software: SimpTerm version : 0.8.0 function: A Chinese communication program for MS-Windows 3.1 with build in support for BIG5, HZ and GB encoded text. Features fast and smooth Chinese displaying. Cut, Paste in ASCII, BIG5 and GB text mode. VT- 100/102/52, ANSI Color BBS terminal emulation Kermit, XMODEM and YMODEM file transfer function. High speed modem support, up to 57600 bps. Configurable screen size, up to 132 columns, 96 rows 800 line screen buffer (at 80 cols, 24 rows) Configurable regular, BWCC or CTL3D dialog styles. Good for on line reading act, act.big5, TANET BBS, viewing HZ file using regular UNIX vi, viewing BIG5 or GB file using CELVIS, CEMACS, and using VT-100 terminal based Gopher, WWW service. ftp site: ifcss.org[129.107.1.155]:/software/ms-win filename: spterm08.exe (Size 196338 bytes, ZIP 2.0 self-extracting file) spterm08.txt (Readme file) Optionally get following files: ifcss.org /software/fonts/cclib.16 and chinese.16 Microsoft's CTL3DV2.DLL or CTL3D.DLL Borland International's BWCC.DLL (See readme file for details) author : Jianqing Hu ~{:z=!G`~} comment : Shareware, free for non commercial use. What is SimpTerm ================= SimpTerm is a shareware communication program for MS-Windows 3.1. It is capable of displaying BIG5, HZ and GB encoded Chinese text using commonly available Chinese bitmap fonts. It also features accurate VT-100 emulation, high speed modem support and file transfer function. System Requirement ================== SimpTerm is a protect mode Windows 3.1 application program. It requires a 286, 386 or higher PC with a VGA or above graphics card running Microsoft Windows 3.1 or IBM OS/2 2.1. A fast video card with SuperVGA capability and a mouse is strongly recommended. Required Files ============== The self-extracting file spterm08.exe contains all files required to be used as a regular terminal emulator plus a Chinese font engine. spterm.exe SimpTerm executable file spterm.hlp Windows 3.1 help file for SimpTerm spterm.ini Configuration file for SimpTerm kfmgr.dll Chinese font management dynamic link library kfmgr.ini Configuration file for kfmgr.dll vt100.scn VT-100 terminal emulation screen driver vt100.kbd VT-100 terminal emulation keyboard driver vt52.scn VT-52 terminal emulation screen driver vt52.kbd VT-52 terminal emulation keyboard driver ansi.scn ANSI terminal emulation screen driver ansi.kbd ANSI terminal emulation keyboard driver readme.txt ASCII format introduction file Additional Files ================ To display Chinese text, you need a 16X16 GB encoded bitmap font, say CCLIB.16, for HZ/GB mode a 16X16 BIG5 encoded bitmap font, say CHINESE.16, for BIG5 mode (14X16 BIG5 encoded bitmap font is also supported) * these files are available at ifcss.org under /software/fonts * If you have Chinese Windows, Chinese Start or Twinbridge, you don't have to use these bitmap fonts. SimpTerm can rely on a Chinese system for Chinese text displaying. BUT THE SPEED MAY BE VERY SLOW. See below. To use either the Microsoft 3D or Borland Custom Control dialog style, you need BWCC.DLL for Borland style dialog CTL3DV2.DLL or CTL3D.DLL for 3D style dialog * These two files are available from many ftp sites. SimpTerm will work without them. A lot of programs use these files, so chances are you may already have them in your computer. For BWCC.DLL, ftp to winftp.cica.indiana.edu and get pub/pc/borland/c/gen/bwcc.zip (96KB ?) For CTL3DV2.DLL or CTL3D.DLL, ftp to ftp.microsoft.com get Softlib/MSFILES/CTL3D.EXE (380KB) Getting started =============== 1 Make a directory or select an existing directory for this program. 2 Change to that directory and run spterm08.exe to extract program files. * If spterm08.exe is not in that directory, give full path name. The main program is named SPTERM.EXE. 3 If you need additional files, download them and put them in proper directory. Chinese font files can be put into any directory, you edit the configuration file to reflect their location. BWCC.DLL should be put into a directory list in the PATH statement. CTL3DV2.DLL or CTL3D.DLL should be put into the Windows system directory (default is C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM). 4 Edit the font configuration file kfmgr.ini This is an ASCII file. You can use DOS edit or Windows notepad. File Format: [fonts] gbfont=GB font file name big5font=BIG5 font file name example [fonts] gbfont=c:\fonts\kanji\cclib.16 big5font=c:\fonts\kanji\chinese.16 5 Run the program for the first time. If you haven't started Windows, type "win spterm.exe" under DOS prompt. If Windows is already running, start spterm.exe using Program manager. SimpTerm will show a copyright notice and enter terminal mode. It may complain that COM port is not available or Loading GB font failed. At this point, you can read SimpTerm's help file from the help menu. It will give you more detailed information on using this program. The program is set to 9600bps, change it as needed. Chinese Text Display ==================== SimpTerm can either display Chinese text using its own Chinese font engine or pass Chinese text to the underlying Chinese Windows system. The View menu Use Bitmap Font Option controls which method is used to display Chinese text. If this option is checked and Chinese bitmap font files are correctly installed, SimpTerm will use its own font engine. SimpTerm's font engine stores all Chinese font data in memory and doesn't perform the time consuming font scaling. As a result, the display speed is very fast. If you want to read Chinese comfortably at 9600 bps and above, forget about using a Windows Chinese system for displaying Chinese text. A side effect is that this method has higher memory requirement. In general, under 386 enhanced mode with virtual memory enabled, it shouldn't be a problem. Actual memory used for Chinese font data will be around 300KB. A 800X600 256 color wall paper will likely consume more memory. The memory will be released whenever the Use Bitmap Font option is disabled. Compatibility ============= The program has been tested under following environment/platform. However, the author can not afford to make any guarantee. MS-DOS 5, 6.0, 6.2 with MS-Windows 3.1 standard English edition MS-Windows 3.11 MS-Windows for Workgroups 3.11 MS-Windows 3.1 Chinese edition (BIG5) Chinese Star 1.2 TwinBridge 3.2 Demo version. MS-Windows 3.1 with Debug kernel Note: If you use Borland style dialog, the debug kernel may give warnings for GDI objects not deleted when you quit SimpTerm. This GDI objects are actually used by BWCC.DLL and will be deleted when the BWCC.DLL is released from memory. OS/2 2.1 for Windows Hardware 386/486 with 4 to 8 MB of RAM. Note: if you are using After Dark screen saver, you may need to disable the SystemIQ activity monitor from the setup panel. Reading/Editing Chinese online ============================== 1 Reading HXWZ Whenever possible, use GNU less to read the GB version of HXWZ. regular UNIX more and CELVIS frequently have trouble dealing with HXWZ's super long line (In HXWZ, only one line break per paragraph). If you don't have GNU less on your system, try to get gb2hz from ifcss.org and format the GB version to 80 character per line HZ text. Then, you can use regular UNIX vi or more to read them in HZ mode. Alternatively, use cat and dump it to SimpTerm's screen buffer. Under 80X24 mode, the screen buffer can hold 32 screens of data, large enough for a regular issue. Then you can use Page Up/Down to scroll back and forth. Other than those just mentioned, you can download it to PC or like what I did, wait patiently for the new issue appears on ACT. 2 Editing online For HZ text, you can use regular vi. But if you type something wrong you will really have troubles in correcting them. Only backspace works reasonably well. Larger screen size ================== With SimpTerm and a SVGA monitor you can have a larger screen size. For 800X600 mode, you can use 28 rows (line per screen) For 1024X768, you can go up to 38 rows. Set screen size from Options menu, Terminal dialog. Don't forget to tell the host you are a big guy. In UNIX, the command is usually stty rows 28 to set a 28 line screen. Copyright and Terms =================== SimpTerm - Version 0.8.0 Copyright (c) 1993, 1994 JIANQING HU All rights reserved. Author: JIANQING HU 254 W. 31st ST. Chicago, IL 60616 Permission to use, copy, and distribute this software for non commercial purpose without fee is hereby granted, provided that the software is not altered, and that the above copyright notice and this permission statement appear in all such copies. This software may not be used for commercial purpose without registration after a 10 day evaluation period. Nor may it be, in whole or in part, licensed or sold for profit, included in or distributed with commercial products or otherwise distributed by commercial concerns to their clients or customers without prior written permission of the copyright holder. This software is provided "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. See documentation for further disclaimers and more information. Contact the Author ================== I will be more than happy to hear from you for any suggestion, comment or bug report. I can be reached at JIANQING HU 254 W. 31st Street #3 Chicago, IL 60616 USA Telephone: (01) 312-326-0200 Internet: thssjyh@iitmax.acc.iit.edu