Celestial Software

Hi,

My name is William Roth ( aka "Bill"

I am new to Telnet applications (never had to use one that much) but have recently had the need to find one that our small company can live with and that we can provide as an option to our clients.
I have been tasked to find one that meets our needs.

Our main usage is this.

We develop embedded systems for various clients (commercial/military). We will be interfacing
a PIC or other microprocessor to the terminal emulator via a serial connection to a PC or Laptop.
The Microprocessor will send data to the Terminal Application ( Absolute Telnet in this case),
where it can be displayed, processed, logged, and send out to the Internet or even via a a
satellite Com link. The Terminal emulator will send commands via the serial port to the
microprocessor to tell it to perform various tasks or send back acquired data.

My prime programming days are long behind me, and I have never used VbScript.

What I need then is a very good and organized reference for VBscript , particularly as
may it relate to Absolute Telnet. Is there something like that available ? In a single document ?

Ideally, we would like to a have a Function Bar or something like PowerTerm's Power Pad,
but I don't see anything like that in AbsoluteTelnet unless I missed it. Can this added
somehow ?

Also we would like the option to turn off ( make invisible) the cursor. At times it can be
annoying to see the cursor flying around when data is being updated on the terminal.

Absolute Telnet does not have a check box to make the cursor invisible unless I missed itl. Can that be done with VBscript or by sending a special esc sequence to the terminal ? I see that a VT320 has a command for that but so far my testing of other emulators/Telnet applications has indicated that these emulations do not support all of the commands.

Anyway, we will giving Absolute Telnet a test drive for the next couple of weeks. So far
I like what I see and have the micro communicating already. So now I am off to chase down
useful and well written information on VBscript so that I can understand what is capable of
in regards to Absolute Telnet

Regards !

Bill

Bill,

Absolute (or any terminal emulator really) is usually oriented toward a single-connection paradigm. Absolute can connect to a serial device, sure. It can also connect to just about any internet connected host via telnet or ssh over whatever network (satellite or otherwise) is available. However, it sounds like what you want to do is bridge between a serial connection and an internet connection. THis is not something that can be done with the VBScript scripting interface, as the scripting is oriented towards single-connections. VBScript is useful for automating tasks on a single connection but cannot be used to establish or communicate with other sessions.

However, you may be able to use the ActiveX interface to do what you want. With this interface, you write a program in C# that can establish multiple connections, then filter/log/route commands and output however you like.

I don't think you're going to be able to avoid a fair amount of custom programming. Absolute can simplify the details of establishing connections with various protocols, but you'll still be responsible for determining how to route commands, responses, data, etc...

If you're interested in this approach, let me know and I'll try to provide the info to get you started.

Brian

Thanks for the reply Brian.

First the ability to turnoff or make the cursor invisible is not that critical and is only a small concern.
But it would be a nice feature. If you know how to do it please let me know.

VBScript is useful for automating tasks on a single connection but cannot be used to establish or communicate with other sessions.

I understand. But can you point me to some good VBScript tools and resources? What about Scriptomatic from Microsoft ?

Along that line. ...for now VbScript should suffice. We can save data in a Serial session , close that session periodically and then open a Telnet session to transmit the saved data. We should be able to automate that sequence without too much trouble. Comments ?

Our real programmer is tied up with embedded micro stuff so I get to have the all the fun with this
part of it.

I like the feel and and leanness of Absolute Telnet and think we can get it to do what we need
for now. I already have a screen designed, a microprocessor sending data, and controlling the display. sending messages. etc. I just need to fiddle with VBScript a bit to see how it works.

You have a very nice program here. Nice Job.

Thanks for the support !

Regards
William Roth

Well .....

To your credit Brian


Your ANSI emulation does support the escape sequence ESC[?25l when sent to the terminal does indeed hide the cursor . Many of the others simply ignore this sequence and keep the cursor visible and flying around.

It took me a while to find it as many ANSI references omit this one for some reason


Bill

Hey Bill,

I hope things are going well in your evaluation of Absolute. Anything I can help you with?

I recently updated the Scripting API page to include additional functions that were added in version 8. Take a look:

www.celestialsoftware.net/terminal-featu...sh-vbscript-api.html