Re: Configuring tn5250 / xt5250

Hi,

On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, kim gabrielsen wrote:

> Having read the thread initiated by mr. Syd Nicholson I have some clues
> on what to look for by not how to correct it.
>
> 
> I'm running tn5250 0.16.0pre2 and suse 6.3. and I have not fiddled with
> any setup files like XTerm; not the one supplied with tn5250 nor the one
> placed under the X11 diectory..... Honest :-)
> 

Unfortunately (if Dr. Nicholson's case was any indication) nobody on this
list is familiar with suse...   Furthermore, I'm unfamiliar with the
keyboards that are used in Denmark...  So you may need to work out some of
the details yourself :(

Here's the basic idea of how xt5250 does its keyboard mapping:

xt5250 is just a shell script that attempts to load the XTerm file &
terminal type supplied with tn5250, and then runs the tn5250 program
inside of an xterm.  tn5250 doesn't actually do keyboard mapping, but
rather lets the xterm do it in conjunction with the operating system.

The xterm is set up to send a certain sequence of characters to your
system each time you press a key.  These characters have default values
and are modified by the settings in the XTerm file and the ~/.Xdefaults
file.  The XTerm file thats supplied with tn5250 should be loaded when the
xt5250 script is run.  If it is not, you'll need to determine how your
system differs from RedHat, and modify the script accordingly, or perhaps 
just copy it to be in your ~/.Xdefaults instread. "man xterm" might be
useful.

The series of characters that is sent is then looked up in the termcap or
terminfo databases to determine what they mean.  The tn5250 package
installs a terminfo file on Linux systems containing the settings that
work for us, you may need to modify it if you're having problems.
"man terminfo" might be useful in doing this.

For example, if your xterm might be sending "Escape [31~" when you hold
down shift and press the F5 key.  The terminfo file recognizes Esc [31~ as
being "F17" and tells the tn5250 program that F17 was pressed.

> I'm using:
> 
> xt5250 map=277 hostname
> 
> and it gives me an OS/400 login screen as I expected.
> 
> But my problems are:
> 
> 1) The xterm is small and difficult to read. Isn't possible to change
> the size / font of this window.?

On my xterm, I can hold down shift and press the right mouse button.  This
brings up a menu that lets me choose from a few different font sizes from
"unreadably small" to "huge".  There is probably a way to make this happen
automatically when the xterm opens with a command line switch, as well.
You could do a "man xterm", find out how, and then change the "xt5250"
script accordingly.

> 
> 2) How do i reconfigure the backspace key so it deletes characters and
> not just move the cursor?

Change the XTerm/.Xdefaults file to send a delete instead of backspace.
(177 is the octal code for the "delete" key in ASCII) on my system, you'd
add something like:
        <Key>Backspace: string("\177") \n\

> 
> 3) How do i configure the 'enter' key to become the 'field exit' key
> 
Examining the man page for tn5250, we see that you press Ctrl-X to 
send a field-exit to the program.  Ctrl-X is 030 in octal, so we'd change
XTerm/.Xdefaults to have a line like this:
        <Key>Return: string("\030") \n\

> 4) How do I configure right-ctrl to become the enter key
        <Key>Control_R: string("\015") \n\

> 
> I'm a newbie to AS/400 and terminal emulation and my users are not very
> patient, so they probably will complain if I have to become an AS/400
> expert first. Please supply some input.
> 
> Best regards and keep up the good work
> 
> Kim Gabrielsen
> 

I hope this gives you enough information to get things working.  Good
luck!



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