HELIOS EtherShare 2.6 User manual


7 HELIOS Terminal
7.1 General remarks
This chapter describes the configuration and use of the Macintosh program HELIOS Terminal, which allows to make simultaneous terminal connections to one or more UNIX hosts from any Macintosh computer in the AppleTalk network (multiple session capability).
In order to use HELIOS Terminal, the Terminal Server must already be running on the host you want to connect to. EtherShare is configured to start the Terminal Server automatically when UNIX is booted. It communicates with HELIOS Terminal through the Apple Data Stream Protocol (ADSP); the protocol is transparent to other AppleTalk devices.
HELIOS Terminal uses Apple's "Communications Toolbox" utility with its ADSP driver, the communication tool "AppleTalk ADSP" and the emulation tool "VT320" (they are shown in figure 134). See also chapter 4.6 "The client installation procedure".
Fig. 134: Tools in the "Extensions" subfolder of the local "System Folder")

7.2 Starting HELIOS Terminal
During the installation of EtherShare, the installation program automatically creates a public Macintosh volume with the name "EtherShare Applications". This volume is used to store Macintosh applications such as HELIOS Terminal, HELIOS Mail and EtherShare Admin.
You can start HELIOS Terminal from any of the Macintosh workstations on the network by choosing and opening the network volume "EtherShare Applications", opening the HELIOS Terminal folder and clicking twice on the HELIOS Terminal icon. After loading, HELIOS Terminal usually shows a copyright notice (compare figure 135) - unless you have changed your preferences; see later.
Fig. 135: HELIOS Terminal Copyright Notice

7.3 Setting Terminal preferences
When you start HELIOS Terminal for the first time, you should initially choose Preferences in the Edit menu in order to specify your standard settings (see figure 136):
Fig. 136: Dialog box for preferences

The dialog box "Preferences" is used to specify various standard settings which do not relate to an individual connection.
Background windows
active
Background windows active specifies whether a background (i.e. non-active) window should react immediately to a mouse click, or whether the mouse click should initially swap the window into the foreground.
New window on start
New window on start specifies whether HELIOS Terminal should immediately open a new session window on starting, or whether it should first display the "About HELIOS Terminal" dialog box. In the latter case, you will then have to choose New in the File menu each time manually.
Use saved window
location
Use saved window location automatically stores the position of each session window when you save the connection settings as a connection "document" (see later).
Connect on open
Connect on open specifies whether or not a connection attempt should be made as soon as a window is opened. If this box is not checked, you will have to choose Open Connection in the Session menu each time manually.
If Connect on open and New window on start are both active when you start HELIOS Terminal, you will get an automatic connection to the first host that replies. If you have more than one host, an easy way to make connections is to use connection "documents" (see later).
Connection, Emulation
Please specify the ADSP Tool and the VT320 Tool in the pop-up menus Connection: and Emulation: respectively. Note that the standard UNIX VT100 emulation is a subset of VT320. Refer to the appropriate documentation from Apple for more information on the VT320 Tool.
Language
The pop-up menu Language is used to select the desired dialog language for menus, messages and screen prompts. The default for this field is the language setting of your Macintosh system file. If you change Language, you must close and re-open each window before the new language will take effect.
Saving your preferences
If you apply any changes to the Preferences window, they are only valid after clicking OK. Click Cancel to close the window without saving changes.
7.4 Configuring the connection
When you choose New from the File menu, HELIOS Terminal opens a new window with the chosen tools. If you have chosen Connect on open, you will also get an automatic connection to the first host that replies.
Assuming that Connect on open is not specified, you must configure the connection settings before you can make a connection to a particular host. To do this, choose Connection... in the Settings menu (see figure 137).
Fig. 137: Settings menu

First of all, make sure that AppleTalk ADSP Tool is specified as Method: in the "Connection Settings" dialog (compare figure 138). This tool is the one you need to communicate with the Terminal Server. If you have installed other communications tools such as the "Modem Tool", they will also be visible in this pop-up menu.
Then check whether UNIXTerminal is specified in the Connection Type: field. This must be the same AppleTalk (NVE) type as that of the Terminal Server on the host.
Fig. 138: Choosing the AppleTalk ADSP Tool

Then use the list in the box on the left to choose the zone of the UNIX host that you want to connect to. The list shows all known zones. Unless you have other, external routers in your network, only the zones from internal EtherShare routers (e.g. Ethernet) will be visible. If you only have one zone (because you only have one hardware interface, or because other zones are not available for some reason), you will see an asterisk "*" (this represents the current zone) rather than a zone name.
After choosing the zone, the list in the box on the right shows all UNIX hosts in the chosen zone with which you are able to make a connection (i.e. all hosts that are running the Terminal Server). Please choose the desired host and click OK.
Fig. 139: Session menu

Now choose the option Open Connection from the Session menu (see figure 139). The UNIX host should reply in the emulation window (see figure 140).
Fig. 140: Emulation window

Please enter your UNIX login name and password, which are both to be entered with respect to case sensivity!) in order to complete the connection to the selected host.
To avoid having to make the above entries for zone, host name, etc. each time you make a connection, you can save the connection settings as a connection "document" by choosing the option Save As... in the File menu. Choose an easy-to-remember file name for the document, e.g. the name of the UNIX host with which you have made the connection, and save the document in the folder containing the HELIOS Terminal application. The next time you start HELIOS Terminal, you can make the same host connection again by choosing the previously saved connection document in the Documents submenu of the Windows menu. This saves time, particularly if you want to connect to several different hosts. Alternatively, if you double-click on a particular connection document with the Finder, HELIOS Terminal and the selected connection will be started.
Fig. 141: Windows menu

If you have opened several sessions and you are not sure which is which, use the Windows menu to see a list of all open windows and to bring one of them to the foreground. The current foreground window is marked with a (compare figure 141). If you open more than one session on the same host, the window names will be numbered automatically (e.g. isis-1, isis-2 etc.). The option Stack Windows neatly re-arranges all the windows (see figure 142).
Fig. 142: Multiple sessions showing stacked windows

7.5 Copy and paste
The Edit menu contains the typical Macintosh options for processing selected blocks of text (see figure 143).
Fig. 143: Edit menu

The special option Copy Table is a variant of the Copy option, which automatically replaces one or more blanks by a "Tab" character. This makes it easy to copy tabular information from the UNIX host into a spreadsheet program on the Macintosh.
Particularly for tables, it is useful to be able to mark a rectangular block for copying rather than using the normal Macintosh way of highlighting a block of text. You can select a rectangular area by pressing the Command key while you are marking the area with the mouse. In figure 144, this option has been used to omit the first three screen columns on the left.
This is especially helpful in conjunction with the Copy Table option: after selecting the rectangle you want, choose Copy Table, switch to your spreadsheet program, and choose Paste (see figure 145).
Fig. 144: Using "select rectangle" with the Copy Table option
Fig. 145: Pasting the table into a spreadsheet program


7.6 Function keys
The various Macintosh computer models have several different keyboard layouts, whereby only the "Apple Extended Keyboard" is provided with function keys. Choose the Function Keys submenu in the Keys menu to see a picture of the function keys of the VT320 terminal (see figure 146). Select the required function key with the mouse.
Fig. 146: Function keys

A similar feature is available for the keypad and for the editing keys.
Fig. 147: Editing keys

Fig. 148: Keypad keys

If you want to use applications on the UNIX host which regularly use function keys, and you do not have an "Apple Extended Keyboard", you can use a program like Macromaker to redefine the function keys to your own choice of Macintosh keyboard shortcuts.

© 2002 HELIOS Software GmbH