An Introduction To TalkThru For OS/2 Version 2.3 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Product Overview 2. Product Description 2.1 Terminal Emulation 2.2 Emulator Screen Buttons 2.3 Drag And Drop 2.4 The Phone Book 2.5 EHLLAPI Support 2.6 File Transfer 2.7 AUTOPILOT Programming Language 3. DEMO Version On Compuserve 1. Product Overview TalkThru is a Presentation Manager based asynchronous, TCP/IP and Netbios Terminal Emulation product. Version 1.03 of TalkThru is a 16-bit version designed for OS/2 version 1.2 and above. Version 2.3 of TalkThru is a full 32-bit version developed specifically for OS/2 version 2.x. TalkThru has been developed to expand the host systems available to OS/2 workstations by providing Terminal Emulation plus an EHLLAPI interface to many host environments not readily available to OS/2. The protocols supported by TalkThru include: Generic TTY ANSI VT52/100/220/320/340 HP2393A/HP2397A TELEVIDEO TYMNET78 TYMNET79 WYSE 50 IBM3101 TN3270 (In Beta) TalkThru will communicate through: o A directly connected COM Port. o A COM Port redirected to the IBM LAN Shared Serial Device Support. o The Communications Manager's ACDI. o ACDI redirected to an IBM LANACS Modem Pool. o IBM's TCP/IP for OS/2. o OS/2 LAN Requestor, LAN Enabler or Novell's Netbios Interface Although TalkThru can cooperate closely with the Communications Manager without impacting its function or performance, The Communications Manager is not required for successful TalkThru operation. For the NOVICE USER, TalkThru provides an easy to use, intuitive environment for making quick connections to Compuserve, Bulletin Boards and a variety of host environments. For the SOPHISTICATED USER, TalkThru includes a development programming language entitled AUTOPILOT which allows OS/2 Workstation Developers to quickly and easily automate all host activity, whether the host is a TalkThru session or any session available through the IBM standard EHLLAPI interface. AUTOPILOT can be used to build sophisticated Presentation Manager Dialogs and also supports Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to allow the development of cooperative applications. For the DEVELOPER, TalkThru has implemented an EHLLAPI interface which is compatible with the one used to direct the Communications Manager. This allows other development languages (i.e. 'C', EASEL, The Applications Manager, etc.) to direct the asynchronous connections provided by TalkThru in the same manner they can direct 3270 sessions with the Communications Manager. TalkThru File Transfer supports all the popular protocols including X, Y and ZModem, Compuserve B+, IBM IND$FILE and Kermit. It also has support for Drag And Drop such that file transfer operations can be automated. 2. Product Description 2.1 Terminal Emulation The Terminal Emulator within TalkThru allows for easy, intuitive modifications by providing numerous dialogs available from pull down menus on the terminal emulator screen. The changes that can be made in this manner include, not only the specifics of the connection (device, parity, baud, etc.), but also many of the aesthetics. Amongst others, the individual user can specify: - What is to appear on the terminal emulator status line. - What PC keys are assigned to which Host keys. - What foreground and background colors are to be mapped to the terminal protocol field attributes (i.e. High Intensity, Low Intensity, Protected, etc.). - Which font should be used. Several fixed pitch fonts are distributed with the TalkThru product allowing a Terminal Emulator screen to be just one window on the desktop or the entire desktop, but any fixed pitch font available on your OS/2 system can be selected. - What action the Left and Right MOUSE Buttons perform. This can include: o positioning the cursor o sending the text under the MOUSE o sending the host key associated with the text under the MOUSE Any of these parameters may be modified temporarily to view their effects or can be saved as permanent settings for a specific Terminal Emulation environment. There is also a DEFAULT setting for each of these if you wish to restore any environment to the distributed settings. 2.2 Emulator Screen Buttons The TalkThru Terminal Emulator also allows you to specify up to 144 Emulator Buttons which appear under the terminal emulator screen. These buttons appear up to 12 buttons per row on up to 12 rows. These buttons are an integral part of HP 2393A/HP 2397A Terminal Emulation, but are also available with any of the other protocols supported by TalkThru. These Emulator Buttons can trigger any keys that might normally be triggered by the PC Keyboard. An example of this might be the 3270 Keys: PF1-24 CLEAR ERASE EOF PA1-3 Or, the Emulator Buttons may trigger other activities such as: - invoking AUTOPILOT programs to automate host sessions - invoking OS/2 programs that can now run as separate OS/2 Sessions - sending PC Keystrokes to the host system to start host sessions - displaying another row of Emulator Buttons in a menu hierarchy The Emulator Buttons provide a useful mechanism for building OS/2 Professional Workstation environments which require little or no keyboard skills. 2.3 Drag And Drop The TalkThru Terminal Emulator also supports the OS/2 Drag And Drop feature. If a file name is dragged from the OS/2 File Manager and dropped onto the Terminal Emulator, you may specify a command to be executed. This feature will most commonly be used to invoke a file transfer operation. 2.4 The Phone Book The main component of TalkThru that always appears on the desktop is a Phone Book. The Phone Book is an OS/2 window which lists the various TalkThru connections that are available to this OS/2 Workstation user. If desired, multiple Phone Books can be active concurrently. It is from the Phone Book that all TalkThru sessions are initiated. Any number of sessions from any number of Phone Books can be active at any given time. The only limitation being the number of concurrent sessions that can be supported by your communications hardware. For example, if you only have one Modem attached to a single COM Port, you probably can have only a single session active. But if you have a LAN Modem Pool, a TCP/IP network, or Netbios connected hosts, you may be able to support a large number of connections concurrently. The Phone Book contains several dialogs from Pull Down Menus which allow you to: Open other Phone Books Add/Delete/Change Phone Book Entries Define/Modify COM Port Configurations Terminate TalkThru 2.5 EHLLAPI Support The TalkThru EHLLAPI interface has been developed to be compatible with the standard IBM EHLLAPI interface to the Communications Manager. The majority of EHLLAPI calls will work transparently across all protocols supported by the Communications Manager and TalkThru. This means that any Proprietary Product or Development Language (i.e. EASEL, REXX, 'C', 'COBOL', etc.) that supports EHLLAPI will be able to view and direct any TalkThru session exactly as it does with the Communications Manager. 2.6 File Transfer The following File Transfer protocols are supported by TalkThru: o Ascii o Screen Capture o XMODEM/YMODEM/ZMODEM o IBM IND$FILE o Compuserve B+ o Kermit Dialogs for performing all of these File Transfers are available from the Terminal Emulator window or can be automated through AUTOPILOT or EHLLAPI Programs. 2.7 AUTOPILOT Programming Language 3. Demo Version On Compuserve A demonstration version of TalkThru For OS/2 is available from Compuserve. The version available is the 32-Bit version, 2.3. The demonstration version contains all of the functionality of the production product, except that the Terminal Emulator and AUTOPILOT "scripts" will timeout after 10 minutes. For more information on this product or any other products in this Compuserve section, please call Software Corporation Of America at (203) 359-2773. The following files on Compuserve contain the demonstration version of TalkThru For OS/2 version 2.3. Both files are in self-extracting ZIP format (DOS version). TT2MAN.EXE - is a self-extracting ZIP file containing a "text only" copy of the TalkThru Users Guide. This manual contains a chapter, "Installation", explaining the installation process. Once you have decompressed TT2MAN.EXE, you will find the "Table Of Contents" in the file README.DOC. TT2PRD.EXE - is a self-extracting ZIP file containing the entire DEMO version ready to be installed. If you wish to unzip TT2PRD.EXE, you MUST use the format: TT2PRD -d The -d parameter is required to inform unzip to build the necessary sub-directory structure for the CIDS (IBM Customization, Installation and Distribution facility) formatted install.