Status line messages with VT100 in Procomm

[jpmapes]

When we moved from the old Procomm to the newer Procomm version 4.8, after Symatec had bought out Procomm, I noticed that our status line messages started printing in the middle of the text on the main window. Before, the messages (we call priority messages) would come up cleanly down in the grayed out area under the main screen.

Since then, I've not been able to fix the issue, but we had to move because we upgraded to 2000 and XP.

We are running VT100 terminal emulation. Other VT's work as well... The message, as seen in the middle of the screen has the following layout:

}0 You have Priority Mail~}0 You have Priority Mail~

The portion "You have Priority Mail" is the true message, normall printing once only. The message can change, but the encapsulation is always the same.

Does anyone know how to move that back down where it belongs, cleanly, in version 4.8? I have not found a button or place to do so. Does anyone know how Aspect could script this to autmatically shove the data down below?

Thanks in advance!

 

[knob]

Without accessing the system, it's hard to tell what the problem may be. Have you tried the other VT emaulations in version 4.8 to see if one of them works better?

What version of Procomm did you use previously? When you are say other VT's work as well, do you mean another program displays the line as expected?


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[jpmapes]

We were on a version that would now be about 4 or 5 years old. I don't recall what version, but it was the old version prior to Symatec purchasing Procomm, which including everything, even remoting capabilities and so forth prior to Symatec watering it down. It would not load onto Win 2000 or Win XP (which is why we went to 4.8).

Yes, I've tried other VT emulations on the Procomm list and they come back with the same results as VT100 (so they work just as good, no better).

I know what the problem is. It's that, somewhere between the prior version and this version, Procomm's telnet emulations were changed or the buttons to control status messages has changed.

I looked up the help documentation and Procomm only discusses the handling of status messages through the WYSE emulations and some other emulations that are not VT, nor do they paint the screen like VT would.

I need to figure out how to Procomm to pick up those symbols, identify them, and take the encapsulated text to the status bar, or at least force it to print at the bottom of the main screen, out of the way.

Thanks

 

[knob]

To the best of my knowledge, there have been no changes in Procomm's emulations, but if the older version worked and the new version with the same settings does not, then something apparently did. Unfortunately, there's not much of a way to work around this.


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[jpmapes]

Is it possible to configure an Aspect script to monitor for these symbols and then do something with the encapsulated data, such as display it at the bottom of the page and, more importantly, capture that data out of the display rather than printing it to it's current location?

 

[knob]

If it is a unique escape sequence, such as a row/column position code, then you could write a script to key off that value using the when target command with the STRIP keyword. You would likely be able to use rget to get the rest of the data into a string value, but that is only a guess since I can't access that particular system. Once you have that information in a string, you could do some editing with it, then display it on the status line with the statmsg command or write it to the screen with the termputs command.

You can use Procomm's monitor window to get more information on the escape sequence being sent. To activate this window, select the Data | Monitor Window menu item. Resize the Monitor Window so that you can view the entire width of the window, then click back in the Procomm Plus window so that the Monitor Window does not have focus. Incoming text is displayed in red, while text you send is colored blue. An escape sequence is preceded by what looks like a left arrow, or a left arrow then a left bracket.


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[det07]

As a side note: it is possible to install Procomm 4.7 (4-5 years old by Datastorm Techologies subsidiary of Quarterdeck Corp) on Windows 2000. I do not know about XP.
At my work the Procomm is setup for installation from a network server. Our IT is even unaware that Procomm 4.7 is unsupported on Windows 2000. Also it is possible to load Procomm on an NT or 98 machine and if connected to the network you can just copy the entire Procomm Directory onto a Windows 2000 machine and that works as well.

If you try this and you get the same problem with the old Procomm version suspect something in windows.
Perhaps the emulation difficulties you're having may be due to some other change like changes in Tapi with the Windows version if you're using a modem or maybe TCP/IP if you're using Telnet.

Hope this helps. DT

 

[knob]

Good point, but I would recommend performing a custom install without RapidRemote as this piece of software doesn't play well with most of today's video cards and can result in unusable machines.


aspect@aspectscripting.com

http://www.aspectscripting.com

 

[jpmapes]

I did check our older version and it is 4.7, so the changes occurred between 4.7 and 4.8.

I'm going to try to install 4.7. We'll see how it goes.