I have decided to finally do some much-needed work on AT_Telnet... it began last night. For those who don't know, AT_Telnet was originally developed by Tom Hunt in and around 2000 and I took it over about this time. It is a PC-based terminal client for accessing ATASCII BBSes on the internet from your PC. It is my primary terminal program.
I will be renaming the program AT_Connect - The ATASCII Terminal Client and upgrading the version to v3.oo. This change is about 85% complete as of right now. Telnet was never a part of this program... it was simply the name that was used back in 2000 when this began.
Swatted five minor bugs that have been around for 10 years or thereabouts.
Plan to address what I call the 1 major bug in the screen processing section of the code. Currently the Ctrl-Del key is not processed correctly. I have prevented it from shutting down the program by simply ignoring the key (or incoming char as the case may be) however, I do want to get this fixed. I may need some help.
Plan to update the 'Help' system. Also started on this last night.
Plan to get a better handle on the implicit changes to the system caused by the way the UAC system in newer versions of Windows interacts with the older VB6 programs..
At least one new major feature to be added... more on this later.
No plans to upgrade from vb6 to a newer version of VB. This cannot be done due to THE major component of AT_Connect no longer existing in VB.
What else??? I am open to suggestions.
Available at Zoom - Friday night 12/15/23
v3.12 -Build:602 - 12.14.23 (Xeraxes)
Added the AutoPause feature for slowing down the message displays on BBSes with no page length setting.
Added the Status Window for status information during connections. It displays the BBS name, URL and Port as well as the incoming character counts. It also has a provision for entering some text into the system log as a log entry.
Added a flag in the config page to enable / disable clearing the box when the 'Scrollback to Box' button is pressed.
Added session numbers for knowing how many ATC sessions you have experienced.
Added additional logging for some errors.
Added the ==== separator for the log session entries making the log a little easier to read.
Modified the 'View System Log' button to move the cursor to the end of the log when opening it.
General cleanup of logging...
Modified 'Look & Feel' of the Quoting and ChXbox systems as well as general cleanup of these systems.
Added the status bar value to the status field 'tooltiptext' property so if a status is longer than the status window can display, hovering the cursor over the status field will display the entire contents of the field in the tooltip.
Renamed the CHX1,2,3 files to _CHX1,2,3. Filename prefixed with an underscore to make them rise to the top of the files display.
Added the 'No Word Wrap' quoting modification for making the quotes look better on a Carina BBS system. Carina tends to modify the format of the messages even after they are entered and saved. This option helps with making the quotes a little better to view if you choose to use it. This feature also swatted the chr(13) - chr(10) display bug in the Carina quotes.
Changed the colors of the quote step indicator bar from Red to Green.
Added a 'Yes / No' query to the 'Clear System Log' function.
General Cleanup.
Bug fixed - Send to BBS function would crash ATC if not online.
Bug fixed - bug in Help file display code
Bug fixed - not really a bug but using the Prev (<<) and Next (>>) buttons in the BBS editor now forces a re-selection of the BBS in the combo box in order to better keep it all in sync.
Bug fixed - Swatted the Ctrl-M bug that has been in the program since 2000.
Fixed a problem with the Help file installation during setup.
What the next release (3.12) is looking like tonight... (click pic to enlarge)
New look in ATC for ChXBoxes:
Note both boxes here were created in the builder and sent simultaneously using one click of the 'Send to Main' button.
Coming in 3.12 soon...
AT_Connect v3.11 is now available to download here at SouthernAmis.com on the AT_Connect page. What's new???
v3.11 -Build:548 - 9.15.23 (Xeraxes)
Added the 'ChXbox Creation System' which uses a combination of 'The Box' and the 'ATEditor' to create cute little ATASCII chXboxes for graphics-enabled message bases. The chXboxes are also correctly visible in ASCII and ANSI connections.
Added an optional Incoming Character Count display for each ATC session as well as a totalizer. Both of these counts are displayed at the end of the system log.
Made 'classic mode' more classic by adding the 'Enable Online Timer' function to classic check boxes group in Configuration file.
Added "Last Time Online" data to BBS record to display the length of the last connection to that BBS.
Added the "2) Edit Box" button to the quoting system to place the cursor into the box quickly at position 0 in the box rather than the old manual method.
Added quote step indicators ( which look like this: ______ ) below each button to remind you of the next step while creating quotes.
Updated ATEditor to optionally create a file when using the 'Send to Main' function.
Cleanup of the Total Online Report
Added the Signature function for each BBS record so each BBS can have its own signature.
Added the 'Scrollback Abort' button for stopping the scrollback function.
Added the 'Box to ATE' button for copying the contents of the box to the ATEditor. Why do we need this? I don't know but I added it anyway because I could. (And now it is used for the chXbox system.)
Moved Quoting buttons into different positions around the Box to make quoting more intuitive.
Enlarged the Log Form to prevent word wrapping of log entries.
Minor Cleanup of program and help file.
BUG Fixed - 'Scrollback to Box' function would crash AT_Connect if there were less than 2048 chars in the scrollback buffer. Fixed by requiring 2048 chars in the buffer before 'SB to Box' will do anything.
BUG Fixed - bug in 'View Capture' function which prevented some files from being viewed.
BUG Fixed - bug in Time Online function would erase the time if the BBS record got changed to a different BBS and then a logoff occurred. Disabled the problem buttons that caused this so the BBS record could not be changed while online. ( '>>', '<<', and 'BBS Select' combo box)
BUG Fixed - BBS Select combo box was not properly updated when a BBS was changed from 'Show in List' to 'Don't show in list' (and vice versa). Now the combo box is reset to zero (default) if this function is toggled.
a milestone of sorts...
Now that v3.10 is released, I won't be doing any more development on it for a while, unless someone finds a bug that needs swatting. I think I will start playing with HDTOOLS again.
Quoting messages is now working in AT_Connect III. This will be released in v3.10 soon!
A Dedicated Page accessible in the header of the web site is now available for AT_Connect II. More content to be added but you get a download button for now..
Coming Back to Life...
I actually got the Ctrl-Del and Ctrl-Ins working tonight on both the terminal and the ATEditor. Ctrl-Ins was already working in the terminal. How did I fix Ctrl_del? Pulled an old archive of AT_Telnet I and copied one 'PaintPicture' instruction to ATC_3. Somehow that instruction got messed up at some point in time and was causing AT_Telnet to crash which led to trapping and ignoring the error. The old code solved the problem... don't ask me how it got screwed up. My troubleshooting skills are not what they once were as evidenced by my Computer breakdown earlier this week... whew!
The other day, I tried to install this on crossover, playonmac, and a hacked version of wine. (Version 7.20). Could not get it to work. I was using a win10 version of emulation. Going to try a windows 7 wrapper next time I work on it. I did import it to my fully working windows 10 parallels vm. I got to the bobterm screen and when I click on the “on” button. It crashes. Says my install is missing something.
I will keep plugging along. I just wish I could have gotten it to work in a nice wine wrapper.
When I originally announced AT_Connect at the top of this message thread, I indicated that one new major feature would be added to the system. As of right now, there are 4 new major features as outlined here in this excerpt from the help file:
I think now with all of this, I will start to clean up the program and get ready to release it for human consumption. If anyone has anything to report (good or bad), please do so now so I can address it.
So now there is another new feature in AT_Connect. ATC can detect a URL in the incoming text, and place it in a link for you to click on from within ATC... no cutting or pasting necessary.
It will retain the last 5 links it encounters. I am thinking about saving them... or maybe having more than 5. Anything is possible...
We are rolling now...
Once you're done and have a clean program, let's port it to iOS!
I have also built my test VM for installing ATC in the Windows 10 environment. I still have a few little bugs to swat but I have installed it roughly 10 times since this morning.
I have another issue which is not a new thing but one that annoys me to no end... see the image below.
This is the login to NiteLite BBS. I entered my handle using an AT_Connect Macro. Notice that there is a heart (null) between each char of my handle but on the next line, NiteLite corrected it by dropping the hearts. I also use macros on the next two lines of the login form and they are perfect... normal login takes place. I think Nitelite is pretty smart about this.
Some of the other BBSes are not so forgiving about the hearts in the macros.
First some clarification... there are no hearts in the macros.
I believe the different BBSes put them there but I don't know how or why... I only know on the BBSes that don't process them correctly, the macros appear to be twice as long as they should be (I am guessing the hearts are there) and they don't work for login. Could it be that each char is 2 bytes instead of 1 byte? I vaguely remember something about this back in the early days of Windows.
BBSes that process the macros correctly:
BF2K+, Southern Amis, Forem XE, Forem XEP, AMIS 86, Alcatraz, Mousenet and NiteLite w/disclaimer shown above.
BBSes that do not process them at all
Basement, PartTime, Carina
I am hoping that someone smarter than me can explain what is going on here.
Rob? JP? 😁
Just curious... how does your term program editor compensate for different latency on different BBSs when you upload your message? I notice some BBSs will lose characters when I cut and paste entire messages from an editor. -JP
It's looking good. 😀
Now I see what you were talking about on BF2K+ This is a cool idea. I sometimes go out to Google to check the spelling of words that I am unsure of when typing in a message. So, this would be helpful!
So I have already trashed the idea of the floating text window in favor of the text window at the bottom of the terminal screen. I am trying to make this so easy even I can use it. I envision being able to tab back and forth between the terminal and the editor. When it is turned off, there is no indication that it even exists...
Spell check - Please :)
I am putting the finishing touches on a new text window that I have added to AT_Connect. With this option, message (or other) text is entered in a text box with full editing capabilities. For instance, when those pesky spelling errors pop up, no need to hit your backspace key 25 times in order to get to the offending word... simply use your PC's editing tools to fix the word. There is both 40 and 80 column support and I plan to tie this option to the dialing directory so it automagically configures itself depending on the 40/80 mode of the BBS selected. I also plan for an optional alarm to signal when you are near the 40 or 80 column border... this is for those BBSes with no word wrap in their built-in editors (This problem always gets me on some BBSes... I look up and realize I have typed 200 characters with only the first 40 or so showing up... drives me crazy and that is a short drive.) The built-in word wrap means you can type away to your hearts desire. When you hit the <return> key at the end of the text, all typed text is sent to the BBS and cleared from the window.
There's no ATASCII in this text window...
Early images of the 40 and 80 column mode shown here:
Enough room for a whole paragraph even in 40-col mode.
Potential ideas for additional features:
Spell Checking (how many different ways can you spell rust?)
Saved messages that can be loaded from a drop-down menu for things like signatures.
A hook into the ten macros associated with each BBS.
...
Stay tuned...
(If this looks way too stupid to be useful on a BBS terminal program, remember it is optional and does not have to be used)