KR> personally i prefer to use the already invented wheels to
 KR> produce some new mode of transport, if you have some fantastic
 KR> new idea for a comms prog, fine, but if you just end up with
 KR> the same thing or less then it all seems pointless, the effort
 KR> could be used to produce something new. there was a time when i
 KR> wanted to poke into everything and understand it, now i see
 KR> that there just aint time to do it properly so i'll just go
 KR> after what i need to achieve what i want, or anything that
 KR> seems particularly interesting, and leave the rest to others. 

 BL>   You poor ole bugger. 

 BL>   I know the feeling. As you get older you get lazy and are inclined
 BL> to take things on face value; to use results rather than raw data; to
 BL> use past experience to cut corners and avoid the need to *understand*.
 BL> It's a trap. You'll end up a silly old fart telling people you used to
 BL> be an engineer, claiming the T-29 was the best TV ever designed, and
 BL> that the simple answer to the Australian economy is tariffs.

 BL>   The minute you stop stretching yourself to understand something new
 BL> is the minute you begin to die. The year you find yourself comntent to
 BL> follow the herd rather than lead it is the year the lion gets you. I'm
 BL> not that old yet. The idea of buying a VBX rather than writing my own
 BL> is still anathema to me. The idea of cobbling together other people's
 BL> ideas to "create" something of mine still feels silly to
me. But I can
 BL> see the writing on the wall...

 BL> I think I'll go back and have a go at DOS and registers. That
 BL> looks lie fun!

i downloaded apd 2.0 the other night, so last night i wrote a comms
program. here it is (less the shit that delphi puts in for you):-

var
  Form1: TForm1;
  ZmodemTrigger: Word;
const
  AutoStartSt    = 'rz'#13;

implementation

{$R *.DFM}

procedure TForm1.FormActivate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ApdComPort1.Open    := True;
  ApdSLController1.Monitoring := True;
  ApdModemDialer1.Dial;
  ZmodemTrigger := ApdComPort1.AddDataTrigger(AutoStartSt, False);
end;

procedure TForm1.ApdComPort1TriggerData(CP: TObject; TriggerHandle: Word);
begin
  ApdTerminal1.Active := False;
  ApdComPort1.RemoveTrigger(ZmodemTrigger);
  ApdProtocol1.StartReceive;

end;

procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ApdComPort1.Open    := False;
end;

procedure TForm1.ApdProtocol1ProtocolFinish(CP: TObject;
  ErrorCode: Integer);
begin
  ZmodemTrigger := ApdComPort1.AddDataTrigger(AutoStartSt, False);
  ApdTerminal1.Active := True;
  ApdTerminal1.SetFocus;
end;

end.

thats it, it took all of an hour to write, it does ansi emulation, auto
dialling, auto zmodem download, and has dcd, cts, rxd, and txd
"lights" on the form. thats what i reckon is fruitful activity.
fiddling around with the works when you dont need to reminds me of when i
was a kid and a member of a model aeroplane club. there was a sub culture
there that just played with engines, i suppose that they had fun, but they
had lost sight of what it was that they set out to acheive, they never
built or flew models, just played with their engines. i know that i wont
write better vcls than most of the good ones on the market. if i find a
task for which there is no component available, i'll write one, but i there
is an acceptable component available, i'm not going to waste my life trying
to copy it.
 
 KR> well rod did always reckon that you liked lying (:

 BL>   This programming shit is turning into a real voyage. Brenton drops
 BL> hints, and he said that Windows only does what it *has* to do, so now
 BL> I'm back in DOS seeing what it has to do. It's all fiendishly clever,
 BL> actually. The idea of the PC using the  address of an interrupt
 BL> handler is mind-blowing! It's shit-easy... if I can only work out
 BL> WTF it all means.

if you are filling in the days before death, fine, if you are trying to
acheive something, then it is so easy to distract yourself to total
oblivion.

                        keith
@EOT:

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