man(1) Manual page archive


     MINITERM(1)                                           MINITERM(1)

     NAME
          miniterm - MinitelĀ® emulator

     SYNOPSIS
          wm/minitel/miniterm [ address ]

     DESCRIPTION
          Miniterm connects to the MinitelĀ® service at the given
          address, by default the France Telecom Internet gateway to
          its MinitelĀ® service, tcp!pdc.minitelfr.com!513.  The
          address can be any form acceptable to dial(2). Miniterm
          opens a new window that mimics a Minitel display.  An array
          of buttons on the right hand side (in 40 character mode) or
          bottom (in 80 character mode) offer the special Minitel
          functions, with French abbreviations.  Characters typed on
          the keyboard are sent to the server; typing the return key
          acts as Suite or Envoi as required.  Clicking on a word with
          the mouse sends it to the server.

          The France Telecom gateway offers a demonstration service
          using ID ZXNET1 with password DEMFTD.  Once connected, the
          services PAGESM (a directory of all Minitel services) and FT
          (France Telecom's information service) are available without
          charge.  See www.minitelfr.com for further information.

          On certain native Inferno hardware, miniterm can also con-
          nect directly via a modem connection, using an address of
          the form modem!modeminit!number, which sends the string
          modeminit to the modem to initialise it, then dials the
          given number. For example:

               wm/minitel/miniterm modem!F3!00133836431414

          Here, the `F3' is a code that tells the modem to enable
          V.23, which must be used when connecting to the France Tele-
          com servers.  To use pulse dialing instead of tone dialing
          the phone number can be prefixed with a `P', as in:

               wm/minitel/miniterm modem!F3!P3614

          If the parameter specifies a network connection or a direct
          connection with a phone number the software will attempt to
          connect immediately.  If the on-screen button Cx/Fin is used
          to disconnect and then re-connect, miniterm will use the
          same address if it is a network connection but prompt for a
          new phone number for a direct connection. When prompting for
          a new number the top row of the screen is used to allow the
          user to edit the last used number. Simple editing is avail-
          able, and the minitel keys do the obvious things.

     MINITERM(1)                                           MINITERM(1)

          The Minitel function keys are displayed on the right hand
          side of the screen in 40 column mode on a network connection
          and can be swapped to the left hand side by hitting the `<-'
          key.  In direct dial mode and 80 column network mode the
          keys are displayed at the bottom of the screen.  In network
          mode they are redisplayed as appropriate on 40 to 80 column
          mode changes.

          Miniterm provides a software keyboard, activated by the
          Clavier button, which understands some of the Minitel key-
          board mappings. For example, hitting `A' results in a capi-
          tal `A' on the screen in spite of the Videotex case mapping.

     FILES
          /dev/modem      soft modem (no longer supported)
          /dev/modemctl
          /fonts/minitel  text and semigraphic characters

     SOURCE
          /appl/wm/miniterm

     SEE ALSO
          charon(1), telnet(1)

     BUGS
          There is no button to control use of error correction in
          direct dial mode; it will be enabled only if the server
          requests it, but not all do.  Without it direct dial screens
          are occasionally corrupted.

          The software keyboard is not AZERTY.  Worse, it does not
          always come to the top on a mode change.

          Some screens look wrong in 80 column mode.

          On a network connection, choosing USA displays `iC' at the
          bottom left hand corner of the screen. The server really is
          sending this sequence.  Both the FT emulator and their
          explorer plug-in suffer from it too.