                              FT11/CMD
                        Documentation Short File
                     Copyright 1986,87 by Mel Patrick


Unlike previous versions of FastTerm, this version will not have a full manual
for you to download and read. There are a number of reasons for this, but the
first and foremost being that the manual is simply too big for most word
processors and the graphics throughout the manual can not be displayed on the
low resolution TRS-80 video. At present the file for the manual is around
140K and that is without any graphic images. There is almost 80K of graphic
window images to add to that total. Downloading this would be totally
impractical. It would cost you more in connect charges than it would to
simply support the shareware product. Supporters automatically receive a
PRINTED manual and disk with the most current version their cheque or money
order is received. 

This short manual will simply highlight on the functions of FastTerm without
going into too much depth. The manual which all supporters receive on the
other hand is very detailed with many sections specifically relating to any
kind of problems you may have.


Program Changes for Version 10R
-------------------------------
With this version, there have been a number of changes. Most have been
requested by the registered users of FastTerm.

- New larger TEXT buffer. FastTerm now has 85K of buffer space if you have
  a 128K RAM addition and are not using the alternate banks of memory.

- On Screen Buffer size indicator. FastTerm now shows the remaining room left
  in the buffer as you communicate.

- FastTerm now supports YMODEM for those systems which can support it. This is
  in addition to the normal XMODEM. Both Checksum and CRC modes are supported
  in xmodem, CRC only in Ymodem.

- SMART VIEW Modes. You can now view the TEXT buffer (all 85K) without losing
  the original screen you were working on. Pause during scroll still active.

- Additional Baud Rates. Many extra baud rates have been added to FastTerm
  to allow those with laptops to communicate faster where permitted.

- VIDEO BUFFER! Now instead of losing items which scroll off your screen, you
  can recall up to 2 full video pages (providing 2400 baud or lower). Then
  return to the original screen and resume communications.

- BUILD COMMAND for the DIALER window. Now a simple, "answer the question"
  entry mode for building dialer entries. All you have to do is answer the
  simple prompts and FASTTERM will BUILD the dialer string for you. No more
  looking at the manual trying to figure out what comes next.

-SPLIT SCREEN for the communications sessions on CIS or GEnie. You can view
 the information coming in on the bottom of the video display and type without
 interuption in the top part of the window. All functions such as video scroll
 still function normally! Also user selectable auto send on type window full!

- AUTO COST OUPUT. Now when the carrier is lost (or terminated) during a
  session, you have the option of writing the toll charges to a disk file.
  This will enable to check all those charges on your long distance calls.
  Manual writing to cost file still available.

- DIALER and MACRO lists LINKED! FastTerm will now automatically switch to
  the same page in the Macro window, when you are working on any given page
  in the dialer window (and vice-versa). This makes it a lot easier now to
  find which macros link with which dialer entries.

- EXAMPLES!!!! FastTerm manual now contains many examples of how to set up
  auto log on strings and dialer entries for various modems. Complete info
  on how to use it with Compuserve.

- SEMI-TERMINAL EMULATION. FastTerm will now emulate a TTY terminal (what you
  are probably most used to), VIDTEX to work with Compuserve, and a VT100.

- Whole chapter on customizing parts of FastTerm for your own applications.

------------------------------

Short Manual....on command keys.

F1            - invoke the window menus
SHFT F1       - invoke the emulator window
F2            - strip incoming LF's
SHFT F2       - toggle LF + CR to remote
F3            - toggle bell sound on/off
BREAK         - exit to TRS/LS DOS Ready
SHFT CLEAR    - restore screen display to default
UP ARROW      - invoke video scroll option
LEFT ARROW    - move one window menu to the left
RIGHT ARROW   - move one window menu to the right
CLEAR 1..9    - send macro definiton 1-9
CLEAR U       - select UART menu
CLEAR B       - select BUFFER menu
CLEAR E       - select ECHO menu
CLEAR D       - select DIALER menu
CLEAR M       - select MACRO menu
CLEAR L       - select LIBRARY menu
CLEAR T       - select TRANSFER menu
CLEAR S       - disable COST timer
CLEAR A       - Disable Auto Logon String
CLEAR C       - Capture screen in Buffer
CLEAR F       - Toggle cost charges ON/OFF
CLEAR G       - toggle buffer OPEN/CLOSE
CLEAR H       - fast disconnect using DTR signal line
CLEAR K       - toggle clock dislay on/off
CLEAR O       - output cost displayed to disk file
CLEAR P       - toggle printer output on/off
CLEAR Q       - abort printer output, cancel buffer info
CLEAR R       - reset elapsed time, or charges
CLEAR V       - toggle SPLIT SCREEN mode on/off
CLEAR X       - append incoming info to BUFFER
CLEAR Z       - toggle cursor on/off

Some of these items may not work exactly as you might expect, but the manual
clearly provides details and gives examples on most of the features.

In window menus, press the letter which resides within the [ ] signs.

--------------------------------------------

Should you already be a registered owner of FastTerm, you can obtain the new
version and manual by sending $8.00 to the author directly. If you prefer the
manual only it can obtained for $6.00.

Unregistered users the registration fee is $15.00 and you will receive a
printed manual, and diskette in the mail within 3 weeks.

---------------------------------------------

Any questions regarding FastTerm can be sent either in writing to the author
or you may call his BBS system.

FastMaster BBS - 300/1200, 8 bit word, 1 stop, no parity, (604) 594-7398
                                 or
     Mel Patrick : 13699 70A Ave. : Surrey, B.C. : Canada : V3W 2J8

---------------------------------------------
New Dial item for Version 10, Release 10 (FT10R10) or newer should that happen
again (never finish a program sometimes).

When the dialer menu is active, you can now select MORE THAN ONE NUMBER TO
DIAL! Although it is not shown on the menu (for lack of room), the process
will be outlined here.

Press <M> from the dail window to invoke the MULTI-DIAL mode.

Press the number(s) of the dial definitions you want to dial and a > will be
displayed beside that number. You may have up to 9 numbers selected using
this method.

Once you have selected all the numbers you want to dial, you have two choices
to continue. If you press [ENTER] you will simply dial all the numbers in the
same order as you selected them.

If you press [R], you will continue to dial the selected numbers (in the same
order as they were entered), but it will continue to redial those numbers until
the REDIAL LIMIT is reached.

Should a connection be made, the window will disappear and the word CONNECTED
will appear on your screen, along with the number dialed, and
any ASCII comments you had on the end of the dial definition. This will help
when you have a few numbers selected and it manages to connect to one of them
without you noticing it.

During the selection mode, if you have made an error and not pressed [ENTER] or
[R] yet, you may UNSELECT a number by selecting the same number again. It will
cause the '>' sign to erase beside the dial line to indicate this.

You can not select a dial line which has not been defined.

During the process, should you get any invalid inputs, like selecting the same
number twice, you will get some "beeps" from the internal sound board.

This routine has been extensively tested on both a Hayes and Hayes compatible
modem with no problems at all. However, with Radio Shack modems this may
prove to be a different story. Due to the fact that RS modems have very poor
response time and a silly abort character, it usually makes them fairly
inadequate for features like this. If you get it to work with your RS modem
let me what kind you have so I can keep track of it.

----------------------------------------------------------- Mel Patrick -----
More release news. Version FT10R11 now has an additional MENU SELECTION to
enable you to select items which you can never remember the key combinations
for.

To enable/disable the special menu selection window, press the [SHIFT F3] keys.
The [F1] key is still used to display a window but depending on the mode you
are in, you will either get the normal windows, or the special menu select
window. The menu select window contains all the windows, terminal codes, and
function key lists and commands. Simply press the letter within the <> signs
and that command will be executed (with a normal return to the terminal or
communications window).

Since this mode when in effect is quite visual, there is no screen indicator
to inform you which mode you are in. Just press the F1 and its apparent.

My thanks to the two supporters who suggested this enhancement.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------



******************************* TA DA. VERSION 11 ****************************
Many things have been changed, and some bugs have been fixed (and thanks to
those who found them and provided me with something to do in my "spare" time).

Viewing the buffer has been changed now. If you like you can SCROLL one line
at a time by using the DOWN ARROW after selecting VIEW BUFFER from the BUFFER
WINDOW MENU. If you want to scroll a page at a time, use the SPACE bar. A
graphic line will appear when you reach the end of the document.

The BUG (ugly things) which happened to appear when you select (first time
ONLY) an INVALID filename for transfer (causing the thing to lock up) has been
found and fixed. Don't know how that one managed to sneak by but all previous
versions had it. This one handles it correctly.

Next "BUG" (we programmers call those features) was in the DIAL MENU. If you
selected any page other than 0 without ever switching to the MACRO window
menu, it would send out the wrong MACRO definition. Which means that if you
sent the 0 entry of PAGE 3 of the phone list, it could send out the Macro from
PAGE 1 of the macro list. This has been corrected so that one tracks the
other and this will not happen again.

VT100. Sigh. It has been changed now that enough users have requested it.
Hopefully this will work out for them and I'll recover some of my time in
additional registrations. Anyways, VT100 mode now uses the FULL SCREEN. Which
means that it will allow you guys 80 x 24 with no menu limits like before. It
was tough making it all work but it works to the best that I can test it. I
also added some more VT100 support codes for cursor positioning, and video
control. I also added the KEYPAD APPLICATIONS 0-9, DASH, COMMA, PERIOD, and
ENTER. I also added the Program Functions 1-4. That's all I have so I hope
you aren't using a system which has more. The keymap has been changed to
handle all this new stuff (and you lost about 2K of buffer cause of the
extra codes). Below is a list of the new command codes : (remember you have to
be in the VT100 mode!) :

Keypad Application Mode 0 ---------------------- CLEAR 0
                        1 ---------------------- CLEAR 1
                        2 ---------------------- CLEAR 2
                        3 ---------------------- CLEAR 3
                        4 ---------------------- CLEAR 4
                        5 ---------------------- CLEAR 5
                        6 ---------------------- CLEAR 6
                        7 ---------------------- CLEAR 7
                        8 ---------------------- CLEAR 8
                        9 ---------------------- CLEAR 9

Keypad Application mode DASH ------------------- CLEAR SHIFT 1
                        COMMA ------------------ CLEAR SHIFT 2
                        PERIOD ----------------- CLEAR SHIFT 3
                        ENTER ------------------ CLEAR SHIFT 4

Program Function 1 (PF1) ----------------------- CLEAR SHIFT 5
                 2 (PF2) ----------------------- CLEAR SHIFT 6
                 3 (PF3) ----------------------- CLEAR SHIFT 7
                 4 (PF4) ----------------------- CLEAR SHIFT 8

A note on these CLEAR SHIFT, make sure you press the CLEAR KEY FIRST! If you
press the SHIFT CLEAR, you'll get the screen cleared. MUST be CLEAR then
SHIFT and then the number of the function you want.

As I mentioned, I have tested these functions as fully as I can. Our local
IBM system decided to restrict all access so that I can no longer test
the VT100 protocols. Hence it MAY or MAY NOT work on your mainframe but
give it a try anyway. I have done some extensive testing on OPUS (IBM PC)
boards and the message entry is like using WordStar, but it works fine.
Probably because the IBM uses a subset of ANSI which is sort of like VT100
in many respects.

The screen lines have also been changed so that when you select different
types of emulation (such at this VT100), you are presented with either a
full screen to work with, or in the case of TTY or VIDTEX, a normal screen
with the menu bars.

The next item changed has been the CTRL K. To scroll back the screen capture
buffer you normally pressed the UP ARROW. This was fine for most of us but
there are some who required a CTRL K (which is the same code as UP ARROW). I
have done some work on this, and you may now use both. ie. you can use CTRL K
when you need it and also you need only press the UP ARROW to recall the
video scroll buffer. The two will work properly with each other will affect
the others function.

Well that's it so far for VERSION 11.0. I have some futher ideas to add yet
but they are going to take more time and as we all know there is never enough
time.

*****************************************************************************
