Nfsc

By Rudolf König, Jürgen Weiger et al.

Intro

Nfsc is a terminal emulator. If this file is part of the p3nfs package, then Nfsc is also the psion counterpart to the p3nfsd daemon on unix with additional terminal emulation support.

For p3nfsd related info refer to the README file in the p3nfsd package.

Nfsc emulates a DEC VT100 terminal and some features of the newer vt220. It has following noteworthy features:

• Support for all builtin Series 3a fonts (9 fonts on the S3a).
• Support for bold, underlined, inverse and italic fonts.
• Alternative character set support.
• Defineable function key support.
• Jumpscroll and charset conversion (ISO8859-1 <-> IBM codepage 850).
• Support for history scrollback (over 500 lines are possible).
• Bring server functionality.
• Paste from the scrollback or from builtin applications.
• Dialing/scripting support. Extensible, as it is done in OPL.
• More than one configuration can be saved/loaded.
• Online help.
• Support for baudrates 50 to 115200.
• Should work on Psion Series 3; it is reported to work on the Siena.
• Robust: most (all?) VT100 animations are working.
• X/YMODEM support (partially working).
• Local mode.
• Experimental 3Fax support.
• Automatic dial at startup.
• TTY:I (infrared).

The current release (5.4) fixes some bugs and adds some features mainly of interest for non-casual Nfsc users. See CHANGELOG.md for more.

License: GNU General Public Licence (Version 2)

Installation

Place nfsc.app in the \app directory and install it with Psion-I. If you also want keypad support, place fnkeys.nfs into the \opd directory. Read it (with a text editor) for details.

If you want dial support, install the files dialme.opl & nfscdial.opl in the opl directory and translate them. See below for more.

The rest of the files are documentation and source code. They should not be copied to the Psion.

Building Nfsc (If you have the Psion C SDK)

In the src directory, from the DOS prompt:

C:\PROJECTS\NFSC> makeshd nfsc
C:\PROJECTS\NFSC> rcomp nfsc.hlp
C:\PROJECTS\NFSC> tsc /m nfsc
C:\PROJECTS\NFSC> ren nfsc.img nfsc.app

Notes

• X/Ymodem was tested with the only Zmodem package I found for UNIX. Xmodem works, Ymodem has a problem: the receiver won't terminate cleanly after a file was sent. I think the Psion driver and the Unix program behave differently here.
• break. As there is no p_break() function or the like, the break is generated as a series of 0 bytes sent at 50 baud. This can work, but is not guaranteed, as the definition of break is 0 for at least 250ms and this method generates more 200ms pieces. It works on SunOS, but not on Solaris.
• Note for S3 owners: I only tested it on my S3a in compatibility mode. All but the online help should work, as it is too wide for the S3. Please drop me a mail if it works on your S3.
• Siena was reported to work OK.

Dial Support

It is implemented in OPL, so if you want to use it, you have to write first an OPL program, and have to translate it (typing Psion-T).

Don't be afraid, it may be sufficient to write a program as simple as:

PROC dialme:
  global nfscPid%
  loadm "nfscdial"
  dialinit:

  puts:("ATDT 0123456789"+chr$(10))
  expect:("login:")
  puts:("my_username"+chr$(10))
  expect:("Password:")
  puts:("my_password"+chr$(10))
ENDP

The function hotk:("x") calls Nfsc to execute "Psion-x". You can of course add more expect/puts lines or use OPL features if you like (or have to :)).

Dialing is a second "thread", it works in parallel, so you can type on the psion while the script is listening (e.g. your password). The only problem with this method is that the dial script may lose data.

How Dial Support Works (for programmers only)

Sending text to Nfsc

The opl program sends a message with ID $40 to the Nfsc application, and the address of the OPL string.

Receiving data

The opl program sends a message with ID $41 to the Nfsc application, and waits for data. It sends a return receipt of 1 if it wants to quit, 0 if it requests more data.

Note: if the OPL program receives a string of length 0, this is in fact a modem status change report. The first data byte is to interpreted as follows:

      Signal	Bit
      CTS	0
      DSR	1
      DCD	2
      RTS	3
      DTR	4

As it is a string of length 0 it won't disturb any normal OPL routine.

See nfscdial.opl for the implementation of expect, puts & hotk. (It would be nice to have a "gets" call.)

Tips

• You can save your modem parameters with a little opl "dialme" program like the following:

PROC dialme:
  global nfscPid%
  loadm "nfscdial"
  dialinit:

  puts:("ATZ"+chr$(10))
ENDP

• If you're logging in to a UNIX system via Nfsc, and you dont want to start the p3nfsd program there (the UNIX counterpart of Nfsc), you may have an inappropriate number of lines set. p3nfsd takes care of that, but you have to be root while starting it.

  Here is how to fix the number of rows (a little UNIX exercise):

  # Check the number of lines (rows) with the following command:
  % stty -a
  # To set the number of rows to 20, try
  % stty rows 20
  # If this won't work, then try
  % setenv LINES 20
  # If you now get "setenv: not found", then (you're using a different shell):
  $ LINES=20
  $ export LINES

• If you like to fiddle with the save files manually, then you can use the "include filename" statement. Include files can be nested and "Exit" will not overwrite the file if there was an "include" in it.

History

Nfsc was originally developed as an OPL counterpart for the UNIX p3nfs daemon which is a way to connect psions to UNIX computers.

After N.N. rewrote it as a C program, I (Rudi) added terminal emulator code to it. Then Michael checked it once more together with me so that the vt100 animations ran on it. Odd Gripensteim used it on a VMS system and wished he had key translation, so he got it (but not everything he wished for).

The famous WWW page ot Steve Litchfield helped me to reorganize the whole, and add some user features to it, like online help and config saved in a file. For a Bring server I have to remember the data on the screen. From here was a little to get scrollback too.

Sources

nfsc.c        | protocol and dialog routines
vt100.c       | terminal emulator stuff + scrollback handling
xymodem.c     | X/Y modem support
paste.c       | bring + paste server
params.c      | parameter loading and saving
nfsc.hlp      | guess what