THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET ("Throop,Henry B") (05/03/91)
Occasionally when I'm logged onto the VAX here, all lowercase letters I receive from my modem are changed to one of a few symbols (~+._'`). (For example, maybe all a's, c's, and r's are changed to ~, etc. I don't know exactly what the translation is.) Uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols (I think) are ok. Sending characters has no problems. Rebooting doesn't fix this, nor does an ice-reboot (reset from self test), but cycling the power does. Some programs on the VAX that reinitialize the terminal cure the problem when I'm online and run that program, leading me to think it may be a serial port setting that is getting messed up. This mainly happens when spurious characters are received - eg line noise or viewing binary file - which then puts me into this translation mode thing. Supra 2400 external, 8N1, gs modem port, Kermit or ProTerm. Henry -- Henry Throop throoph@jacobs.cs.orst.edu THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET
parkern@jacobs.CS.ORST.EDU (Neil Parker) (05/03/91)
In article <9105030354.AA14809@apple.com> THROOP@GRIN1.BITNET ("Throop,Henry B") writes: >Occasionally when I'm logged onto the VAX here, all lowercase letters I >receive from my modem are changed to one of a few symbols (~+._'`). (For >example, maybe all a's, c's, and r's are changed to ~, etc. I don't know >exactly what the translation is.) > >Uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols (I think) are ok. Sending characters >has no problems. Rebooting doesn't fix this, nor does an ice-reboot >(reset from self test), but cycling the power does. Some programs on the VAX >that reinitialize the terminal cure the problem when I'm online and run >that program, leading me to think it may be a serial port setting that is >getting messed up. > >This mainly happens when spurious characters are received - eg line noise >or viewing binary file - which then puts me into this translation mode >thing. > >Supra 2400 external, 8N1, gs modem port, Kermit or ProTerm. ^^^^^^ A-ha! This sounds rather like you've discovered the VT-100 line-drawing character set. Real VT-100's have a secondary character set consisting of little line segments and wierd symbols, which can be used to draw pretty borders around around the text. Since the Apple II display doesn't have these special line-segment characters, VT-100 emulators such as Kermit translate them into characters that the Apple II can display--for example, in the line-drawing character set a lowercase "x" is displayed as a vertical bar, which the emulater translates into "|". Similarly, a lowercase "n" is displayed as a cross, and the emulator simulates it by displaying "+". The problem occurrs when a spurious shift-to-line-drawing-mode command is received by the emulator (usually due to line noise or an attempt to display a non-ascii file). The emulator immediately tries to start translating lowercase letters into line-drawing characters (all the line-drawing codes are lowercase letters--uppercase letters are unchanged), even though that's not what you wanted, and you end up staring at a screen full of gibberish. I have no idea why the power switch would be the only way of correcting the problem--I would think that simply exiting the program and restarting it would be good enough. There is a way to fix the problem that's much easier and less painful than restarting the program or hitting the power switch. On your VAX, create a file with the following characters in it: Escape ( A Escape ) A control-N ("Escape" means the ESCAPE key, NOT the letters E, s, c, etc. The spaces in the above line are for readability only--they should NOT be entered into the file.) Then, when the problem strikes again, TYPE the file (if your VAX is running VMS) or cat it (if it's running UNIX), and your subsequent output should be magically restored to legibility. You may be interested to know that this problem isn't limited to Apple II's emulating VT-100's. Every now and then somebody on our local VMS system tries to type something like "PRINT/QUEUE=LP$CC105 FOO.EXE". Since .EXE files on VMS rarely consist solely of ASCII characters, this generally has the effect of making the printer form-feed fifty pages at once and enter Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics Mode. >Henry - Neil Parker -- Neil Parker No cute ASCII art...no cute quote...no cute parkern@jacobs.cs.orst.edu disclaimer...no deposit, no return... parker@corona.uoregon.edu (This space intentionally left blank: )