Remote PC Terminal Emulation Using the Radio Shack Model 100 with PCAnywhere (Version 2.1) DISCLAIMER: THE USER OF THIS FILE ACKNOWLEDGES THAT ALL INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THIS FILE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND THAT THE ENTIRE COSTS OF ALL NECESSARY REMEDIES IS WITH THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ACT ON SUCH INFORMATION AND NOT WITH THE AUTHOR OF THIS FILE. THE LATTER PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION SOLELY AS A PUBLIC SERVICE WITHOUT MONETARY COMPENSATION WHATEVER TO MEMBERS OF THE COMPUSERVE MODEL 100 SIG AND TO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE THE INFORMATION BELOW IS ACCURATE, BUT I HAVE MADE MISTAKES BEFORE SO USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK. Within the past year, a new software product, called PCAnywhere (Dynamic Microprocessor Associates Inc., 1986) has been introduced which is billed as allowing almost any computer or ASCII terminal to be used as a remote terminal for an IBM PC compatible computer. It accomplishes this by translating the keyboard escape sequences and screen attributes of the remote computer or terminal so as to emulate an IBM PC keyboard and display, allowing it to control most PC functions remotely over the telephone lines. Set up properly, many non-IBM compatible computer or ASCII terminals can be made to run popular but memory intensive programs such as Lotus 123, Dbase III+, Websters New World Spell Checker, Wordstar 3.3, and others. My motivation for experimenting with the PCAnywhere package was to see if this communication package could be used with the Radio Shack Model 100, equipped with Disk Video Interface, to emulate an 80X25 IBM PCXT display and/or an 80X24 ASCII terminal to run popular MSDOS programs remotely which otherwise would not run on the Model 100 due to its incompatible 8 bit Z80 based operating system and its severe memory limitations (ordinarily a max of 32 k). For this purpose, I have used the following equipment: a 32k Model 100, DVI, Worldport 1200 baud external modem & cable; Ultra Computer 640k PCXT clone equipped with 20 mb Seagate ST225 Hard disk, OMTI controller, 2400 US Robotics Direct Internal Modem; X10 remote telephone switch and remote responder. With this hardware appropriately configured to allow communication over ordinary telephone lines between the two computers, I have been able to turn my computer on and off remotely and to produce a PC emulation which seems quite adequate for my purposes. Programs for which I have obtained satisfactory results to date include Lotus 123 (version 2), Dbase III+, the Websters New World Spellchecker, File Express, Wordstar 3.3, and In Control Project Manager. Programs which have not worked satisfactorily have included all telecommunication packages as well as memory resident programs which use interupt 16 on the PCXT in a manner which is incompatible with its use in the PCAnywhere program. In this report, I will be limiting myself solely to addressing special considerations in customizing the RS Model 100/DVI combination for use as a remote terminal for a PCXT compatible computer. The reader is referred to the PCAnywhere documentation for specific instructions on the theory, operation, and use of the PCAnywhere program. In order to use the PCAnywhere communications package to configure a non MSDOS compatible computer or terminal, such as the Model 100/DVI combination, to run as a remote terminal for a PCXT compatible, you must first run the AINSTAll program remotely from the Model 100 with DVI. To do this, the M100/DVI must be able to support one of the numerous terminal emulations supported by PCAnywhere. Although this fact is nowhere documented in either the Model 100 or DVI manuals, the DVI apparently supports the DEC VT-52 terminal emulation since the major DVI escape codes correspond to all the major VT-52 escape sequences. Therefore, when running AINSTALL on your PC select the VT-52 terminal option. It is then simply a matter of entering the specific DVI screen attribute and cursor movement escape sequences from the DVI manual into the appropriate prompts from the AINSTALL program menu according to the instructions contained in the PCAnywhere manual (See addendum for the DVI Escape Codes to be used). In addition to modifying the screen attributes, I recommend modifying the prearranged PCAnywhere keyboard sequences, which are used to emulate the PC keys and key sequences, to take full advantage of preexisting keys and key sequences on the Model 100. For example, I would recommend customizing the predefined PCanywhere keyboard combinations to make full use of the pre- existing M100 cursor movement keys, which the PCanywhere AINSTALL program allows you to do in its "change keyboard sequence" option. For example, you can replace the predefined PCanywhere 3 key sequences for PgUp and PgDn to the much less awkward 2 key combinations on the Model 100 of ESC - up cursor and ESC - down cursor respectively. I also like to substitute the 2 key ESC-tab combination on the Model 100 for the predefined PCanywhere 3 key sequence in order to refresh the screen when I occasionally get garbage characters. Special consideration needs to be paid to a problem posed by the the way the Model 100 uses the 25th line (Status line) of the DVI display. Most IBM computers use 25 row displays rather than the 24 row display used by most non-IBM computers and terminals. The Radio Shack DVI does support 25 rows; however, the 25th row is typically reserved for the function key status line which you ordinarily toggle out of by depressing the "label" key. Unfortunately, simply configuring the AINSTALL program menu for 25 rows and then toggling out of the status line does not allow the DVI to function properly. Nor does configuring PCanywhere for 80 columns and 24 rows necessarily solve the problem. Apparently different MS-DOS applications write to the screen using PCanywhere in ways which use the 25th (bottom status) line very differently (sometimes even within the same application!). This often results in overwrites to the wrong line and resulting garbage on the screen. While PCAnywhere provides a screen refresh key to eliminate such garbage on the screen, this can be an annoying and time consuming inconvenience at 1200 baud, which is the baud rate I operate at for reliability. The simplest away out of this dilemna is to use a DOS shell program in running PC programs on your hard disk remotely from your M100/DVI. This apparently standardizes the screen output in applications run from the DOS shell program. I have experimented with the shareware program Hard Disk Manager II and thus far have been able to write all major applications to the DVI screen with no further difficulty. I have discovered, however, that to do this I must first toggle out of the Tandy function line before enterring the HDM2 DOS shell program. I have accomplished this by calling a batch file from the PCAnywhere initial command line which prompts for a pause in the execution of the batch file. At the pause I then toggle out of the M100 status line by depressing the label key before enterring HDMII automatically from the batch file. You might want to take this opportunity to execute a program like MJOG (memory jogger -- a calendar reminder), as I have done, before the pause command in your batch file (useful but not necessary). Other useful functions of the PCanywhere program, as implemented on the Model 100/DVI combination, include the ability to toggle between the upper 24 lines of the display and the lower 24 lines of the display where necessary for a particular application, remote printing through the serial port of the Model 100 (must use 300 baud internal modem for this), and password protection including the use of password tables so that different users may access your computer using different passwords, terminal emulators, baud rates etc. (helps for customer support). If you get disconnected in an application, PCanywhere has the ability to return you to the exact point you left off in an application before you got disconnected by dialing back in and logging back on. If you freeze up the remote keyboard, that's where the x10 remote telephone responder comes in handy for a cold boot. Although PCanywhere`s Control-Alt-Del warmboot feature does not work on the Model 100/DVI, it is a relatively simple matter to call a warm-boot utility directly from a batch file on your PC which then accomplishes the same task from the PC end. Although the PCanywhere ASEND remote file transfer program does not work with nonIBM compatible terminals, it is possible nonetheless to transfer files over the telephone lines by toggling to another communications program which contains a host mode. My personal favorite is PROCOMM 2.42 which has a host mode which supports x-modem file transfers and DOS system access. In order to get from PCanywhere to Procomm, I create a batch file which invokes another favorite IBM utility of mine called reconfigure.com. This program allows you to reconfigure your autoexec.bat and config.sys files after rebooting (warmbooting) the system. This batch file warm boots my system, reconfigures my autoexec.bat and config.sys files, and then automatically invokes PROCOMM host mode using autologon commands from within PROCOMM. I can then transfer my files between my computers, enter DOS from within PROCOMM, and then invoke a second batch command to reconfigure my system a second time to warm boot my system and return me to PCanywhere. This, of course, requires that you hang up the phone each time your reboot. To date, I have been unable to configure either the m100 or T102 alone, with or without the Ultimate ROM II 80 column emulator, to emulate satisfactorily my PCXT clone using the PCAnywhere package. Sorry, folks, but the DVI appears to be the best way to use the M100 for this purpose. I have no experience with the T200 or T600 and thus have no way of knowing if their VT-52 emulation modes might be used for this purpose. Also, I have been unable to get the VT100.100 emulator program to work properly with PCanywhere on M100 at 300 baud (lack of reverse video capability is a real drawback here). I would appreciate any comments or experiences from others in the SIG who may be experimenting along similar lines. ADDENDUM Suggested escape codes for PCanywhere AINSTALL program options using the Tandy Model 100/Disk Video Interface combination and other parameters. *Numbers given refer to ASCII equivalents of Escape codes for various screen attributes. You may want to experiment with these as I have. CURSOR UP 27 65 CURSOR DOWN 27 66 CURSOR RIGHT 27 67 CURSOR LEFT 27 68 CURSOR HOME 27 72 CURSOR SCREEN 27 106 CLEAR TO END OF LINE 27 75 CLEAR TO END OF PAGE 27 74 INSERT LINE 27 76 DELETE LINE 27 77 POSITION LEAD IN 27 89 NORMAL VIDEO 27 113 HIGHLIGHT VIDEO 27 113 REVERSE VIDEO 27 112 REVERSE HIGHLIGHT 27 112 BLINK VIDEO 27 102 BLINK/HIGHLIGHT 27 102 BLINK/REVERSE 27 102 UNDERLINE/BLINK 27 102 UNDERLINE/BLINK/HIGHLIGHT 27 102 UNDERLINE/BLINK/REVERSE 27 102 SEND ROW OR COLUMN FIRST R OFFSET ROW 32 OFFSET COLUMN 32 TERMINAL WIDTH 80 TERMINAL HEIGHT 24 TERMINAL EMULATION VT-52 Good luck! End of file