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From: ss%uucp@bloom-picayune.mit.edu
Subject: ANNOUNCE: Seyon 1.8 (X-based telecom program)
Message-ID: <1993Jan12.232757.14797@klaava.Helsinki.FI>
Followup-To: comp.windows.x.apps
Summary: version 1.8 is out
Keywords: X telecomm Windows Seyon comm
Sender: wirzeniu@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Lars Wirzenius)
Organization: MIT
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 23:27:57 GMT
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Lars Wirzenius)
Lines: 183
Version 1.8 of Seyon is released. You can get it from sipb.mit.edu
(/pub/seyon) and export.lcs.mit.edu (as well as linux ftp sites:
nic.funet.fi and sunsite.unc.edu). The beta version of this release
was reported to run on many Unix platforms: Linux, SVR4, SVR3.2,
Ultrix 4.2, SunOS 4.1, Domain/OS-12 (Apollo), and 386BSD. (I
personally verified that it compiles "out of the box" on linux, Ultrix
(cc and gcc), and 386BSD (thanks to ref.tfs.com). Please read the
change log, as this release has many added features and ones that have
changed from the previous version. This release has a more complete
manual page that I have put a lot of effort into making as accurate
and up-to-date as possible, so please take a look at it.
The following is an introduction to Seyon, then the change log.
Introduction:
=============
Seyon is a complete full-featured telecommunications package for
the X Window System. Some of its features are:
Dialing directory that supports an unlimited number of entries.
The directory is fully mouse-driven and features call progress
monitoring, dial timeout, automatic redial, multi-number dialing,
and circular redial queue. Each item in the dialing directory can
be configured with its own baud rate, bit mask, and script file.
The dialing directory uses a plain-text phone book that can be
edited from withen Seyon. Seyon also supports manual dialing.
Terminal emulation window supporting DEC VT02, Tektronix 4014, and
ANSI. Seyon delegates its terminal emulation to xterm, so all the
familiar xterm functions such as the scroll-back buffer,
cut-and-paste utility, and visual bell are availabe through
Seyon's terminal emulation window. Using xterm also means that
Seyon has a more complete emulation of VT102 than other any Unix
or DOS telecommunications program. Other terminal emulation
programs can also be used with Seyon to suit the user's need; for
example, color xterm can be used to provide emulation for color
ANSI (popular on many BBS systems), and xvt can be used if memory
is a bit tight.
Script language to automate tedious tasks such as logging into
remote hosts. Seyon's script interpreter uses plain-text files and
has a syntax similar to that of sh, with a few extra addtions. It
supports many familiar statements such as conditional branching by
if-else and looping by goto. Scripts may be assigned to items in
the dialing directory for automatic execution after a connection
is made.
Unlimited number of slots for external file transfer protocols.
Protocols are activated from a mouse-driven transfer console that
uses a plain-text file, editable from withen Seyon, for protocol
configuration. Seyon prompts the user for filenames only if the
chosen protocol requires filenames or if the transfer operation is
an upload, for which Seyon also accepts wildcards. Multiple
download directories can be specified for the different transfer
slots.
Support for zmodem auto-download. Seyon detects incoming zmodem
signature and automatically activates a user-specified zmodem
protocol to receive incoming files. Zmodem transfers can thus be
completely automatic and require no user intervention.
Translation modes. Seyon can perfrom useful trasnlations on the
user's input. From example, Seyon can translate backspace to
delete (useful on may Unix systems), newline to carriage return
(useful on many BBS hosts), and my favorite, meta key tranlation:
to send keys pressed while the meta (ALT) key is held down as an
escape (ESC) followed by the key press. The latter mode simulates
the meta key on hosts that do not support 8-bit-clean connections
and makes possible the use of the meta key in programs like Emacs
on such hosts.
Other features: interactive setting of program parameters, on-line
help, software (XONN/XOFF) and hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control,
session capture to a file, and temporary running of a local shell
in the terminal emulation window.
Seyon is intended to be both simple and extensively configurable.
Almost every aspect of Seyon can be configured via the resources
to suit the user's taste.
Changes:
========
Version 1.8:
* The transfer window has been completely revamped, just like the
dialing directory (see below). Only the protocol titles now
appear in the window (those can be as descriptive as you like).
* Since the dialing directory and transfer console no longer show
the actual phone and protcols files but only a pretty summary,
the syntax of those files has been made much more flexible. They
now accept whole-line comments and blank lines, so you can put
as much comments there as you like. Examples are provided.
* Provided examples for the phone and protocols files with
extensive documentation (thanks to the new syntax fexibility).
Please look at them to take full advantage of the convenience
they provide.
* The dialing directory have been completely revamped. No more
ugly keywords on the display, replaced by a standard, concise,
and informative dialing directory. The keywords still work of
course, it's just that you see only their summary on the dialing
directory, rather than the phone file syntax itself.
* For the new dialing directroy, added the resource dialDirFormat.
This is a string that specifies the format of the dialing
direcotry. The default is '%-15s %-15s %6s %1c%1c%1c %1c%1c %s'.
Briefly: the fields represent the host name, number, the baud
rate, bits, parity, stop bits, whether there is a custom prefix,
suffix, and the script name. You can understand more what each
field refers to by comparing with dialing directory, fields that
use the current setting (via the keyword CURRENT) are designated
by a question mark. Notice that you cannot change the order the
items in the dialing directory appear at, only the format. For
example, since the numbers I call are all 7-digits, my host
names are short, and I never use baud rates above 9600, my own
format string is %-10s %-8s %5s-%1c-%1c-%1c %1c%1c %s, the
default is just too wide for my taste, and I like dashes between
the bits, parity, ans stop bits fields.
* Renamed the resources dialAutoOpen and dialAutoClose to
dialDirAutoOpen and dialDirAutoClose, respectively, to reflect
their functions more precisely.
* Add an important feature: the ability to completely specify the
communication parameters by number of bits (charcter size),
parity, and stop bits. Like eeverything else in Seyon, you can
set those in about a half dozen ways. First, the resources
defaultBIts (default is 8, valid arguments are 5, 6, 7, and 8),
defaultParity (default is 0, valid arguments are 0 (no parity),
1 (odd parity), and 2 (even parity), and defaultStopBits
(defaults is 1, valid arguments are 1 and 2). You can set them
in a script through the keywords bits (e.g. set bits 8), parity,
and stopBits. You can also set them in the dialing directory by
specifying the fileds BITS, PARITY, and STOPB (you can also give
the argument 'CURRENT' to those fields. Finally, you can set
them interactively under the settings window (in two ways,either
directly or via a short cut).
* The resource sevenBitMask and the script keyword 7bit are gone.
they superseded by the above.
* Added a new button: 'About'. Among other things it tells you
exactly what revision number of Seyon you're using. The help
button is moved under About.
* Some cosmetic changes; for example, Seyon messages in the status
area are now centered.
* Added support for fallback resources. Seyon no longer need its
app-defaults file except for color (using color in fallback is
not a good idea).
* Added a new button under the 'Misc' window: Suspend. This just
suspends the terminal and runs a local shell in the terminal
window.
* Seyon now supports two new speeds: 56700 and 115200 bps. This is
avialable only for linux, as there is no portable way of doing
it. This feature is not guaranteed to stay.
* Added a new script command: send_break. Should be obvious what
it does.
* Fixed a nasty bug (race condition) when Seyon is invoked with
the -script switch. That should work fine now.
* New resource: dialAutoOpen. If set to on, the dialing directory
is automatically poped up when Seyon is started.
* The resource funMessages is now used to specify the messages
only. Use the new resource showFunMessages to enable or disble
the display of those messages (defaults to on).
* Added a new feature: the ability to send a string when the
session (user's input to the terminal) is idle longer than a
specicified amout onf time. The string is sent automatically at
that regular interval to keep the session alive (e.g. avoid
auto-logout). The resources governing this feature are:
idleGuard (default is off), idleGaurdInterval(default is 300
seconds), and idleGuardString (default is " ^H", i.e. space then
backspace). The corresponing script keyword is idleGuard (you
can only enable or disable it in a script). The string is sent
with the current translations, so it would be <Spc><del> if
backspaceTranslation is on.
* You can now put '~' in 'transmit' to effect a pause of 1 second,
i.e. transmit "ATZ~~ATS0=0" is equivalent to
transmit "ATZ"
pause 2
transmit "ATS0=0"
* Changed the default color for toggles to look better with Xaw3d.
If you're not using Xaw3d, I advice to get it and link Seyon
with. Seyon looks much "cooler" with Xaw3d.
Have fun,
/Muhammad M. Saggaf | Stop the genocide
alsaggaf@athena.mit.edu | Save Bosnia