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Chapter 2 - Workstation Configuration

Configuring a Display Logical Unit - You can configure up to five display LUs to run on your workstation. This section describes the parameters you need to set to configure each of the different types of displays.
Setting Workstation Control Parameters - The Workstation Control Parameters screen allows you to change parameters that affect all the Logical Units configured for your workstation.
Setting I/O Control Parameters - This screen allows you to make your Advanced 3270/SNA software compatible with the hardware in your PC. For example, this screen lets you make your emulation software compatible with your installed video adapter.
Entering Translation Table Names - Advanced 3270/SNA allows you to customize two translation tables for use with LLAPI and HLLAPI. Customizing translation tables is explained in Chapter 7. Entering these customized tables into ACONFIG is explained in this chapter.
Saving your Configuration - Once you have configured all of your logical units, you should save the configuration in a file so that the parameters you entered can be recalled later.
Running Advanced 3270/SNA Software - You can run the software manually by typing in the names of the Advanced 3270/SNA programs, or by running the LOADUSER batch file. This chapter describes both methods.

Guidelines for Using ACONFIG

Running ACONFIG

ACONFIG filename

Online Help

Selecting Menu Options

Configuring a Display LU

1. Select Edit Device Table from the Advanced 3270 Configuration menu.

2. Use the arrow keys to highlight a session to configure, and press <ENTER>.

3. Enter the appropriate information for each field into the Device Workstation Parameters menu. To configure a display, press the Left Arrow or Right Arrow keys until the word "display" appears in the field.

4. Enter the appropriate information for each field into the Device Workstation Parameters (Display) menu.

Edit Device Table Screen

Figure 2-2. Sample Edit Device Table Screen

Device Workstation Parameters Screen

Figure 2-3. Sample Device Workstation Parameters Screen

LU Address. Type an asterisk (*) or a number between 2 and 97.

If you specify an asterisk, Advanced 3270/SNA assigns an address from the pool of available LU addresses.

You can request a specific LU address by entering a number between 2 and 97. If two sessions that request the same LU address are run at the same time, only one of the sessions is assigned the requested address. The other session receives an Attach Request error.

Device Type. The device type specifies whether a logical unit is a display, a printer, or an unassigned device. If you configure a logical unit as a display, press the <Left Arrow> or <Right Arrow> keys until the word DISPLAY appears in the field. Then, press <ENTER>.

Service Name. Type the StreetTalk name of the Advanced 3270/SNA service you want to use. You can also enter a StreetTalk list of Advanced 3270/SNA services.

Session Pooling. The Advanced 3270/SNA session pooling feature allows you to enter a list of Advanced 3270/SNA services in the Service Name field. Session pooling is useful for administrators of very large networks that have several Advanced 3270/SNA services installed.

If you enter the name of a StreetTalk list in the Service Name field, Advanced 3270/SNA attempts to connect with each service in the order that they appear in the list. For example, suppose you use the VINES MLIST command to create a list called SNALIST@Marketing@XYZcompany. This list might look like this:

3270SNA@Host1@Paris
3270SNA@Host2@London
3270SNA@Host3@Boston

If Advanced 3270/SNA was configured with this list of services, it would follow this sequence during initialization:

1. The software attempts to establish an SNA connection through the first service in the list. In the example list, this service is called 3270SNA@Host1@Paris.

2. If the connection with 3270SNA@Host1@Paris is rejected or cannot occur for some other reason, the software attempts to establish a connection through the second service in the list. In the example list, this service is called 3270SNA@Host2@London.

3. If the connection with the second service in the list is rejected or cannot occur for some other reason, the software attempts to establish a connection through the third service in the list, called 3270SNA@Host3@Boston.

4. If the connection with the last service in the list is rejected, Advanced 3270/SNA returns this error:

No Host : <NameofList> <c-r>

If you press <CTRL-R>, Advanced 3270/SNA attempts to establish a connection again, starting with the first name in the list.

Device Workstation Parameters (DISPLAY)

Figure 2-4. Device Workstation Parameters (DISPLAY) Screen

Numeric Checking. Press the <Left Arrow> or <Right Arrow> keys to set the field to either YES or NO.

Numeric Checking prevents you from entering non-numeric characters in a numeric field. If you enter a non-numeric character in a numeric field when numeric checking is on, the keyboard locks and an error message appears on the screen. If numeric checking is off, the system applies no restrictions to the characters entered in fields.

Status Line. Press the <Left Arrow> or <Right Arrow> keys to set the field to either ALPHA or GRAPHIC.

The status line appears on the bottom of the screen during emulation. The software displays characters that reflect the current status of the session. The messages on the status line can be displayed either in alphanumeric characters (alpha) or in graphics characters (graphic). The default setting is graphic characters.

Local Copy Printer. The local copy printer is the device to which you direct screen output using the 3270 Print Screen key combination during emulation. To assign a local copy printer, enter the session number of the printer to be used. The valid range is from 1 through 5. If you do not have a local copy printer defined in your configuration file, the emulator directs the screen contents to LPT1 by default.

Display Model. The Display Model field allows you to set your display to emulate 3270 Display Models 2, 3, 4, or 5. The default choice is model 2 (80 columns by 25 rows). The 3270 display models 3, 4, and 5 have larger display areas. The display areas are as follows:

Model 2 80 x 25
Model 3 80 x 32
Model 4 80 x 43
Model 5 132 x 27

To accommodate the differences in display areas, the emulator provides scroll functions that move quickly in any direction within an active window. The PC screen functions as a movable viewing window, overlaying the potentially larger display area of the emulated IBM display model.

The Advanced 3270/SNA Option software can emulate full screen model 3, 4 or 5 displays without scrolling if you have a high resolution graphics adapter. Model 3 can display with an EGA or a VGA adapter. Model 4 requires a VGA adapter. Model 5 requires a SuperEGA adapter, such as the Ahead Wizard or a VGA adapter with model 5 screen compatibility. Table 2-1 shows the type of video adapter required by Advanced 3270/SNA for full-screen mode.

Table 2-1. Full Screen Support Matrix

Graphics Adapter

Dislpay Type

2

3

4

5
Monochrome

Y

N

N

N
CGA

Y

N

N

N
EGA

Y

Y

N

N
VGA

Y

Y

Y

N
Ahead Wizard VGA/Deluxe

Y

Y

Y

Y
N = Software Scroll Required to View Full Screen
Y = Full Screen Mode Supported

Edit Display Attributes. If you answer NO in the field, the default device display attributes are used during emulation. If you answer YES, the Device Display Attributes screen appears. See the next section, "Device Display Attributes," for more information.

Window Name. Type a name into this field. The window name can be up to 20 characters in length.

Window names appear at the top of each LU window.

Device Display Attributes

Figure 2-5. Device Display Attributes Screen

Protection
Intensity
Extended Color
Underline

Setting Workstation Control Parameters

Figure 2-7. Sample Workstation Control Parameters Screen

Printer Priority. Specify a value from 1 through 5. This feature applies only when you are directing output to a locally attached printer.

Changing the printer priority increases or decreases the number of characters that DOS sends to the printer at a time. Table 2-2 shows that if you set the Printer Priority to 1, DOS will send only 2 characters to the printer at a time. If you set the printer priority to 5, DOS will send 160 characters to the printer at a time.

A low printer priority may result in slow print speed because your printer may have to wait for characters to be sent to it.

Choosing a high printer priority may result in slower keyboard response, since DOS will be spending time sending characters to your printer instead of servicing your keyboard.

The following chart shows the meaning of each priority level:

Table 2-2. Printer Priorbity Levels

Priority Meaning Characters/Write
1 Very low 2
2 Low 10
3 Medium 50
4 High 100
5 Very high 160

Status Line Messages. This parameter allows you to suppress or display SNA error messages on the status line. To display status line messages, select YES. To suppress status line messages, select NO.

Go Resident. When you enter the name of a resident application at the DOS prompt, the application loads into memory then returns you to the DOS prompt. The application is then accessed by pressing a key or combination of keys at the keyboard.

This differs from an interactive application that is called through entering a command at the DOS prompt, then presents to the user a series of entry screens.

The Go Resident feature allows you to load the Advanced 3270/SNA workstation software as a resident application. This has the same effect as pressing the Advanced 3270/SNA Hotkey immediately after running the emulator. (See Chapter 4 for more information on the Hotkey.) The benefit of making your software resident is that you can edit the file that loads the workstation software (LOADUSER.BAT) and load another application at the same time. Thus, the workstation software runs in the background and is accessible through the Hotkey, and the application runs right away.

Minimum Resident Memory. This parameter is for users who wish to load a DOS application immediately after loading the Advanced 3270/SNA workstation software. Enter the minimum amount of memory (in kilobytes) required by your resident application.

If you set this parameter, the Advanced 3270/SNA software loads, then checks to see if there is enough memory remaining to run your resident application. If there is insufficient memory remaining, an error message appears on the screen stating that there is not enough memory to accommodate the Hotkey.

Display Screen Control. The emulator normally displays a full screen of data by default. At some sites that use low-speed serial lines, this method may not be satisfactory, since screen updates are slow.

Answering YES to this parameter forces the emulator to display data RU (Request Unit) by RU. Answering NO to this parameter causes the emulator to wait for the LIC (Last In Chain) before updating the screen.

Note: When you press the Hotkey to exit to DOS during emulation, E3270 shares the PC's clock with your DOS session. You can control how much time is allocated to your configured LUs and how much is allocated to your DOS session by manipulating the TICKS and LOOPS parameters.

Ticks. The Ticks parameter determines the number of timer ticks allocated to the DOS Session before it relinquishes control of the processor to E3270. In general, the higher the number of Ticks you allocate, the faster your DOS session runs.

Loops. Each time the E3270 gains control of the processor, it calls the RA3270 for a configured LU. If you specify a number larger than one, E3270 calls the R3270 as many times as you specify.

For example, if you specify 3, the E3270 calls the R3270 three times before relinquishing control of the processor. The higher the number, the faster your configured LU sessions run.

As an example of how ticks and loops work together, suppose you have an Advanced 3270/SNA system with two LUs configured. You want to run a small spreadsheet in your DOS session concurrent with the configured LUs.

If you want your spreadsheet to run quickly relative to the LUs, make the Ticks number large and the Loops number small. For example, set Ticks to 5, Loops to 1.

If you want your configured LUs to run quickly relative to the spreadsheet, make the Loops number large and the Ticks number small. For example, set Loops to 8 and set Ticks to 1.

Enable Memory Checking on Exit. If you set this parameter to YES, Advanced 3270/SNA checks for the presence of other applications in memory before it exits. If it finds another application in memory, it asks you to exit the application before leaving the Advanced 3270/SNA emulator.

If you set this parameter to NO, Advanced 3270/SNA does not check for the existence of other programs in memory before it exits.

Setting I/O Control Parameters

Figure 2-8. Sample I/O Control Parameters Screen

Keyboard Access. This option offers two settings for reading input from the keyboard: INTERRUPT and POLL. In most cases, use Poll mode.

You should use Interrupt mode only in one of two instances:

You are working in an SNA network during periods of heavy use.
You plan to enable type-ahead support. (See the explanation on type-ahead support below.)

If you choose Interrupt mode, you should be aware of the following conditions:

Advanced 3270/SNA does not allow you to clear a VINES message by pressing <CTRL-X> when Interrupt mode is in effect. In order to clear VINES messages, you must set an automatic message timeout through the VINES SETMSGS command. (See the Command Reference for more information on the SETMSGS command.) Note that <CTRL-X> clears VINES messages if Poll mode is chosen.
Some third-party Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs may not work properly with Interrupt mode enabled.

Enable Type-Ahead. Enabling type-ahead support allows you to enter up to 80 characters while waiting for the host to respond to a pending request from your PC.

If type-ahead is disabled and you press a key sequence such as PA1, the host locks your keyboard, preventing any further keyboard input until it has completed processing the request.

When you enable type-ahead, the keyboard buffer is invalidated whenever you press any of the keys shown in Table 2-3.

Table 2-3. Keystrokes that Flush the Keyboard Buffer

3270 Key Default PC Key
FLIP <Alt-F10>
SYS REQ <Alt-F8>
RESET <End>

If you enable type-ahead support, you should be aware of the following conditions:

Advanced 3270/SNA does not allow you to clear a VINES message by pressing <CTRL-X> when type-ahead is enabled. In order to clear VINES messages, you must set an automatic message timeout through the VINES SETMSGS command. (See the Command Reference for more information on the SETMSGS command.)
Some third-party Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) programs may not work properly with type-ahead support enabled.

Direct I/O For Printers. If you have a printer attached to the LPT1 port of your workstation, specify YES to set up the printer for Direct I/O. Direct I/O bypasses all DOS functions (including any printer control commands) and goes directly to the hardware I/O address of the output device. In some cases, this can increase throughput to your printer. Note that direct I/O works only with locally attached printers. Direct I/O does not work with either VINES network printers or Printer Logical Unit devices.

Video Board. This field allows you to specify the video adapter present in your PC. Use the arrow keys to select the value that most closely matches the video adapter in your PC.

Any Adapter — Choose this setting only if you do not know what kind of video adapter you have in your PC.

EGA — If you have an Enhanced Graphics Adapter in your PC, choose this setting.

VGA — If you have a Video Graphics Adapter in your PC, select this setting.

Custom — If you want to customize your Advanced 3270/SNA software to use a specific mode of your video adapter, press <F2> at the I/O Control Parameters menu. The screen in Figure 2-9 appears.

Note: The model 3 and model 4 settings shown in Figure 2-9 work with any video card that supports standard VGA text modes. The model 5 setting works for a Paradise VGA Plus card.

Figure 2-9. Sample Custom Video Parameters Screen

Configuration Information

Entering Translation Table Names

Figure 2-10. Sample Translation Tables Screen

Saving Your Configuration

Figure 2-11. Sample Duplicate Key Resolution Screen

Running Advanced 3270/SNA Software

RA3270
E3270 filename

LOADUSER filename

Running Resident DOS Programs

1. Specify YES for the Go Resident field on the Workstation Control Parameters Menu. This allows you to use a batch file to load your resident DOS application after running the Advanced 3270/SNA emulator. (If you answer NO for this field, your DOS application does not run until you press the Advanced 3270/SNA Hotkey.)

2. Specify an appropriate value for the Minimum DOS Memory field on the Workstation Control Parameters screen. This is the minimum amount of memory that remains after you run the emulator that allows your DOS resident program to run. For example, if your DOS resident program requires 100K to run, you could enter 100K as the minimum required memory size.

3. Create a batch file like this:

RA3270
E3270 %1
XYZ

The %1 tells DOS to take the trailing parameter from the DOS command line and insert it into the batch file. The trailing parameter is the configuration file for Advanced 3270/SNA. XYZ is the name of your resident routine.

To run this batch file, enter this command at the DOS prompt:

EXAMPLE filename

This assumes that the batch file is named EXAMPLE.BAT. You enter the name of the batch file that you created.

Releasing Advanced 3270/SNA From Memory

The Emulation Screen Status Line

Figure 2-12. Sample Status Line

B TIME LU #2

On-line Status
Connection Status
Keyboard Status
Printer Status
Character Mode
Current LU Status
Status Messages

On-Line Status

Table 2-4. On-line Status Messages

Message Meaning
B The communications line between your PC and the host computer is active.
(blank) The communications line between your PC and the host computer is inactive.

Connection Status

Table 2-5. Connection Status Messages and Symbols

Message/Symbol Meaning
MY JOB Your PC is in session with an application.

Use the <SYS REQ> key to toggle between an active application and the host control program.
SYS OPER The host system control program is controlling your display LU. Your use of function keys is limited to <ENTER>, <CLEAR>, <SYS REQ>, and the arrow keys.

Use the <SYS REQ> key to toggle between an active application and the host control program. If the application is not active, you receive UNOWNED status.
UNOWNED

?		 A session with a host application is not established, but your PC is an active LU.

Use the <SYS REQ> key to toggle between an active application and the host control program. The application is not active.
(blank) Your display LU is not in a session with an application or the host control program.

Keyboard Status

Table 2-6. Keyboard Status Messages and Symbols

Message/Symbol Meaning
(blank) The keyboard is unlocked and available for use.
ELSE

X«»		 You tried to enter data while the cursor was located in a non-data-entry, or protected field. Press <RESET> to unlock the keyboard, then press <TAB> to move the cursor to a data-entry field. A data-entry field is an unprotected field.
MINUS Either you or the host computer requested a function that is not currently available. Press <RESET> to unlock the keyboard.
MORE

X>		 You tried to insert more data into a field than is allowed. Press <RESET>.
PROG

XPROG		 An SNA protocol violation has been detected by either the host computer or Advanced 3270/SNA. Press <RESET>. The message area also provides information about this condition. If the error continues, notify your administrator.
SYSTEM

XSYSTEM		 The host application has not restored the keyboard. You can wait for the host to unlock the keyboard or press <RESET> and try again.
TIME

X		 Data was sent to the host computer. Wait until this condition clears before using the keyboard.
X NUM

XNUM		 You entered a non-numeric character into a field that accepts only numbers, decimal points, minus signs, and <DUP>. Press <RESET>. Try the operation again using only numbers.

Printer Status

Table 2-7. Printer Status Messages and Symbols

Message/Symbol Meaning
PRINTER #

s-s #		 Your printer is logical unit number #, where # represents a number from 2 to 97.
PRINTING #

s-s #		 Printer # is printing from the display.
PRT BUSY

s-s		 You tried to print a copy of the screen, but the printer is in use.
PRT-FAIL

s-f #		 Printer # was printing from the display, but failed while printing. Check the printer or see your administrator.
PRT VERY #

Xs-s		 You tried to print a copy of the screen, but the printer is busy with a large print job.

Character Mode

Table 2-8. Character Mode Messages and Symbols

Message/Symbol Meaning
(blank) The cursor is in a field that does not restrict the characters that you can enter. The characters can be alphabetic, numeric, or a combination.
^ Insert mode is active. In insert mode, the characters you enter are placed one character to the right of the cursor. The existing text at the cursor moves one space to the right.
NUM The cursor is in a field that accepts only numeric characters: the numbers 0 through 9, the decimal point, the minus sign, and the <DUP> key. You can receive this message at the same time as I (insert) or other messages.

Current LU Status

Status Messages

 

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