scripts for interacting with rn - one to give extra help, the other for automatic scanning and message uploading. Now if only it had an object-oriented script language! (Sorry for posting this instead of mailing, the mail didn't get through). ----- Dave Newman, Consultants in Appropriate Technology, 188 (2A) Bedford Hill, London SW12 9HL, England. Tel. 01-675 5933 (After 22 January 1990, Aston Univ- ersity, Computer Services Dept., Aston Triangle, BIRMINGHAM B4 7ET, England. Tel. 021-359-3611) Usenet: daven@ibmpcug.co.uk IPC networks (Eco/Peace/GreenNet): gn:davenewman JANET: daven@uk.co.ibmpcug CIX: davenewman@cix.cix.uucp -- Automatic Disclaimer: The views expressed above are those of the author alone and may not represent the views of the IBM PC User Group. --