Windows & DSZ Revision 2.00 June 15, 1988 Improve your Microsoft ® ® ¯ Windows Communications! ® o o ¯¯ ®®| / ¯¯ ® ® ¯ ®® | /\ ¯¯ ® o o ¯¯ `@'® ® ¯ ® ® ®®| / ¯¯<ÄWOOF!<ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ<ÄWOOF!® ® ¯ ¯ ® ®® | /\ ¯¯ ® ® ® ¯ ¯ ® `@'® ® ¯ ® ® Ä®/®| ® ® ® ® ® ® ® ¯ ¯ ® Some thoughts on running (®/ (®® (®®®®® ® ® ® ¯ ¯ ® DSZ, a high preformance background Ä®/®| ® ® ® ® ® transfer program under MS Windows and (®/ (®® (®®®®® Windows 386. Running DSZ With Micosoft Windows 2.03 DSZ can be an inexpensive alternative to the few (but growing!) number of comm programs out there that run under Windows. As of now, the only comm programs that run under Windows are Palantir's InTalk and the commercial and public domain versions of Proteus. Proteus will not even run under Windows 2.03 so that is out. Palantir's powerful InTalk is quite expensive, even though it has the ability to create powerful script files. You could, of course, run Qmodem or ProComm Plus Test Drive under Windows, in a window, but these are DOS applications and therefore will not background too nicely... Those are out. The answer? Windows Terminal combined with DSZ! This unlikely combination works out very nicely in the end. DSZ does not write directly to screen memory, so it can run in a win- dow. DSZ has Zmodem, Y-Modem, and X-Modem protocols implemented in it so the flexibility is there. The latest version can even act as a small terminal with auto Zmodem downloading. Speed? Well DSZ Zmodem is the fastest protocol around. Even under Win- dows 2.03 you can expect 112 cps & up (at 1200 baud). This speed is perhaps 2 to 3 cps slower than what you would get with downloading with Qmodem and DSZ. But that is because it must go through Windows, then to DSZ. That's the price you pay for back- ground transfers! I would no recommend doing an Excel recalc while doing a 100K download! Setting up the DSZ PIF To begin, you must create the DSZ PIF file with the PIFEDIT.EXE program included with Windows. I went ahead and ARCed the PIF file with this text file for you. The key to the PIF file is NOT to check the com ports in the "Directly modifies" section. If you do, Windows will give you a ! message saying that an application is already using COM2 or whatever. When you use DSZ for an upload or download it "captures" the modem carrier from the "parent" 1 Windows & DSZ Revision 2.00 June 15, 1988 program. The parent program does not know what is going on while it does this. Kind of like a TSR, but not as volatile! In the parameters part of the PIF file type a question mark (?). This makes Windows prompt you for parameters when you double click on the PIF or COM file in the MS-DOS executive. Then in the box you can put port 2 rz (use port 2, receive via Zmodem) port 1 t (use port 2, talk to host) etc... (more examples can be found in the DSZ.DOC file included with DSZ) Also, don't select the "Close window on exit?" box. If you do, Windows will close the windows before you have a chance to read any error messages. The DSZ.DOC file states that DSZ can run in "a modest window" of 66k under Desqview. As far as I know, I'm the first one to play with it under Windows so I went ahead and used 66k in both of the memory boxes in the PIF file. Using DSZ.PIF Now you can add X-Modem, Z-Modem, and Y-Modem to the Terminal program included with Windows! It works very nicely. To do it, just set up terminal to dial your favorite BBS, on your correct comm port. Then connect, and go through all the formalities to download. When the host says ready to download, double click on DSZ.PIF in the MS-DOS Manager. A small dialog box should pop up, prompting you for parameters. If it does not, disconnect and check your DSZ.PIF file to make sure that there is a question (?) mark in the prompting box of the PIF file. In the dialog box type "port x" and the necessary arguments and parameters IN LOWER CASE. A DSZ box will pop up, DSZ will print it's information, and then proceed to do the file transfer. I'm not sure how Windows 2.03 uses the DOS environment, so it may be a good idea to type in the port parameter for good measure. If you don't, DSZ will default to COM1, which in my case is my mouse. Nothing's going to come from there! It would really be nice if the Terminal program had the ability to be closed but without dropping the carrier. I tried to do a download with DSZ and Terminal. DSZ was doing a Zmodem download so I tried to see if Terminal would drop carrier. It promptly did, and froze the computer too. DO NOT QUIT WINDOWS TERMINAL WHILE DOING A DSZ FILE TRANSFER. IT WILL FREEZE THE COMPUTER!!! 2 Windows & DSZ Revision 2.00 June 15, 1988 Using DSZ with other small comm programs You can use the "t" (alk) option of DSZ to create a small ter- minal by itself with auto-Z-modem download capabilities. (The registered version has ANSI terminal capabilities.) To do this you must have a small utility to talk to your modem from the MS- DOS command line. I used a small pair of utilities by Donavon Kuhn & Jon Niedfeldt called AT.COM and DTR.COM. These utilities are used to control your modem from the DOS command line, or in our case, a window. To use these you must create PIF files for each of the programs. They do not take over the screen. Again, place a question mark (?) in the parameters field so that Windows will ask you for parameters. (I have included the PIF files for you.) Now for the fun part! DTR.COM allows you to talk to your modem. You MUST run this first so that the modem knows that you are trying to talk to it. When you double click on the PIF file it will ask you for parameters. I put: com2: on (Turns DTR on in COM2) com2: off (Turns DTR off on COM2) Note,if you don't specify any parameter, DTR will proceed to tell you how to use itself. (Same with AT.COM.) The AT.COM PIF file is set up the same way. Don't check the com ports in the PIF file for either of them. AT.COM allows you to sent commands to your modem. To dial up Hound's Haven in New Hartford, CT, you would click on AT.PIF and enter DT 1-203-738-0306 in the box. The little program will dial the number, then quit. Now you must catch the carrier with DSZ. Double click on DSZ, enter "port x t" in the box, and you will now have a very small Z-modem ter- minal which you can use as any other terminal. You can use COMMAND.COM running in a window to dial out also. Just enter ECHO ATDT XXX-XXXX > COMX, Then run DSZ to pick up the carrier. Smooth Integration with Command Post With the advent of Morrie Wilson's wonderful program, Command Post, there is an easier way to integrate Windows 2.03 and DSZ. Command Post (now in version 4.6) is a utility from Morrie Wil- son, the same person who brought us Browser (in version 2.5) for Windows. Command Post allows the user to add his/her own commands to the MS-DOS executive window. For instance; you may have an ad- ditional bar menu that says "Desktop," under that would be "Clock," "Clipboard," "Terminal," and the names of the rest of the desktop accessories. The user defines the menus, submenus, and dialog box prompts (yes, he even includes custom dialog boxes for parameters!) in a text file that Command Post reads every time it is started. I have taken advantage of this program to add 3 Windows & DSZ Revision 2.00 June 15, 1988 DSZ commands to my MS-DOS Executive window. When I click the menu bar on the command DSZ, I get a pull down menu that looks like this: ÚÄÄÄÄÄ¿ This pull down menu has all the ³²DSZ²³ protocols and commands I need ÚÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÁÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ to carry on a file transfer in- ³Xmodem Upload ³ visibly within the Windows en- ³Xmodem Download ³ vironment. Using the custom ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ dialog boxes in Command Post, ³Zmodem Upload ³ the parameters are all set to ³Zmodem Download ³ go; all I need to do is enter ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ in filename to be uploaded or downloaded and press the "OK" button with the mouse. The next section shows you how to set up the Command Post menu file for DSZ. DSZ and the CMDPOST.MNU file Command Post custom menus are defined by the user in a simple text file that Command Post reads when it starts up. I will not go into the details of setting up the entire menu system, that is where Morrie's documentation comes in, but I will explain the various settings that I have set up for my system. This is what my DSZ section looks like in my CMDPOST.MNU file... DSZ Comm XMODEM Download d:\dsz dsz.com ?Please enter DSZ arguments? port 2 rx c:\download XMODEM Upload d:\dsz dsz.com ?Please enter DSZ arguments? port 2 sx c:\download _ZMODEM Download d:\dsz dsz.com ?Please enter DSZ arguments? port 2 rz c:\download ZMODEM Upload d:\dsz dsz.com ?Please enter DSZ arguments? port 2 sz c:\download Note the underline before the Zmodem selection. This underline causes a line to appear in the menu between the XMODEM selections and the ZMODEM selections. Basically a cosmetic thing... 4 Windows & DSZ Revision 2.00 June 15, 1988 Conclusion Those are just a few ways of using DSZ with Windows 2.03 and Windows/386. It's a quick and easy, assuming you know how to use DSZ, way to add background file transfer to Windows. It would be interesting if a developer took DSZ and built a small Windows interface around it. (hint! Any takers of the project??) You could also add other external protocols to Windows, such as CIS QuickB or Megalink, but how much memory they use and whether or not they can be backgrounded is up to the author. Please send any suggestions, PIF files, applause, or comments to: Hound's Haven BBS (The BEST place to find Windows p.d. Software!) c/o Bryan Kinkel New Hartford, CT (203) 738-0306 Hound's Haven now has a FULL Windows conference to leave messages in, get information on *HOT* Windows stuff, and to upload and download files to. Give us a call!!! The current version of DSZ is always available from Hound's Haven. AT.COM and DTR.COM are available from Hound's Haven in the file DOSMODEM.ARC. Morrie Wilson's shareware treat, Command Post is available as CMDP46.ARC in the Windows directory (#11). Bryan Kinkel Simsbury, CT Various copyright and trademarks apply to any and all products mentioned. Support ShareWare! 5