conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu (Conrad C. Nobili) (12/05/90)
In article <1990Dec4.214002.10978@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Rob Schaeffer) writes: > I am looking for a IBM 3270 terminal emulator, that works out the > modem port, not a TelNet program. For the Mac of course. Of course! :-) Get Term 4.5.1 from brownvm.brown.edu by anonymous ftp. It is written by some subset (superset? I don't feel like looking now...) of the same guys who produce tn3270 (tn3d19 now) out of NCSA Telnet. It is excellent. Because it is done by the same people there is a consistency of interface between the network product and the serial product, which is nice. The best deal is that you can also get a nice file transfer protocol implementation from brownvm to go with it. Actually, it goes with both tn3270 AND Term 4.5.1! It is very nice to be able to use the same file transfer protocol and commands whether you are at home on a serial connection or at work on a network connection. RMAC and WMAC are very nice in that they bring up all the appropriate dialogs on the Mac. Oh, yeah, WMAC also lets you print CMS files to any chooser-selected Mac printer. Definitely very useful! The WMAC and RMAC software can be installed on your VM/CMS IBM mainframe (I assume that is what you have and why you want to get a 3270 terminal emulator) pretty easily. I had very little trouble doing it, and I am certainly no VM stud. I was pretty much new to CMS at the time and only had to ask a programmer some dumb questions which I probably wouldn't need to do now. I installed the WMAC and RMAC software on our mainframe about a year ago and it has been the solution to many people's problems, especially mine. I now have a very good answer to all those annoying questions about function key assignments in Kermit, Red Ryder, zip-comm, flash-modem, byte-blaster, and all the other disreputable packages you can imagine. I also have a very good answer to complaints about slow, inefficient file transfer protocols. I have not benchmarked WMAC and RMAC myself, but a user who seemed to be enough of a weenie :-) to know the difference told me that it is pretty fast (i.e. much faster than the old version of Kermit he was using). The reason Term can solve all these support headaches is that one can GIVE it to people (read the copyright statement or whatever it has though, I don't have it in front of me right now)! I have always hated telling people that the best answer to their problem is going to cost them lots of money. I guess I most hate it because they are somewhat justified in demanding that I solve their problem with what they already own. They've got no argument with a free best solution though. I don't really mean that Kermit is disreputable as I said above.... Kermit is a wonderful thing, but unless one is inclined to figure out how to map the keys it stinks for talking to a VM/CMS machine. I posted this because I thought other people besides Rob would be interested, and that some people who already have Term might not have known about RMAC and WMAC. Hope it's been of some use.... --Conrad C o n r a d C . N o b i l i Harvard University | Internet: conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu Office for Information Technology | BITNET: CONRAD AT HARVARDA Information Services | voice: (617) 495-8554 Technical and User Services | fax: (617) 495-0715 < < < D i s c l a i m e r > > >
robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Rob Schaeffer) (12/05/90)
I am looking for a IBM 3270 terminal emulator, that works out the
modem port, not a TelNet program. For the Mac of course.
Thanks
--
robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu
"My God, [static] it's full of [static] toasters..."
-- 2001, A Hardware Odysseyyossie@fnal.fnal.gov (Yossie Silverman) (12/06/90)
In article <1990Dec4.214002.10978@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Rob Schaeffer) writes: > I am looking for a IBM 3270 terminal emulator, that works out the > modem port, not a TelNet program. For the Mac of course. As mentioned in a previous article, TERM is the solution to all your problems. TERM emulates a TVI950 terminal (chosen because it has the shortest escape sequences of the standard 7171 terminals). All 3270 functions are availble under it. It has all the standard terminal program features (dialout, minimal macro support, text capture). TERM also has an incredible file xfer protocol. Coupled with three products on the VM side (WMAC, RMAC, and BINHEX) it rivals ZTerm for speed and convenience! BINHEX will convert between HQX and MacBin formats. It will check that the file is legal Binhex. It will compute the amount of time necessary to download it (via WMAC) at any given line speed. It is BLINDINGLY fast (on a 3090 it can convert from MacBin to HQX at the rate of around a Meg/second!) WMAC will write a file to the Mac. TERM automatically detects the attempt to store a file and pops up a dialog to ask where (you can include the option NOMENU on the WMAC command to prevent even this, I.e. store the file in the current directory). File transfer can be done in ASCII or MACBIN or BINARY formats. WMAC can also send the file directly to the current printer and thus allow your Mac printer to be used in passthru mode (ala VT100). RMAC will read a file (causing a MENU to pop up on the mac). Unfortunately RMAC can only read ASCII files (unless something has changed very recently). The speeds I recall were in the 100 CPS at 1200 range. The two commands (RMAC, and WMAC) work with TN3270 as well (only MUCH faster :-) ANONYMOUS FTP into BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU will give you access to all the different files that this package consists of (some for VM, some for Mac). Happy hunting! - Yossie --- yossie@fnal.fnal.gov; yossie@fnccf.bitnet What did the Caspian Sea? - Saki
rpcfod@uarthur.UUCP (Robert Patt-Corner) (12/07/90)
In article <4920@husc6.harvard.edu>, conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu (Conrad C. Nobili) writes: > In article <1990Dec4.214002.10978@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu > (Rob Schaeffer) writes: > > I installed the WMAC and RMAC software on our mainframe about a year ago > and it has been the solution to many people's problems, especially mine. I'll second that ... we're just bringing tn3270 from Brown out of "institutionalbeta" with the WMAC/RMAC and have rarely seen such a fine piece of work. It's aan interesting note when Public Domain software seems to exceed the quality of a lot of commercial work. Reassured to see you feel the same way after a year ...
bschmidt@bnr.ca (Ben Schmidt) (12/10/90)
In article <34@uarthur.UUCP> rpcfod@uarthur.UUCP (Robert Patt-Corner) writes: > In article <4920@husc6.harvard.edu>, conrad@harvarda.harvard.edu (Conrad C. Nobili) writes: > > In article <1990Dec4.214002.10978@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> robs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu > > (Rob Schaeffer) writes: > > > > I installed the WMAC and RMAC software on our mainframe about a year ago > > and it has been the solution to many people's problems, especially mine. > > I'll second that ... we're just bringing tn3270 from Brown out of "institutionalbeta" with the WMAC/RMAC and have rarely seen such a fine piece of work. It's aan interesting note when Public Domain software seems to exceed the quality of > a lot of commercial work. Peter diCamillo at Brown University has done an excellent job. IF you are using VM and Macs, you owe it to yourself to look at WMAC and RMAC. Ben Schmidt Bell-Northern Research, Ltd. Ph: (613) 763-3906 Information P.O. Box 3511, Station C FAX:(613) 763-3283 Technology Ottawa Canada K1Y 4H7 bschmidt@bnr.ca