Under A-Shell/Windows, selecting a terminal emulation is usually a one-setting-fits-all affair. Typically one specifies the default driver PCTDVG in the CONSOLE statement in miame.ini and that’s the end of it. Under Unix, it can be a bit more complicated because you could be connecting from a variety of different types of terminal devices or terminal emulation software.
Typically, Unix will attempt to establish the terminal type when you log in, either by querying the terminal directly, or by prompting the user. It then saves the terminal type in the TERM environment variable, which in turn, A-Shell queries to determine which terminal driver to use. If A-Shell does not recognize the terminal type as being one of those that it supports internally, it will use a generic terminal driver that works through the Terminfo database via the curses library. (This assumes that the terminal type is defined in the Terminfo database!) The generic driver is adequate for many applications, but it is not nearly as sophisticated as the drivers embedded into A-Shell. For example, it will not provide very good function key support, nor 132 columns, nor status line support. For this reason, we recommend that if at all possible, you use one of the following terminal types:
TERM type |
Description |
|---|---|
aixterm |
AIX window emulation. |
am62a |
AM62A emulation. This is perhaps the most common in the AMOS world. Field attributes, monochrome. |
am62az |
ZTERM-enhanced version of AM62A. Use only with ZTERM 2000 build 144 or higher. Supports variable rows. |
am62c |
Color version of AM62A. |
am62cz |
ZTERM-enhanced version of AM62C. Supports variable rows. |
am65 |
AM65 emulation. Similar to AM62A, but uses mode rather than field attributes. Also supports 42 rows. |
am65z |
ZTERM-enhanced version of AM65. |
am75 |
AM75 emulation. Essentially a color version of the AM65. |
am75z |
ZTERM-enhanced version of AM75. |
cgi |
Special pseudo-driver which is automatically set when running in CGI mode. |
dumb |
Dumb tty (hard-copy style) terminal. Useful for running background tasks to avoid cluttering log file with terminal-specific ESC sequences. |
h1500 |
Hazeltine 1500 emulation. Uses tilde as a lead-in sequence. Not recommended. |
vt220 |
VT220 emulation. This is often a reasonable choice for console devices that might otherwise use "ansi", "scoansi", or "linux" terminal emulation. |
vt220a |
(Linux only) Special version of vt220 emulation that uses no delay on the aux port commands. This is mainly of interest to users of a particular proprietary emulation package. |
vt420 |
VT420 emulation. Supports both 7 and 8 bit versions. |
wyse50 |
Wyse 50 emulation. Similar to AM62A but does not support addressable status lines, certain smart box operations. |
wyse5z |
ZTERM-enhanced version of Wyse 50. Supports variable rows. |
wyz50 |
(Linux only) Special version of Wyse 50 adapted from the original DOS version of ZTERM (by John Pruitt.) Requires ersemu.dll to work with ZTERM. |
The terminal type names stored in the TERM environment variable should always be in lower case. (A-Shell, like AMOS, confuses things by displaying the names in upper case when within A-Shell.)
The ZTERM-enhanced versions shown above all require ZTERM 2000 Build 144 or higher. In addition, you will have to manually set up the TERM environment variable, which you can do in one of two ways. One is to plug the "z" name into the Terminal Identity field on the Emulation tab of ZTERM’s configuration dialog (e.g. specify "am62az" or "wyse5z"). The other is to manually assign the TERM environment variable before launching A-Shell, such as TERM=am62az). Note that although ZTERM allows you to specify the number of display rows within its configuration screens, it is best to leave it at the default setting there and only change it from within A-Shell. Otherwise, your software will not be able to determine the current number of rows via the TRMCHR subroutine. Too change the number of display rows, use SET TERM HEIGHT command or Set Number of Columns. VUE and EZTYP will allow you to toggle between 24 and 42-row display mode. You can also set the initial number of rows in the INI.CLR file; see Color Configuration.
