Using Help: You have invoked Help. Press the space bar or the Esc key to leave this help and return to what you were doing. You may use the PgDn key to move one frame (several lines) further into the Help text, and the PgUp key to back up to an earlier part. The up- and down-arrows move you one line backwards or forwards though the text, while the Home and End keys take you to the beginning or end. All other keys will "beep" at you if pressed, but do nothing. Overview: You are running VTKermit, a terminal emulation and file transfer program. Terminal emulation is a feature in which your Personal Computer emulates (acts like) a standard computer terminal. Characters that you type on the keyboard are sent out a communications port to a remote "host" computer, while characters sent by the remote host which are received on the communications port are displayed on the PC's screen. VTKermit emulates a DEC VT100 terminal, so any "escape sequences" which perform some special action on a VT100 (e.g. clear screen or make characters extra bright) will perform the same action on a PC running VTKermit. Also, any special keys which exist on a VT100 are simulated on the PC. For example, the PC's F1 through F4 keys "act like" the VT100's PF1 through PF4 keys when running VTKermit, and transmit the same codes to the host computer. File transfer is a feature in which files of data may be sent either from your PC to a remote host computer or from a remote host to your PC. This file transfer occurs over the same communication ports and lines that are used for terminal emulation. This will involve a communications port on your PC and a dial-up port on the host computer. File transfer with VTKermit uses a communications "protocol" called Kermit. This protocol was developed by Columbia University, and has been widely distributed. The Kermit protocol permits error-free communications over dial-up lines, even though the dial-up line may be noisy. Kermit corrects errors introduced by line noise by breaking the data transmission into "packets" and by detecting packets which have errors. Incorrect or missing packets are retransmitted until they have been correctly received at the other end. This method of file transfer requires you to run a file transfer program at each end of the communication line. On your PC this will be VTKermit, and on the host side there must be a program honoring the Kermit protocol. (VTKermit can also act as a host, or run in server mode.) Using Terminal Emulation: When in terminal emulation mode, VTKermit transmits all text characters you type to the remote host computer. On the IBM PC, a text character is any key in the "middle section" of the keyboard. This includes all alphabetic and numeric characters, all punctuation, Space, Tab, "backarrow" (Backspace or Delete), Esc and Return (Enter). Most of the other keys on the PC are "mapped to" (associated with) various VT100 keys or special VTKermit functions. For example, F1 transmits the codes which would be sent by a VT100's PF1 key, F7 transmits the codes which would be sent by a VT100's up-arrow key, and F6 invokes the Help facility you are using now. A complete list of function and keypad keys and their effects appears later in this section. Numeric keypad: On the right-hand side of the keyboard, the "numeric keypad" attempts to act both like the numeric keypad on a DEC VT100 and like a VT100's arrow keys. Which of those two functions will be invoked is determined by the setting of the NUM LOCK feature which is toggled (turned on and off) by the Num Lock key. The current NUM LOCK setting is shown in the mode line on the bottom line of the screen. NUM LOCK: If NUM LOCK is ON, the keypad will act like a VT100's keypad. (The PC's large grey plus key acts like a VT100's ENTER key, while the PC's "PrtSc *" key acts like a VT100's keypad comma key.) If NUM LOCK is OFF, only the 2, 4, 6 and 8 keys on the keypad, corresponding to down-, left-, right- and up-arrows, will operate. The other keypad keys will simply beep at you if pressed. 7171 mode: A built-in 7171-MODE changes the mapping of the PC keyboard to more closely match that of an IBM 3270 as seen through an IBM 7171 protocol converter. The PC's F1 through F10 will simulate a 3270's F1 through F10. ALT F1 and F2 are F11 and F12. Other special keystrokes: In either Command Mode or Terminal Mode, ALT F7 Exits VTKermit and ALT F8 Pushes to a new COMMAND.COM. ALT F5 toggles between Command Mode and Terminal Mode. ALT F6 will pop up a Help window in either mode. (F6 sends a 3270 F6 in 7171 mode.) Escape Character: A special character is reserved by VTKermit as an "Escape Character". The default Escape Character on the IBM PC is control right-square-bracket, which is displayed as ^] or Control-] and is typed by holding down Ctrl and pressing the ] key. Whatever the Escape Character is, it must be typed twice in a row to be transmitted. If the Escape Character is pressed once, a second character may then be typed to invoke a special function. In this case, neither character will be transmitted: instead, VTKermit will perform some action. The most commonly used second characters are C to Close the current terminal emulation session and enter command mode, and S to get the current Status of all settable parameters. The Close function is identical to the close which is invoked with the F5 key, and Status is identical to the command mode Status command. Mode line: A mode line appears on the 25th (bottommost) line of the PC's display. This line reminds you that you are in terminal emulation mode, and suggests a few useful keys: F5 to go to Command Mode, F6 to invoke Help (as you have done) and shows you the current Escape Character. It also lets you know whether you are in CAPS LOCK state and whether the keypad is in NUM LOCK or arrow-key mode. Finally, the mode line shows the status of the simulated VT100 LEDs. If any of the L1 through L4 indicators is blinking then that LED is ON, otherwise it is OFF. The mode line may be removed by typing the Escape Character followed by an M. Repeating this equence will restore the mode line. Alternate Mode line: If you type the Escape Character, the normal mode line will be temporarily replaced by an alternate mode line which suggests completion characters for the Escape function. If you type a ? following the Escape Character, a list of second characters and their functions will be displayed and you will have another chance to complete the Escape function. If you don't want any of the choices, press the space bar to continue with terminal emulation. List of keys and functions: Function keys: F1 -- PF1 F2 -- PF2 F3 -- PF3 F4 -- PF4 F5 -- Switch to Command Mode F6 -- Invoke Help facility F7 -- Up-arrow F8 -- Down-arrow F9 -- Left-arrow F10 -- Right-arrow NUM LOCK ON NUM LOCK OFF ----------- ------------ 0/Ins -- keypad 0 * 1/End -- keypad 1 * 2/down-arrow -- keypad 2 down-arrow 3/PgDn -- keypad 3 * 4/left-arrow -- keypad 4 left-arrow 5 -- keypad 5 ** 6/right-arrow -- keypad 6 right-arrow 7/Home -- keypad 7 * 8/up-arrow -- keypad 8 up-arrow 9/PgUp -- keypad 9 * - (minus) -- keypad - (minus) * + (plus) -- ENTER * PrtSc/* -- keypad , (comma) * * Beep, no action ** No action [End of help for VTKermit]