A-Shell Consolidated Reference

Execute or print windows file ("shell execute")

?CHR(27) CHR(12);OP$;FSPEC$;CHR(0);

   (OP$ is "O" to "open" or "P" to "print)

INPUT A              ! CR for ok, Control-C for errorShell execute

Execute windows command (aka "win exec")

?CHR(27);CHR(22);CMD$;CHR(0);

INPUT A               ! CR for ok, Control-C for errorWin exec

Get client ip address

?CHR(27);CHR(15);

INPUT "",IP'ADDR$

ftp file transfer

?CHR(27);CHR(1);CHR(127);DIR$;HOSTDIR$;CHR(0); &

   HOSTFILE$;CHR(0);PCFILE$;CHR(0);

INPUT A

Note that ATE supports transferring entire directories, in addition to single files, by setting the HOSTFILE$ or filename portion of PCFILE$ to “*”.

Label window

?CHR(27);CHR(13);TITLE$;CHR(0);

! sets title for both normal and minimized window

Set window state

?CHR(27);CHR(25);CMD$ !(CMD$ is M, X, R, or N)

Flash window

?CHR(27);CHR(16);"1"            ! start flashing

?CHR(27);CHR(16);"0"            ! stop flashing

Set ftp login name/password

?CHR(27);CHR(29);NAME$;CHR(0);PW$;CHR(0);

A-Shell/ATE supports ZTERM-type serial passthrough.

Enable passthrough:

? chr(27); chr(27); chr(3); params$; chr(0);

Disable passthrough:

? chr(27); chr(27); chr(4);

params$ is of the form:

"<port#>,<baud>,<parity>,<databits>,<stopbits>"

For example:

"1,9600,E,7,2" (COM1, 9600 baud, even parity, 7 bits, 2 stopbits)

When enabled, input from the serial port is merged into the keyboard channel input. Output characters are not normally sent to the serial port. To enable that, send ^X (ASCII 24); send ^T (ASCII 20) to disable. Note that these are the standard AUX PORT ON/OFF commands for the AM6x emulation, but when they are sent while serial passthru is enabled, they have the effect of sending the output to the defined serial port rather than to the printer port.

The following example uses the login name/password stored in the ATE configuration for the ftp name/password.

GET ZTERM/ATE ID:

?CHR(27);"?";

xcall GET,BUFFER,0,2,RCVD,1000

IF RCVD<2 goto NOT'ATE'ZTERM

xcall TINKEY,A$               ! extra char?

?CHR(27);"?";

xcall GET,BUFFER,0,3,RCVD,1000

IF RCVD<2 goto NOT'ATE'ZTERM

xcall TINKEY,A$               ! extra char?

?CHR(27);"?";

xcall GET,BUFFER,0,2,RCVD,1000

IF RCVD<2 or BUFFER#"ZT" goto NOT'ATE'ZTERM

?CHR(27);"?";

xcall GET,BUFFER,0,14,RCVD,200

? "VERSION=";BUFFER

Most AMxxx and WYxxx terminals will respond to ESC ? with 2 bytes indicating the (row and col each offset by 32). However, to be more robust, you should allow for the possibility that the terminal will not respond at all to ESC ?, or that it will give you an extra byte (possibly a trailing CR or a leading ^Y for columns > 96). The above code uses GET.SBR with the timeout option to input up to 2 chars, aborting after 1000 ms. It then uses TINKEY to grab any extra character without waiting. This sequence is repeated 4 times. After the 3rd time, ATE will respond with "ZT" (like ZTERM does). After the 4th time, it will return you "AV" following by the version string. (This is where you can distinguish ATE from ZTERM.)