313 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
313 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
Pocket Packet for the Psion Revo
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Version 5.04, February 2001.
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This is simply a port of the Series 5 version to the Revo. There may be
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some problems - I don't have a Revo to test it on, I used the Revo
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Emulator and a Series 5mx.
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Installation
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This version of PocPac is supplied as a SIS file.
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Installation of a SIS file is very simple. If you are using PsiWin 2.1 or
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later, simply couple up your Revo to your PC, and double click PP.SIS
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in Windows Explorer. If you do not have SystInfo.opx installed to your
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Revo, you must add this in the same way. If you are not sure about this,
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it is quite safe to install both PP.SIS and SystInfo.SIS.
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At this point it is probably a good idea to decide where you wish to keep your
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captured data, and any files you wish to keep. For example, you could make a
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directory called C:\Packet to keep all your captured files.
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You can then start PocPac by tapping the Extras icon and selecting PocPac.
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The Revo screen can display 80 characters across it, although these are
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rather small and may be difficult to read. The program may start with a dialog
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which allows you to select one of three options, these being:
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Courier 8 80 chars
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Courier 8 Bold 80 chars Bold
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Courier 11 68 chars
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The first time PocPac is run, it will write a file called PP.INI in the folder
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it is run from. It is possible that you will see a dialog asking for a path
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for sending files from (the send path), and a further dialog requesting the
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path to capture data to (the capture path). You can use these file selectors
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in the usual manner, e.g. pressing the left and right arrow keys will cycle
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through all the possible folders. As I said above, it is a good idea to keep
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a special folder(s) for captured data and files you wish to send. If you have
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not created these yet, select any folder, e.g. \Documents - you can change
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this setting later.
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When PocPac has configured itself, you will see a message like:
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PocPac Ready!
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What is PocPac?
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PocPac is a simple split screen terminal for driving a Packet Radio TNC. It
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requires a TNC with Command and Converse modes, e.g. a Tiny 2 or KPC3 or
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similar. It does not work in HOST or KISS mode.
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It is able to capture incoming text and send text files. It doesn't do YAPP,
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although it should handle near-binary files like 7plus with no problems. For
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the latter, the communication between PocPac and your TNC should be set to 8
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bit no parity, preferably RTS/CTS handshaking, which are preferable settings
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anyway.
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The facilities provided here are identical to those available in PocPac
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5.04 for the Series 5.
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Connection to the TNC
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The first point to mention is that is is a good idea to run your Revo
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from the mains adaptor while using packet. Of course this is not essential,
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but it enables you to use the most beneficial auto switch-off setting, which
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is "If No External Power" (this is selected from the Revo Control Panel).
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Otherwise it is probably a good compromise to set the auto switch-off to
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about 10 minutes or more, the idea being to avoid the Revo turning off
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during a packet session.
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If it does turn off, just turn it on as usual. In some instances there may be
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garbled text, in such cases select Restore from PocPacs File menu, which
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should reset the comms port.
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The Psion serial lead is terminated with a 9 pin D type female connector, and
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TNC's are usually fitted with a 25 pin D type female connection. This means
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an adaptor is required, which should be a "null-modem" type. If you make up
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your own, the wiring should be something like this:
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Name Psion TNC
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RxD 2 2
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TxD 3 3
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RTS 7 5
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CTS 8 4
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GND 5 7
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Your TNC may be slightly different, so remember that the Psion connection is
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designed to plug into a PC serial port, so you will to reverse the data and
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handshake connections compared to that required to wire a TNC to a PC.
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The Keys
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PocPac Revo functions are operated from both the keyboard and the menu, mostly
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the latter. Since there is no Psion key (as on the Series 3a/c), the Control
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key is used as a modifier. This clashes with some packet commands, but is
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consistent with Revo practice.
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The following "Hot Key" commands are available from the keyboard:
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Ctrl-B Sends "C station" where station is the first callsign in the connect
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directory.
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Ctrl-C Sends Control-C straight to the TNC to select command mode. Any text
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in the type-ahead buffer is not affected.
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Ctrl-D Brings up the Connect directory, and sends "C station" to the callsign
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selected.
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Ctrl-E Exits PocPac.
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Ctrl-L Opens or closes the capture file. This is a toggle. If there is no capture
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file, one is created in the form MMMDD.CAP where MMM is the month, and DD
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the day. If such a file for the current date exists, any subsequent use of
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Ctrl-L will append text to this file. There is a maximum size of data which
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can be captured in one PocPac session, this is set to about 500 kbytes. This
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can be exceeded by stopping and starting PocPac on the same day. The
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intention of a limit is to prevent the accidental filling of the Series 5
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memory due to leaving capture active.
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The status bar shows whether text is being captured or not.
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Ctrl-T Brings up the Send File dialog. Here you may select whether to send a
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footer file or not. If you choose to send a footer, a Ctrl-Z will be
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appended (to terminate a BBS transfer).
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Ctrl-U Sends a DA command to the TNC to synchronise Revo and TNC clocks.
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Ctrl-Y Clears the type-ahead buffer.
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Ctrl-Z Puts a Control-Z in the type-ahead buffer, like any other text character.
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Unfortunately the Psion fonts do not show this character, so it may remain
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invisible.
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The following editing keys work on the keyboard buffer:
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Home Moves cursor to the "home" position.
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End Moves cursor to the "end" position.
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Left Arrow Moves cursor one character left.
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Right Arrow Moves cursor one character right.
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Up Arrow Scrolls through the history buffer.
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Down Arrow Scrolls through the history buffer.
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Ctrl-Y Clears the current line.
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The Menu
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The following menu commands are available if the Menu key is pressed. (Note
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that the shortcuts shown do not necessarily work unless the menu is displayed,
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only those shown in the section above work from the terminal.)
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File menu:
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Save Saves the current configuration settings.
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Use Uses the current settings, without saving them.
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Restore Restores the settings in the PP.INI file, and resets the serial port.
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Quit Exits PocPac.
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Edit menu:
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Footer Edits the footer file, which is called PPFOOTER and kept in the
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Send Path folder.
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Create Text File This prompts for a file name, creates the file, and
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opens the editor.
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Open Text File This opens an existing text file for editing.
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Connect Directory This allows the connect directory to be changed.
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Pressing Enter saves the directory.
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Capture Path Here a file selector allows you to choose an existing directory
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in which your captured text is kept.
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Send Path As above, except this is where your files for sending are kept.
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Set Word Wrap This sets the length at which automatic wrap occurs. At
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the first space after this, the current text is sent, and the
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cursors starts a new line.
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Port menu:
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Baud Rate
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Word Length
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Parity
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Handshake
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A bullet marker selection of the most common parameters are provided. While
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these settings are chosen, the menu will not disappear until Save or Use is
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selected.
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Connect menu:
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Connect "BBS" Here a connect to the station shown as "BBS" is initiated.
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Identical to Ctrl-B.
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Connect Directory This enables you to choose a station to connect to.
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Identical to Ctrl-D.
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Transfers menu:
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Capture Data Here you can select text capture, identical to Ctrl-L.
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Send File This brings up the send file menu, identical to Ctrl-T
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View Text File A viewer which enables files up to 30k in the Capture folder
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to be read. Pressing Esc exits the viewer.
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Special menu:
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Echo On When selected (marked with a tick), PocPac echos the text sent
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to your TNC.
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The Text editor and viewer.
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These are simple affairs which allow text files to be created, edited or viewed.
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For the footer, there is a limit of 1,000 bytes. For the creation and editing
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of text files for sending, there is a limit of 5,000 bytes (the normal maximum
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for packet). The viewer allows files of up to 30,000 bytes to be viewed (not
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edited).
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Most normal editing controls work in the editors/viewer - also you can cut
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and paste between the editor/viewer and other applications. The editor/viewer
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wraps between about 60 and 70 characters without inserting CR/LF characters,
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so you can press enter at the end of each line if you wish to create lines
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of fixed length (not essential for packet).
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You save the text in the editors by pressing the Save button. Pressing the
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Cancel button, or the Esc key will exit without saving. The latter applies
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to the viewer.
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The editors are very simple, and take varying times to load. This is not
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related to file size, and seems to be a characteristic of the dialog used
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for this purpose. For example, a 1,300 byte file takes longer to load than
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a 2,000 or 28,000 byte file!
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The Display
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Firstly note that PC line graphics are not displayed by the built-in fonts.
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To view these graphics, you will have to transfer the file to a PC and use
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a DOS font, or MS LineDraw font to view them. Later versions of PocPac may be
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able to load a custom font to display these graphics. Also note that Ctrl-Z
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does not always show up on the display, although the character works normally!
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The author feels that any packet terminal should show only data from the
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TNC, i.e. the TNC should be set to ECHO ON. However PocPac can be set to echo
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text sent to your TNC. This can be achieved by setting Echo On from the
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Special menu.
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TNC Settings
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The communications settings may be set from the Port menu.
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PocPac does not send any line feeds to the TNC, which does not require them.
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Also it does not add them to incoming text. Set LFADD OFF and AUTOLF ON.
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Check that the TNC filters out incoming line feeds, you may need to set
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LFSUP ON to remove these.
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Type-ahead
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PocPac uses a type-ahead buffer - text you type will appear in the lower
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window and will not be sent to the TNC unless you either press Enter, or
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PocPac wordwraps. Word wrap will occur when you press the space bar after
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68 letters have been typed. This threshold can be altered if desired, using
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the Edit menu.
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If wordwrap occurs, a CR will be appended to the text sent to the TNC. Some
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BBSs cannot handle long lines of text. If you press Control-C (for TNC Command
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Mode) this command bypasses the type-ahead and goes straight to the TNC.
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The last 5 lines sent (using Enter) are saved, and can be recalled by
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pressing Up or DownArrow. They can be edited and sent again if required.
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Control-Y deletes all you have typed on the current line.
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You can edit the current line using the arrow and delete keys - you can
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alter text anywhere in the current line. HOME and END have their usual
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WP meaning.
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Scrollback.
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Press PgUp to activate the scrollback windows. You can then move between
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the pages using UpArrow and DownArrow (or PgUp and PgDn). Press Esc to exit
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scrollback.
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While you are viewing scrollback, you can still type into the type-ahead. All
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letter keys and editing keys still work, as does Enter. Thus you can view a
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list from a BBS and type the message numbers you wish to read. When you press
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Enter, the line is sent, but scrollback is still active. Press Esc to return
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to the main window.
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If you leave scrollback active for 2 minutes without doing anything, it will
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cancel automatically.
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Problems
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When you have finished using PocPac it is wise to quit the application.
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Do not leave PocPac running in the background with your TNC disconnected
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or switched off.
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Registration
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There is no charge for using PocPac, but I would be grateful if users send me
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a message by internet, or post, telling me that they are using the
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program.
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Pocket Packet can normally be found at http://www.g0hzk.co.uk
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Registrations, bug reports, wishlists, etc. to:-
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Roger Muggleton
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Internet: hzk@cix.co.uk
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Post: I am Qthr.
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Phone: +44 (0)1753 811918 (1900-2100 UTC only!)
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