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^7*********************************************************************
^7*                                                                   *
^7*                                                                   *
^7*  ^2P r o g r a m   P a r l o u r   3   -   AMOS Communications      ^7*
^7*                                                                   *
^7*                                                                   *
^7*********************************************************************

^2                            By Ben Ashley

^6 Welcome  to  yet  another  issue  of  TA, and another installment of
^6Program Parlour.  Again, something different this time, and something
^6useful  to  all  people  who  either own 2 Amiga's and a serial link,
^6and/or a modem.

^6 What you exactly do with the serial extension is up to you.  Writing
^6SERIAL-LINK  games is quite easy, whilst writing Terminal software is
^6a  little  more  difficult,  and  BBS  software, is even worse.  I'll
^6provide  as  much  information  as  I  can on all 3 of these types of
^6communications software.

^2                    The Serial-Linkup Experience

^6 You  don't  have  to  be  very intelligent to understand this.  Very
^6simply, its easy.

^6 Imagine  you  want to create a game with 2 bobs, one at the top, one
^6at  the bottom, and they can fire at each other.  Bob 1 is controlled
^6on Amiga 1, and Bob2 is controlled, by another person on Amiga 2.

^6 If  you  can  imagine  the  general variables, ( X,Y,X2,Y2 ), then a
^6routine like this would work fine....

^2Do
^2        Gosub WAIT
^2        Serial Send 0,Str$(X) : Gosub WAIT
^2        X2=Val(Serial Input$(0)) : Gosub WAIT
^2        Serial Send 0,Str$(Y) : Gosub WAIT
^2        Y2=Val(Serial Input$(0)) : Gosub WAIT
^2        Bob 1,X,Y,1
^2        Bob 2,X2,Y2,2
^2Loop
^2'       
^2WAIT:
^2While Serial Check(0)=0 : Wend
^2Return

^6 That  basically  displays  both  players  on  both  screens, if that
^6program was being run on both computers.


^2                       The Terminal Experience

^6 I'm  not  going to give you whole listings on terminal software, but
^6I'll  give  you one of the best routines you'll find, concerning AMOS
^6Communications ( Probably the only routine ).

^6 The  following  routine,  is SO versatile, you could log on to a BBS
^6with it, and do almost everything but file transfer!


^2                        The Routine Explained

^6Well, basically.....

^401.Start a Do...Looop
^402.     Get any keyboard inputs, into TEX$
^403.     Check to see if there are any keypress..
^404.            Make V$=TEX$
^405.            Make J=1
^406.     End the If
^407.     Check to see if J=1
^408.            Reset J, to 0
^409.            Send the String V$ to the serial port
^410.            Wait until the Serial Channel is Free Again
^411.     End the If
^412.     Set I$ to anything coming in over the Serial Channel
^413.     If There IS something coming through over the line..
^414.            Add I$ to J$.  J$ is used for Connecting checks, etc.
^415.            Check to see if the CONNECT string has been received.
^416.                    Reset j$
^417.                    Set The CONNECT string to one.
^4                                                 (Useful for BBS's)
^418.         End The If
^419.            Set up a For...Next... Loop, to the length of I$.
^420.                    Check to see if Any Carriage return/Line Feed
^4                                                               codes
^421.                            Reset J$
^422.                    End the If
^423.            Next....
^424.         Again, set up a NEW loop, for the length of I$
^425.                    Is there a FORM FEED character code in there?
^426.                            Clear the Output/Input Screen
^427.                    End The IF
^428.            Next....        
^429.            Make sure no control codes. ( More later )
^430.                    Output Anything Which has come in
^431.            End the If
^432.     End the IF
^433.Finish The Loop


^1                            BASIC ROUTINE


^201. Do
^202.    TEX$=Inkey$
^203.    If TEX$<>""
^204.       V$=TEX$
^205.       J=1
^206.    End If 
^207.    If J=1
^208.       J=0
^209.       Serial Send 0,V$
^210.       While Serial Check(0)=0 : Wend
^211.    End If 
^212.    I$=Serial Input$(0)
^213.    If I$<>""
^214.       J$=J$+I$
1^25.       If Right$(J$,7)="CONNECT" and Not(CONNECT=1)
1^26.          J$=""
^217.          CONNECT=1
^218.       End If 
^219.       For F=1 To Len(I$)
^220.          If Mid$(I$,F,1)=Chr$(13) or(Mid$(I$,F,1)=Chr$(10))
^221.             J$=""
^222.          End If 
^223.       Next F
^224.       For J=1 To Len(I$)
^225.          If Mid$(I$,J,1)=Chr$(12)
^226.             Cls 0
^227.          End If 
^228.       Next J
^229.       If CODE=0
^230.          Print I$; 
^231.       End If 
^232.    End If 
^233. Loop

^4 The  connect  variable,  is very useful, when making COMMS packages.
^4Basically, if someone has connected to your modem, then this variable
^4will be set to one.  An easy check eh?

^4 Host  machines, send control codes to tell the terminal program what
^4to  do.   Here are some of the useful ones you'll need to know.  2 of
^4them are already in the listing above...

^1  CHR$(code)     -    ^2Function

^1      07         -    ^2Bell                   ^4(Sound, or sample)
^1      10         -    ^2Linefeed               ^4(Used with CR)
^1      12         -    ^2FormFeed               ^4(Just clear Screen)
^1      13         -    ^2Carriage Return        ^4(Used with LF)
^1      27         -    ^2Escape Code            ^4(Used with ANSI)

^4 All  this  is fine, if you're doing Terminal/BBS software.  But when
^4it  comes  to games, none of this is needed.  You just write your own
^4transfer  routines.   Its  very  easy with games, as you know what is
^4going  to be sent, and when, all the time.  A Serial Link game, could
^4have as little as 10 lines worth of actual serial TX/RX.

^4 When  writing terminal software though, things get worse.  You don't
^4always  know  what`s going  to be sent, so you have to analyze what's
^4coming  in.  Is it a control code?  Is it ANSI?  Things like this get
^4very  confusing.   Although,  in 33 lines, you can do most things, in
^4reality, you need many more, to make it usable.

^4 My  COMMS  program,  Bcomm, uses the EXACT routine above, although a
^4few  things  are  added  here  and there.  But, it is over 3000 lines
^4long.   Why?   Well,  because of ALL of the available options.  These
^4days,  a  comms  package  cannot  be just ok.  It has to be something
^4special.   The  good  point  about BCOMM, is the fact that it is user
^4friendly,  and  it  looked  good.   BCOMM  has  over  120  variables,
^4including about 10 dimension arrays.

^2                         The HOST Experience

^4 Next  up,  and  the  most difficult to produce, is BBS software.  In
^4reality, it is quite simple, but if you want it to compete with other
^4BBS's which are on-line now, it has to be absolutely excellent.
 
^4 Luckily though, you don't just have to beat other boards'  software.
^4It's what is contained on the BBS which is the most important.  Users
^4don't want to be hanging around reading title text, which goes on for
^4pages  and  pages.   The  quicker  they  get into the BBS itself, the
^4better.

^4 The  actual  coding  of  the  BBS, is much the same as the terminal,
^4except  that  it's  on a bigger scale.  It must provide the user with
^4easy  access.  You MUST have a Hard Disk to even think about starting
^4a  BBS.  Because it HAS to be able to handle the vast amounts of data
^4coming  in  from  around  the world.  Well, actually, it depends.  If
^4your  BBS is not often contacted you'll get away with a small HD, but
^4if  it's  a  well  used board, the last message a logged-on user will
^4want to see, is HD FULL!  So, make sure you're equipt.

^4 I'm  about  to soon start writing a BBS editor.  It will essentially
^4be  BCOMM  v2.0.  And I had an excellent tip from Paul Roffrey, SYSOP
^4of  Amiga  Connection.   He  said the best way to go about it, was to
^4write  the  BBS  as  a  DATABASE, and then add all of the serial bits
^4later on.


^1I can be contacted at:
^2                      331 London Road
^2                      Stoneygate
^2                      Leicester
^2                      LE2 3NE

^2  Or Telephone: ( 0533 ) 705630

^1Or, should you have a modem, I can be reached on:

^1                       01 For Amiga
^2                       Amiga Connection
^1                       Amiga Information
^2                       Digital Information Exchange
^1                       Voyager
^2                       Kneptune
^1                       The Pig Pen

^4Just Mail me, as `Ben Ashley'.

^1Please feel free to contact me if you have any problems, or even if you
^1have any AMOS problems at all!


^3                   ******** N O T I C E *********

^6 I  am  now  an  official member of TECHNICAL FRED SOFTWARE.  ODYSSEY
^6SOFTWARE is still going, but sort-of-like, UNDER Technical Fred.

^4-----------------------------------------------------------------------

^1 If  all  you  wanted to do, was to mail the SYSOP, or leave messages
^1then  this  is  fine.   File  Transfering  is  more difficult, and is
^1covered in the next issue of TOTALLY AMOS......

^2(  A  brilliant  excuse  to  buy  the  next  issue  of  course  !   )

^4----------------------------------------------------------------------

^2             Written by Ben Ashley, of ODYSSEY SOFTWARE 1992

^4---------------------------------------------------------------------
/