Looking for the perfect 5250 client... -- MIDRANGE-L

O.k., this is it.  I am looking for the "perfect" 5250 emulator client.  In
short, I can say that the good features of Client Access (v3r2 is what I
currently use) make it an ideal client for me.  But CA carries a lot of
baggage, and sometimes I am forced to use other 5250 clients because of
limitations.  The one that I am currently forced to use as some clients'
AS/400s don't have CA installed, is a dud called ViewNow currently marketed
by NetManage (more on that below).

The good that keeps me coming back to CA:
Primarily, when using the green screen, I don't even know the mouse exists;
I am definitely a keyboardist in this mode.  I also use a *lot* of MS
Word-type of copying/pasting and cursor navigating in the course of my daily
work:
- Ctrl-C: Copy selected text into clipboard
- Ctrl-V: Paste clipboard
- Shift-Cursor: Select text in the direction of the cursor key being used.

When editing source, I colorize comments quite a bit.  I need an easy way to
do this.  CA has a macro function available for this that I assign to a
popup keypad and to a few keyboard key combinations.  I will *not* succumb
to copying attributes from a "color" source member set up for this purpose.

The 27x132 mode is very readable.  I do all my editing in this mode.

Frankly, I don't think these features would be all that difficult to
achieve.  However, my (admittedly limited) experience with other vendors'
5250 clients has left me unfulfilled.  I have yet to find one that will let
me do the customization I described above.  (If any of you know of one,
please let me know!)  The aforementioned ViewNow is a piece of cr*p, you
need a support contract to report bugs (!!!), and, anyways, NetManage isn't
enhancing or fixing it anymore (but they'll be glad to sell you Rumba).  Woe
be to you if you type a non-numeric in a numeric-only field, or try to type
past the end of a mandatory field-exit field with this client; the Reset key
doesn't fix it, and we (finally) discovered that you have to SysReq and
return to get the keyboard to unlock.  Bleaahhh.

The other "new" thing I've encounted is connecting to remote AS/400s thru
VPN.  I discussed this in a previous thread.  The IP address points to our
server, and then a pre-defined port on that server "VPNs" to the remote
AS/400.  CA v3r2 does not seem to support this.  ViewNow does.  Do other
clients support this?

I am wondering if the open-source 5250 client I've seen discussed here would
allow me to do the customization I require "out-of-the-box".  I would be
willing to develop something for it, if it is possible, and is within my
skillset.

Comments would be most certainly appreciated.

- Dan Bale
(I am *NOT* "Dale"
http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200105/msg00281.html )
SAMSA, Inc.
989-790-0507
DBale@SAMSA.com
  Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.
  (Whatever is said in Latin seems profound.)