Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 13:11:23 +0000
From: Russell Marks <russell.marks@ntlworld.com>
Subject: Re: ZFST?
To: compiler@escomposlinux.org

>  I found a .zip file called ZFST that is supossed to be a terminal
>  emulator for +2A and +3 computers... are you the author of that
>  package?

Yes.

>  If you're the author... first of all thanks a lot for creating
>  such a program, I was looking for a terminal emulator for my +2A
>  for _years_. I want to connect my +2A to my Linux box using mgetty
>  to login into it and chat (BitchX), answer mail (mutt) and news (slrn),
>  browse the web (w3m, lynx, links) using the spectrum as a terminal.

It won't be very quick, but it should work. :-)

>  I found your terminal emulator, but it is quite difficult for me
>  to save it as spectrum software... do you have the tape of your
>  program anywhere? Can you convert it to tap or tzx using maketzx?

TAP makes more sense than TZX for something like this, I think. I've
attached a copy.

>  This will save me all the work about transfering ZFST to a tape,
>  and SENDING THE TAP to www.void.jump.org you will contribute to
>  The World of Spectrum, covering something that NOBODY HAS: a tap
>  or tzx file of a spectrum terminal emulator.

I wouldn't mind you doing this, if you want. (Hence the REM statements
in the loader...)

>  And finally... how must i create the CABLE (the phisical wire)
>  to connect spectrum <-> serial rs232? (com1 or 2).

I bought mine :-), but from the +3 manual:

> PIN	FUNCTION
> 
> 1	GND			    ___________________________
> 2	TXD			 __|   6   5   4   3   2   1   |
> 3	RXD			|__   ### ### ### ### ### ###  |
> 4	DTR			   |___________________________|
> 5	CTS
> 6	+12V				   RS232 socket

Note that "DTR" there is really RTS.

So I *think* you want to connect them like this:

speccy	RS232

1	7
2	3
3	2
4	5
5	4

It might be a good idea to ask on comp.sys.sinclair, though - I've
never wired up such a cable myself.

Don't forget to install the terminfo entry. :-)

You'll need to set the port up with something equivalent to `stty 9600
clocal crtscts </dev/ttyS1' (you *really* need hardware handshaking,
hence the crtscts), and you'll need `export TERM=zfst'. I suppose
you'll want to do most of that on the mgetty command-line in inittab -
I can't remember if you can set RTS/CTS handshaking from that, but if
not you should still be ok; it just means you'll lose most characters
sent to the speccy when logging in. You can do the `stty crtscts' once
you're in.

-Rus.