[NOTE: This article originally appeared in the July '92 issue of Atari

Interface magazine. It can be freely reprinted in non-commercial user group

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publications must first obtain permission (written or verbal) before

reprinting this article.  Atari Interface, 3487 Braeburn Circle, Ann Arbor,

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Porting from the ST



Making the ST and Portfolio Talk to Each Other



Bill Rayl



Probably the hardest thing an Atari ST user encounters as a new Portfolio

user is getting the two computers talking to each other for the very first

time.



The Portfolio has built-in software for file transfers via the Parallel

Interface and the Parallel Interface comes with compatible transfer

software to run on an IBM. Unfortunately, this method cannot be used on an

ST, even under IBM emulation. The reason for this is that the ST's parallel

port does not use a couple pins that are extremely important to this

software.



So, how do you use your ST to transfer software to the Portfolio? Every

article written on the subject in Atari publications so far tells you that

you have four basic options:



Borrow someone's IBM and use it to transfer a telecommunications package to

your Portfolio.



Buy the DOS Utilities card from Atari or an Atari dealer (retail price

$89.95). It has XTERM, the PD terminal package of choice for the Portfolio.



Find someone else who owns a Portfolio and has already gotten a terminal

package onto it, then have them copy it to your RAM card. (Some people have

even gone so far as to send their cards to Don Thomas at Atari to have him

give them a copy of XTERM!)



Purchase TransporT from Artisan Software (retail $29.95) and use a null

modem cable to transfer your terminal package to the Portfolio.



Of these options, TransporT is the one I'd recommend most...if you want to

use only those choices.



You see, all of those articles have missed the least expensive way to get a

terminal package onto your Portfolio from your ST. In fact, some of those

other articles state that what I'm going to tell you here is impossible.



Other than the cables you'd need to buy anyway to use the Portfolio with a

modem, chances are you already have almost everything you need.



The Supplies



All the hardware you need is:



An ST



A Portfolio



The Serial Interface for the Portfolio



A modem cable and null modem adaptor (or just a null modem cable)



Your best option is to use a modem cable with 9-pin female connector on one

end and 25-pin male connector on the other. Then, get a null modem adaptor

with one 25-pin male end and a 25-pin female connector on the other end.

This way, you can use the modem cable minus the null modem adaptor for

normal telecommunications.



If all you can find is a modem cable with 9-pin AND 25-pin female

connectors and a null modem cable with both male ends (these do seem to be

the most prevalent), don't worry. Just pick up an RS232 Gender Changer with

25-pin female connections at both ends. Your local Radio Shack should carry

all of these cables and adaptors.



The ST software you need is a terminal package that supports transfer rates

of as low as 110 baud. This includes Flash! and many PD and Shareware

packages. Chances are the ST terminal package you already use can handle

this.



If not, there's another option. First, you need the Atari Control Panel (or

any software giving you the capability to set your RS232 parameters). Since

the Control Panel comes with every system Atari sells, it's a good bet you

already have it, even if it's not installed. Then, you need a program that

can send information out the serial port. I personally used EdHak

(available from Clear Thinking) to test this, and it worked beautifully. 



As for the files you are going to transfer to the Portfolio, you need the

following:



HEXBIN.COM -- A utility to convert HEX files into BINARY runnable format.

File size: 257 bytes. Checksum: 408D. (Checksums will be explained later.)



XTERM2.HEX -- HEX version of the XTERM2 telecommunications package for the

Portfolio. Supports Xmodem and ASCII file transfers and lots more.



XTERM2.DOC -- Text documentation for XTERM2. You don't really need this

file for the transfer to work, but you'll probably need it to use XTERM2

effectively. You can simply leave this doc file on your ST and read it from

there or print it out for reference.



CHECKSUM.COM -- A small utility that gives you a Checksum corresponding to

a given file. This file is optional to the process, but it helps. File

size: 129 bytes. Checksum: 30A7.



These are all Public Domain files available from the Portfolio Forum

on CompuServe (GO APORTFOLIO). If you're at all interested in the

Portfolio, this is THE place to be. There are literally hundreds of

programs for the Portfolio there...all just a quick download away.



The files are also available on this month's ST disk, in the ST2PORT.APP

self-extracting archive.



The Starting Block



We'll assume you have all the files listed above somewhere on your ST. For

this article, I'm going to describe doing the transfers using Flash. If you

are using some other terminal package, you may need to slightly modify

these directions.



Start with both the ST and Portfolio turned off. It helps if you have both

machines fairly close together, so that you can type on them both without

moving from where you are.



Plug the Serial Interface into the Portfolio. Attach the modem cable's

9-pin end to the Interface, plug one end of the null modem adaptor into the

"normal" 25-pin end (adding on the Gender Changer if needed) and then plug

the whole thing into the ST's serial port.



On the ST Side



Boot up the ST and run Flash. Set the baud rate in Flash to 110 baud (use

Alt-B and click on the "110" button). While in the dialog box, make sure

you have 8-bits, no parity and 1 stop bit set, as well. Click OK when done.

If you want to watch the file's progress as it sends, you should also

set Flash to Half Duplex (type Alt-P).



Now, we'll go set the ASCII transfer options. Press the right mouse button

to switch to the GEM screen. Select "Ascii UL/DL" from the Edit drop down

menu. At the dialog box, set LINE PAUSE to its maximum of 9 and turn

everything else off EXCEPT METERING, which should be turned on. Click OK.



Go to the Upload drop down menu and select "File Ascii." Use the File

Selector to find the file HEXBIN.COM. Click ONCE on the file, but don't

send the file yet (i.e., select the file but don't press Return, don't

click OK, and don't double-click the file!). Place the mouse pointer right

above the OK button and leave it there.



On the Port Side



Boot up the Portfolio and get into Setup. Select "RS232 port..." from the

menu. Set the Baud rate to 110, Parity to None, Data bits to 8 and Stop

bits to 1.



Then, select Initialize! from the menu. If you get a "Communication error"

message the first time, try Initializing the Interface again. If you

repeatedly get this error, there's a serious problem with either the

Interface or its connection to the Portfolio. Turn the Portfolio off, make

sure the Interface is firmly connected and try Initializing it again.



Once the Interface is initialized, get to the DOS prompt (press Esc a couple

times). At the DOS prompt, path to your RAM Card by typing A: and hitting a

carriage return. Then, type the following (DON'T hit a carriage return

after this yet!):



COPY AUX: HEXBIN.COM



Ready, Set...



The next step takes a little bit of timing on your part. Thankfully, you

don't have to be too quick about this, though. What you need to do is press

Return on the Portfolio and then click the ST's left mouse button (or press

Return) BEFORE the Portfolio times out trying to copy from the Serial

Interface. You'll know if the Portfolio times out you'll see an "Abort,

Retry, Ignore" message on the Portfolio but the ST is still sending.



If the Portfolio does timeout, simply type 'A' to Abort, retype the COPY

command (or press and hold the Fn key, followed by F3) and re-setup for the

file transfer on the ST side. Then, try it again.



If everything goes well, the ST will finish sending while the Portfolio

continues to display "AUX to A:\HEXBIN.COM." A few seconds later, you'll

see



Not ready error

Abort, Retry, Ignore?



Yes, that's the same message you'll see if the Portfolio times out. That's

why it's important that you can recognize the difference between success

and failure here. If the ST is still sending and this error occurs, the

transfer has failed. If the ST has finished sending and you see this error,

everything is great.



Type 'A' to Abort and type DIR (followed by a Return). You should see the

file HEXBIN.COM safely stored on the RAM Card with a file size of 257

bytes.



Round and Round



Repeat the above file transferring steps for XTERM2.HEX and, optionally,

CHECKSUM.COM. You can use CHECKSUM to verify that the files transferred

successfully. At the DOS prompt, simply type CHECKSUM, followed by the name

of the file you want to test and a return. For instance, to test

HEXBIN.COM, enter the following (with a carriage return) at the DOS

prompt:



CHECKSUM HEXBIN.COM



Once you have both HEXBIN and XTERM2.HEX on the Portfolio, you're in the

home stretch. At the DOS prompt, type the following line (with a carriage

return at the end):



HEXBIN XTERM2.HEX



The HEXBIN program will now convert the hexadecimal values in XTERM2.HEX

into a binary, executable program. The output file is automatically called

RESULT.OUT. Type, again from DOS and with a return at the end:



REN RESULT.OUT XTERM2.COM



The new program file should be 2,898 bytes in length and have a checksum of

99F3. If not...try, try again.



That's All Folks!



You should now have a working terminal program on your Portfolio. Turn your

Portfolio and ST back off (just to be safe) and disconnect the modem

cable from the ST. Keep the Serial Interface connected to the

Portfolio. Remove the null modem adaptor or null modem cable and use the

normal modem cable to connect the Interface and Portfolio to your modem.



Boot up your Portfolio and go to Setup again. Reset your RS232 port to

whatever your highest baud rate is on your modem -- XTERM2 can handle 9600

baud with no problem! You can skip Initializing the port, because XTERM2

will do it for you.



Now, get to the DOS prompt again, path to A: if necessary, and run XTERM2

by typing "XTERM2" (without the quotes) followed by a carriage return. You

should be greeted with XTerm's copyright notice and mini help screen. From

here on out, anything you type in is sent directly to your modem. If using

a Hayes-compatible, you can use ATDT to dial the modem, etc. Support files

on CompuServe can even give you a Dialing Directory of sorts for XTerm.



Make sure to read XTerm's documentation and keep a hardcopy of the docs

handy for reference.



That's all there is to it, folks! It may seem a little convoluted, but it's

basically no different than null modem file transfers to any other

computer...except you're starting out with no transfer software on one of

the machines.



I should note here that it may not be necessary to use 110 baud AND set

metering to its slowest possible option. Better to be a little slower than

necessary than too fast, though. I have had only mediocre success in

transferring files at 300 baud, so I don't recommend using faster than 110

baud. At 110 baud and metering set to 9 in Flash (or Slow in EdHak), I've

had 100% success with over a dozen file transfer attempts.



Another important note is that you should not try this method with larger

binary programs (like ACOM.EXE or even XTERM2.COM). It simply will not

work, because these files contain control characters that stop the transfer

dead. Things like Control-C, Control-D, etc. end the transfer. Play it safe

and transfer the files listed in this article. Then, use your newly created

XTERM2.COM to do Xmodem file transfers from then on. Of course, you can use

this method at any time to transfer ASCII text files to and from your

Portfolio.



Sometimes the impossible isn't really all that hard.

