Section Eight - The Terminal

The Terminal application provides communicating to another device over the RS232 serial line using the Digital VT52 standard protocol.

The Terminal can be entered from the Index APPLICATIONS menu, or by typing V.

Terminal - Main Display

The keys typed on the keyboard are sent to the serial port. Some control keys, accessible from the  allow to control output on the remote computer. On the other side, characters received on the serial port are displayed on the Z88 screen and control function allow control of the Z88 screen like layout.

Serial port settings

The serial port parameters have to match on both computers. They can be configured from the panel which is entered with S; see Panel options.

Menu

Pressing the  key displays all the commands as listed below:-

Control keys

The equivalent Cambridge Z88 commands and keys for the implementation of the VT52 control keys are shown in the following table, together with a list of the codes transmitted: 

CommandSymbolEffectCodes sent

DELRubout127

BSBackspace8
GBELRing terminal bell7
HBSBackspace8
IHTHorizontal tabulation9
JLFLine feed10
LFFForm feed, clear screen and home cursor12
MCRCarriage return13
NSOShift out14
OSIShift in15
QDC1 (XON)Resume transmitting17
SDC3 (XOFF)Stop transmitting19
XCANCancel or abort escape sequence24
ZSUBSame effect as CAN26
ESCEscape sequence27
 Cursor upESC A
 Cursor downESC B
  Cursor rightESC C
 Cursor leftESC D
PF1Function 1ESC ? P

PF2Function 2ESC ? Q
PF3Function 3ESC ? R
PF3Function 4ESC ? S
Additional Command
 Clear Z88 screen to start a new session 

Exit

Press  to exit the terminal and return to the Index. From the Index, move the cursor over the Terminal Suspended Activity and use the KILL command. This is the preferred option.

VT52 Control Function Summary

If the following commands are sent to the Serial Port,

their effects are as follows :

Code sentEffect
ESC ACursor up
ESC BCursor down
ESC CCursor right
ESC DCursor left
ESC FEnable SOH
ESC GDisable SOH
ESC HCursor to home
ESC IReverse Line Feed
ESC JErase to end of screen
ESC KErase to end of line
ESC LClear screen and cursor to home
ESC Y row colCursor to (row, column)
ESC ZIdentify, Z88 responds ESC / Z

Spooling files

Material received by the Terminal application can be spooled to a file :RAM.– /S.sgn automatically by typing +S before commencing the transfer. The file will be created in temporary RAM, and should be deleted after use.

Spooling can be disabled by typing -S.

Transmitting files

A convenient way of sending a file to a remote machine is to copy the file to the :COM device.

Enter the Terminal and establish contact with the remote machine in the usual way, and then type F to go into the Filer.

Select the file you wish to transmit and then choose Copy from the Filer menu (see Section Seven - Filer Reference, for details of how to select and copy files). A dialogue box will appear. Type in :COM as the destination and press . The file will then be transmitted.

Once the transmission is over the dialogue box will disappear leaving the Filer display on the screen. You may then press to return to the Terminal.

Only works with TEXT files

Spooling or Transmitting files only work with TEXT files. If a BINARY file needs to be transferred, use Eazylink2.

web analytics