Re: dial.pm (was: Re: XYWWWEB.U2)

[Norman Bauman nbauman@xxxxxxxx]

At Wed, 17 Feb 1999 11:31:43 EST Robert Holmgren wrote:

>Win-Modems are garbage.

That confirms my suspicion.

>What I do is, I use one modem (an external USRobotics Courier) for TCP/IP
>(and just stay connected 24 hours a day), and another modem, on a
>different COM port, for dialing phone calls and for faxes. Old junker
>2400 baud modems won't work for faxes, but they're just great for dialing
>out.

Good. I was planning to do that myself, and it's very helpful to know that
it does work.

At 11:31 AM 2/17/99 EST, Robert Holmgren wrote:
>
>** Reply to note from xywrite@xxxxxxxx Mon, 15 Feb 1999 02:14:29
-0500
>
>> I disassembled dial.pm and wrote my own program based on it. It worked
>> great.
>
>I'm curious: what user flexibility did you not find in the nine user
>variables of DIAL.PM, that compelled you to "disassemble" DIAL.PM and
>revise it? This kind of feedback would be helpful... (as opposed to no
>feedback).

I thought DIAL.PM was a *great* program.

But I don't feel comfortable using a macro unless I understand it line for
line, so that I can modify it if desirable or necessary.

After all, you wouldn't buy a car unless you knew how to take it apart and
put it together, would you?

It's a lot easier for me to write a program for myself than it is for you
to write a program for general use, of course. My own program only has to
do what I want it to do. Your program has to do what everybody wants it to
do.

Now, when I get things working again with a supplementary DOS modem, I want
to modify my dialing program to do a few additional things, like keeping a
log file of calls, and dialing international calls. So I'll be reviewing
your program very carefully again soon.

As I recall, my only problem came with the external program ADT.COM. I had
trouble getting it working, so I had to learn about the COM port settings,
etc. In order to understand it, I had to write my own batch files. In order
to understand DIAL.PM, I had to write my own XyWrite macros. By the time I
understood it, I had my own program. So I didn't need DIAL.PM any more. :)

But I always wanted to thank you for writing a great program. It changed my
life.


For the record, here's the batch file I wrote to replace ADT.COM, and the
macro I wrote to replace DIAL.PM. I renamed them DIALOUT.BAT and
DIALOUT.PGM to avoid conflict. (The epsilon came out as an underscore. I
hope it doesn't crash the Internet.)

REM DIALOUT.BAT
REM
REM Created 5 May 95, revised 27 Jul 95, revised for Boca 9 Oct 96
REM
REM This batch file will set the modem in COM3 to 2400N,8,1
REM and transmit any phone number to the modem.
REM
REM USAGE: DIALOUT [phone number]
REM
REM The 3 variables %1 %2 %3 below will accept 1 + area code + phone.
REM
ECHO AT&F&C1&D2&R1
MODE COM3 BAUD=24,PARITY=N,DATA=8,STOP=1
ECHO ATDT%1 %2 %3 >COM3
REM ECHO ATH0>COM3
REM ATH0 puts modem off-hook (disconnected)
REM ECHO ATZ>COM3
REM ATZ software reset of registers to default. Cancels ATA auto answer
REM ATZ worked with 2400B modem, but Boca 28,800 uses ATZ0
REM ECHO AT&F>COM3
REM AT&F Powerup reset of registers and commands to default. (Not used)
REM ECHO AT&C1&D2>COM3
REM &C1 looks for carrier, &D2 looks for DTR signal (Not used)

«LB DIALOUT

This program will tell whether the defined string starts with
1. Any area code--if not, it assumes a local number and dials
2. (212) area code, in which case it strips the (212) and dials
3. Other area codes, in which case it adds 1 and dials.

»BC «SV21»XD «SV22,(212)
»«SV32,(»«SV33,)»«IF(«IS32»_«IS21»==0)&(«IS33»_«IS21»==4)»«GLAREA212»«EI»DOS
/C DIALOUT «PV21»«GLHANGUP»«EX»
«LBAREA212»«IF«IS22»_«IS21»==0»«XS21,22,23,24,25»DOS
/C DIALOUT
«PV25»«GLHANGUP»«EX»
«EI»DOS /C DIALOUT 1 «PV21»«GLHANGUP»«EX»

«LBHANGUP»
BC DOS /C HANGUP GT «PR F9 to hang up modem»«EX»

*****************
Extract extraneous text with a function like the following:

GT BF «SV21»XD «SV22,L»«XS21,22,23,24,25»
21: «PV21»
22: «PV22»
23: «PV23»
24: «PV24»
25: «PV25»
«EX»


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