SURTOUT NE PAS INSTALLER SUR 1 FALCON SINON PLUS DE RS232 !!!



                               Serial Fix ½ 1992
                          by Medical Designs Software
                                  Version 1.1

         Written by: Bill Penner
         Icons created by: Bruce D. Noonan, M.D.


             This program may be distributed and used, free of charge,
         provided that the program is distributed in complete form and
         UNmodified.  This software is not to be sold, however, may be
         included  on  disks which are sold for a small handling fee.
         Medical  Design  Software  retains  all  copyright  exclusive
         rights except exclusive distribution.  This software consists
         of  the  following  files  :  SERIALFX.PRG, and  SERIALFX.DOC
         (this file).


         PURPOSE

             Serial  Fix was written as an upgrade to the old TurboCTS
         program,  written  by Bill Penner, long ago, as an attempt to
         fix  the old RTS/CTS problem.  The problem the ST/STe/TT has,
         occurs  when  a  high speed modem is used in conjunction with
         ZMODEM  or  any near-continuous flow transfer program is used
         to  send  data.   The ST/TT has problems properly recognizing
         when  the  modem  deasserts  CTS  (telling the ST/TT that the
         buffer  is  full  and don't send any more data), resulting in
         the  ST  overflowing the modem's buffer.  This results in bad
         data  being  sent  which  results  in CRC errors, packet size
         problems, and other data transmission errors.

             TurboCTS was only a partial fix of the problem.  TurboCTS
         did manage to speed things up to the point where CTS response
         was  generally  ok, however, that program did not work on the
         TT,  did  not support XBRA programming requirements, and only
         worked for RTS/CTS handshaking.

             Serial  FIX  is  a replacement for TurboCTS and will work
         with  all  versions  of  TOS  (1.0 through 3.06).  Serial FIX
         supports  both  RTS/CTS, XON/XOFF, and no handshaking modes.
         The  desired  handshaking  mode is set from the RS232 control
         panel  or other program as you currently do now.  The new fix
         is  a  REAL fix to the RTS/CTS problem.  Previous fixes (like
         TurboCTS) only fixed the symptoms of the problem.


         INSTALLATION:

             Serial  FIX is  composed of a program for the AUTO folder

             SERIALFX.PRG  is  the  heart of the Serial FIX solution.
         SERIALFX.PRG is intended to be installed in your AUTO folder,
         although  it  can  be  ran from the desktop, and replaces the
         current  serial  routines for the ST compatible port.  The ST
         compatible  port is the only port on the ST and STe machines,
         or the Modem 1 port on the MegaSTe and TT machines.


         OPERATION:

             SERIALFX.PRG:   Once the program has been started (either
         booted  in  the  'AUTO'  folder  or run from the desktop), no
         special  operations  are  needed.   The  program replaces the
         system  routines  and  the port speed and handshaking are set
         just  as  they  are now, either by terminal software, CONTROL
         panel, or the extensible control panel.


         WRAP UP

             Well, ATARI has indicated that this problem (the real one
         that  has  been haunting us for many years) is finally fixed.
         The  fix  should  show up in some future release of ROMs from
         ATARI.   Until  that  time,  this  software  should  fix  the
         problem.

             As  normal,  PLEASE  let me know if you have any problems
         with  the  program.   I have attempted to make the program as
         compatible with other software as possible.

         Bill Penner, IAAD Member
         3235 Wright Avenue
         Bremerton, WA  98310-4753

         Phone: (206) 373-4840 (before 9pm Pacific)
         GEnie: BPENNER


         CHANGES SINCE VERSION 1.0

             Two  bugs  that  were  discovered  were fixed.  Both bugs
         would  only  occur  if  no  cookie  jar  was  found.  One bug
         resulted  in  creating  a cookie jar that was full of garbage
         and  the  other would not build a cookie jar.  The second bug
         was  the more common, which would result in the CPX reporting
         that  the  program  was not loaded.  Running the SERIALFX.PRG
         program a second time often worked to fix the problem.