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Intele-Term 1.2
Script Language Description
Copyright 1986 by Morgan Davis
DESCRIPTION
The IT (Intele-Term) program on this disk has the ability to execute scripts,
files containing many instructions which can be executed in a batch mode, not
unlike EXEC files in ProDOS BASIC. The script language contains a variety of
commands which allow you to perform many sophisticated tasks with the
Intele-Term program, such as automatic redial until connect, automatic login,
sending and receiving files using XMODEM protocol, and much more.
With the [A]t command in IT, you can tell IT to wait until a certain time of
day before executing a script for you. This allows your computer to wait
until a specified time before running a complex set of dialing and connecting
instructions. For example, you could write a script which lets your computer
dial up an information service at 3 o'clock in the morning when the rates are
cheapest, then download stock quotes, send or retrieve electronic mail, etc.
While a script is busy running, you can cancel it by pressing Escape.
Using any standard ASCII text editor, you can write your script file. Name
it anything, but give it a .SRC file extension. This lets you distinguish
between the script source file and the compiled output that IT uses. The
structure of a script file follows these guidelines:
1. Each instruction is on a line by itself
2. Labels are declared on lines by themselves
and a colon (:) follows the label name.
3. When labels are referenced, the colon is
not used.
4. Indenting is optional, but aids in keeping
your program readable.
5. All text arguments can have control characters
imbedded in them by entering a caret (^) followed
by the letter (upper or lowercase) of the corresponding
control character. For example, to put a carriage
return at the end of a PRINT instruction, you would
use:
PRINT "Testing^M"
Creative use of control characters can produce some
very interesting displays. Inverse and Normal video
modes can be turned on. You can beep the speaker, etc.
6. Text arguments which contain spaces must be put
between quotation marks, otherwise the program will
only recognize the first word in a series of words.
7. A space character must separate a command from its
argument(s).
Before a script can be used by IT, it must be compiled using the COMPILE
program on the ModemWorks disk. You can call up the compiler from IT by
using the [C] command.
The script language consists of these commands:
DO TERM GOTO HOME
PRINT SPEED ECHO DIAL
CONNECT RETURN WAIT IF
SEND HANGUP SENDFILE GETFILE
BREAK PAUSE DISK RUN
END PRINTER EMULATE
Each command is described next.
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DO label
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Causes script execution to begin executing instructions at a certain label.
When a RETURN instruction is encountered, program flow resumes with the next
instruction following the DO command. This is just like a GOSUB in
Applesoft BASIC.
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TERM
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Temporarily pauses script execution and puts you into TERMINAL mode. When
you press Escape to exit terminal mode, script execution continues.
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GOTO label
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Diverts script execution to a certain label. This is like GOTO in Applesoft.
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HOME
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Clears the screen and puts the cursor in the upper left corner.
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PRINT "text"
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Displays text on the screen, but is not sent to the modem.
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SPEED bps
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SPEED will set the bits per second rate for use with IT. Values for "bps"
are 300, 1200, 2400, and 9600.
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ECHO mode
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Sets up local or remote echo modes for terminal mode. Arguments for "mode"
are ON and OFF. ECHO ON is half duplex (local echo). ECHO OFF is full
duplex (remote echo).
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DIAL number
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Dials a phone number. See &CALL in the manual for details.
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CONNECT
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Attempts to connect with a host computer after dialing out. Use of the IF
statement is useful after executing CONNECT to determine if connection was
successfully established.
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RETURN
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Causes script execution to RETURN to the line following the corresponding DO
instruction.
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WAIT "text"
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Halts script execution until "text" has come in through the modem. This is
used for handshaking on incoming data. Use the IF instruction to determine
whether or not the string to handshake on was found.
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IF condition GOTO label
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IF is used to test the most recent function performed by the script, such as
attempting to connect with a host computer, sending or receiving a file, or
handshaking on incoming text. Example conditions for use with IF are:
if FOUND goto ... if OK goto ...
if CONNECT goto ... if GOOD goto ...
if FAILED goto ... if BAD goto ...
if TRUE goto ... if SUCCESS goto ...
if FALSE goto ... if NO goto ...
if YES goto ...
Placing NOT or NO in front of a condition will test for a negative condition,
such as IF NOT FOUND GOTO label. The word THEN can be used in place of GOTO
if you desire, although both GOTO and THEN are totally optional. If the
condition tested is true, the script will attempt to GOTO to the label name
which is at the very end of the IF instruction line. So if you had a label
called "Stop" you could do this: IF NO CONNECT Stop
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SEND "text"
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Works just like PRINT, except this will send text to the modem and not to the
screen. Remember, if you need to send a carriage return, use "^M" (caret
followed by the letter M).
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HANGUP
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Disconnects the modem with the host, and hangs up the phone.
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SENDFILE file options
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Prepares to send the "file" using special "options." If "option" is
PROTOCOL, XMODEM will be used to send the file. Example:
SENDFILE FOOBAR.COM PROTOCOL
If "options" is not PROTOCOL, the file is sent as a regular text file, line
by line. You must specify two "option" arguments: an interline delay value,
and a character which to use to handshake on each new line. Example:
SENDFILE BLETCH.TXT 7 :
This will send the file "BLETCH.TXT" line by line, with an interline delay of
7, and will wait for a colon from the host before each line of the file is
sent out.
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GETFILE file PROTOCOL
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Gets a "file" from the host computer using XMODEM protocol. (Sorry, text
receive-to-disk is not implemented).
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BREAK
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Sends a modem break tone. (see &BREAK in the ModemWorks manual)
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PAUSE seconds
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Causes script execution to pause for so-many seconds, then execution will
resume.
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DISK command
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Allows the script to execute a ProDOS BASIC disk command. Examples:
DISK prefix /profile/mail
DISK delete /ram/temp
DISK cat,s6,d2
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RUN script
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Lets you run a different script file from within a script.
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END
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Causes a script to stop running. If you're online, you're taken right to
terminal mode.
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PRINTER mode
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Specifies whether any output which is shown inside the terminal mode window
will be sent to the printer or not. Values for "mode" are ON and OFF.
PRINTER ON sends output to the printer, while PRINTER OFF does not.
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EMULATE terminal
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Initializes terminal emulation for the named terminal template file. If the
template does not exist in the current prefix, you should specify a fully
qualified pathname to the file. Terminal template files are those with a
file type of $00 on the ModemWorks disk.
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FILES
On disk, you'll find a sample script source file named SCRIPT.SRC. Use
SCRIPT.SRC as an example of a typical "dial up and log-in" script.
The program named COMPILE is the actual script compiler. It can be invoked
using the [C]ompile command from within IT, or from BASIC.
BUGS
The COMPILE program will not catch duplicate labels declared in a script
file. Be careful.