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General Category => Amstrad CPC hardware => Topic started by: kolleykibber on 01:15, 01 December 23

Title: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 01:15, 01 December 23
Hi all,

I've spent a few evenings getting Ewenterm and Dukes telnet demo for the M4 working together.

I have something workable, few bugs yet, but I thought I'd post it for interest. This gives you ansi/vt-52 style telnet access and most sites seem ok.

It works well with amstrad.simulant.uk:464, telehack.com, a local WOPR server and a few others. Even displays ascii art!

You can use it by copying the three files to the m4 sdcard and running EWEN.BAS.

When I get a chance, I'll fix a couple of bugs and clean up the code and put it on github.

As an edit telnet starwars seems to work. very slowly.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: Brocky on 03:49, 01 December 23
nice! i was looking into doing something like this myself but havent had the time
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: XeNoMoRPH on 07:55, 01 December 23
excellent work   :o  :o
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 08:04, 01 December 23
Very, very good!
Thank you,Sir. 
I'll test it this evening.
It would be wonderful to present it
on the next exhibition!

Steven
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: dodogildo on 08:33, 01 December 23
Awesome  :)
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: ComSoft6128 on 09:45, 01 December 23
Wow!
First time I've seen screens like these from an online source in over 20 (25?) years, tremendous work :)
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: Gryzor on 09:47, 01 December 23
This is so geeky and cool :D
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: poulette73 on 10:01, 01 December 23
Hello,

Unfortunately, TELNET emulation with the M4 Board isn't perfect for accessing BBS or Telnet servers.
It works but not for all sites, and a lot of display bugs as well...

With the USIfAC II from @ikonsgr, the result is truly perfect. 👍

On the other hand, the implementation is much more complex at the beginning...
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 13:38, 01 December 23
hi @poulette73 ,

Yes. I wrote the version in the usifac bundle. But, I think it's probably only you and I  that got it working :).

The reason why the usifac version works so well is the Unix proxy manages all the telnet interfacing and translates to serial.

Implementing telnet for the M4 is much more work, but doesn't require the third machine, or the effort.

I think the ideal would be to have the esp8266 manage the telnet protocol, but doing it on on the cpc is a nice challenge. :)

Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 21:43, 01 December 23
Tested the client this evening.
Already damn good.
I have noticed, that on amstrad.simulant.uk
everything works fine.
However,  if the author of a post has an "avatar",
it is shown on the upper right side.
In that case however, it destroys the rest of the
screen layout.
The workaround is to switch off almost every
'addon' in the settings of the bbs.

Stefan
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: poulette73 on 09:02, 02 December 23
Thanks @kolleykibber for EWEN.BAS program for M4 Board. 👍
It works better than TELNET.BIN program

Now the BBS/Telnet connection is at the same level as with the USIfAC II.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 12:24, 02 December 23
Thanks for the screenshots @poulette73 

Weird how the amstrad graphic is different on all three screenshots. I'm using this as my debug screen. Hope simulant doesn't mind my repeated logons.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: GUNHED on 20:56, 02 December 23
Which is the original character set of the server?
If using the same on CPC it should be fine.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: SkulleateR on 23:51, 02 December 23
The different login screens (and menus) are results of what you choose at login here :

(about:invalid)
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 00:43, 03 December 23
Quote from: SkulleateR on 23:51, 02 December 23The different login screens (and menus) are results of what you choose at login here :

Yes, you can change it afterwards 
with [D] Default User Setting

Steven 
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: VincentGR on 18:22, 03 December 23
Oh my, was waiting for years for something like this!!!
Thank you.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: Prodatron on 23:03, 03 December 23
Hi @kolleykibber,

very nice!
8 years ago I developed a Telnet client for SymbOS/SymShell called "SymTel"...

(http://www.symbos.de/gfx/shots/telnet2.gif)
(http://www.symbos.de/gfx/blog/2015-04/2015-04-01-02.gif)
http://www.symbos.de/appinfo.htm?00020
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/forum/programming/symbos-network-support-development/msg96623/#msg96623

...which is ASCII only, without invers and bold support, but usually it is working fine, too.

But sometimes there are problems with some sites. I wonder, if some sites require a handshake to find out, if a special protocol is required ("automatic terminal type detection").
It's cool, that you are now doing the same, and I am very interested in your results!
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 00:15, 05 December 23
Hi All,

I've fixed a few display bugs, still plenty. 

I've made the pen brighter too as it looks better on the ctm644.  Although, it might slightly take away from that wargames era feel.

Works on CPCEMU as well with the m4 emulation.

Thanks for all your comments and testing, much appreciated.
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 06:30, 05 December 23
Thank you very much for your work!

Steven 
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: poulette73 on 07:40, 05 December 23
Nice job ! Thanks very much for your work 😉
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: dodogildo on 09:59, 05 December 23
Quote from: kolleykibber on 00:15, 05 December 23Although, it might slightly take away from that wargames era feel.
:laugh:
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 23:26, 12 December 23
Hi All,

I've fixed a few more bugs and created a repo here: https://github.com/fergusleen/m4ewenterm

Will post on the wiki also.

Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: GUNHED on 14:50, 13 December 23
Just an remark... There is a BTX modul for the CPC, which can do real ANSI, it adds an additional GFX signal to the CPC picture. This is done by being linked between CPC and its monitor. I made a thread about it, but can't find it any longer.

This is the wiki link:
https://www.cpcwiki.eu/index.php/Schneider_BTX_Modul

Sadly this expansion is hard to get.

However it would be nice to have real ANSI in a way like this.
Just an idea needless comment.  ;) :) :)
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 19:20, 13 December 23
Quote from: kolleykibber on 23:26, 12 December 23Hi All,

I've fixed a few more bugs and created a repo ...

Thank you very much!
Will test it on weekend. 

Steven 
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: St-BeidE(DE/GB) on 19:11, 21 December 23
:D well, I did not tell witch weekend...
Lot to do in real life. But...

Made a test run yesterday,  its a LOT improved.
The only thing thats still confusing the program
is the "avatar"  function provided by the BBS.

You can "deselect" (deactivate) your own avatar,
but I havent found a setting, that disables others
avatar to be shown.
So if the screen layout is displayed by the BBS,
there is the avatar first, then the text/message of the
corresponding user.
The text is written "across" the avatar. That makes it often unredable. 

I havent figure out if- and if, how- to download.
Is it provided by the terminal program, at all?

Steven
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: kolleykibber on 02:03, 22 December 23
Thanks @St-BeidE(DE/GB) Appreciate the testing. I've paused work on this for now, but I agree, it should work properly with the  Amstrad BBS :)

The way I test is to use 'script telnet.log' from unix which allows me to record a telnet session, then I use a little c prog to setup a telnet server and serve the log back to the amstrad client. Thing is, that works fine and the avatar is printed correctly and the cursor appears underneath the user info. So I think the issue is in the waiting for a key press after the avatar is shown on the bbs. The ANSI cursor reposition code (CUP/HVP) (ESC 14;1h) is incorrectly setting the row to 1, instead of 14.  I'll take another look over christmas, but if anybody has any ideas ... :)


Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: makinavaja on 21:25, 05 January 24
Nice work!
I just tested it with bbs.hispamsx.org and had few issues, but 100% good compared to the other telnet we had before!
So, good work and thank you very much!
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: XeNoMoRPH on 08:31, 14 January 24
Title: Re: ANSI Telnet for the M4 Board
Post by: Prodatron on 12:50, 14 January 24
Hey, Duke is back with a new video! :)
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