Introduction:
=============

    Seyon is a complete full-featured telecommunications package for
    the X Window System.  Some of its features are:

    Dialing directory that supports an unlimited number of entries.
    The directory is fully mouse-driven and features call progress
    monitoring, dial timeout, automatic redial, multi-number dialing,
    and circular redial queue. Each item in the dialing directory can
    be configured with its own baud rate, bit mask, and script file.
    The dialing directory uses a plain-text phone book that can be
    edited from withen Seyon. Seyon also supports manual dialing.

    Terminal emulation window supporting DEC VT02, Tektronix 4014, and
    ANSI. Seyon delegates its terminal emulation to xterm, so all the
    familiar xterm functions such as the scroll-back buffer,
    cut-and-paste utility, and visual bell are availabe through
    Seyon's terminal emulation window. Using xterm also means that
    Seyon has a more complete emulation of VT102 than other any Unix
    or DOS telecommunications program. Other terminal emulation
    programs can also be used with Seyon to suit the user's need; for
    example, color xterm can be used to provide emulation for color
    ANSI (popular on many BBS systems), and xvt can be used if memory
    is a bit tight.

    Script language to automate tedious tasks such as logging into
    remote hosts. Seyon's script interpreter uses plain-text files and
    has a syntax similar to that of sh, with a few extra addtions. It
    supports many familiar statements such as conditional branching by
    if-else and looping by goto. Scripts may be assigned to items in
    the dialing directory for automatic execution after a connection
    is made.

    Unlimited number of slots for external file transfer protocols.
    Protocols are activated from a mouse-driven transfer console that
    uses a plain-text file, editable from withen Seyon, for protocol
    configuration. Seyon prompts the user for filenames only if the
    chosen protocol requires filenames or if the transfer operation is
    an upload, for which Seyon also accepts wildcards. Multiple
    download directories can be specified for the different transfer
    slots.

    Support for zmodem auto-download. Seyon detects incoming zmodem
    signature and automatically activates a user-specified zmodem
    protocol to receive incoming files. Zmodem transfers can thus be
    completely automatic and require no user intervention.

    Translation modes. Seyon can perfrom useful trasnlations on the
    user's input. From example, Seyon can translate backspace to
    delete (useful on may Unix systems), newline to carriage return
    (useful on many BBS hosts), and my favorite, meta key tranlation:
    to send keys pressed while the meta (ALT) key is held down as an
    escape (ESC) followed by the key press. The latter mode simulates
    the meta key on hosts that do not support 8-bit-clean connections
    and makes possible the use of the meta key in programs like Emacs
    on such hosts.

    Other features: interactive setting of program parameters, on-line
    help, software (XONN/XOFF) and hardware (RTS/CTS) flow control,
    session capture to a file, and temporary running of a local shell
    in the terminal emulation window.

    Seyon is intended to be both simple and extensively configurable.
    Almost every aspect of Seyon can be configured via the resources
    to suit the user's taste.

    If you use Seyon and like it, please let me know by email. This
    will give me the incentive to continue maintaining it. Also let me
    know how it works out whenever you upgrade to a new version.

Portability:
============

    Seyon is known to run on linux and SVR4. It is also known to
    compile cleanly on Ultrix and OSF/1. Seyon is POSIX-compliant so
    it should compile cleanly on any POSIX system. Seyon should also
    compile cleanly on most SYSV-type systems and BSD systems that
    have that support the termios or termio extensions. For BSD
    systems with only the sgtty interface, you have to replace the
    termios (or termio) code in Seyon with the sgtty equivalent. There
    is not much such code in Seyon though, so porting should generally
    be painless.

    Before compiling Seyon on any platform, take a look at the file
    config.h and modify it according to your system (linux users do
    not need to do that, it's already suited for their system).

    If you compile and run Seyon successfully on any platform other
    than linux, please let me know.

    The code right now is not very clean and not well-documented, but
    I'm working on that. If you encounter a problem while porting,
    send a letter to me or to the Seyon mailing list and I'll help as
    much as I can. especially with explanations on what the various of
    the code do. See the FAQ on how how to joing the list.

    Read the file PORTING for more information.

Important -- linux users:
=========================

    Q: I get 'killed by siganl 11' when I start seyon.

    A: You must be using old versions of libraraies. Test that by
       using

                ldd seyon-cmd

       This will tell you what libraries you have linked Seyon with.
       If you get anything other than

              /lib/XawVen.so.2.1 (Classic 2.1)
              /lib/libX11.so.2.1 (Classic 2.1)
              /lib/libc.so.4 (Jump table 4.1)
        
       it's time to upgrade to newer libraries.

Installation:
=============

    To install Seyon, use the Imake file. Invoke 'xmkmf' then 'make
    install' then 'make install.man'. You can also use 'make depend'
    and 'make all' before 'make install'.

IMPORTANT:

    Versions 1.1 and up of Seyon may be installed in a different
    directory (most likely /usr/X386/bin) than previous versions. Make
    sure you delete old versions or move them out of your search path
    before using the new version.

IMPORTANT:

    The application defaults file must installed or the program will
    not function properly.

    Make sure you have directory /usr/spool/uucp.

Use:
====

    Please read the manual page and the FAQ to learn how to use Seyon.
    I've put a lot of effort into making the manual page as accurate
    and up-to-date as possible.

IMPORTANT:

    Make sure the environment variable MODEM is defined to be your
    modem port (e.g. /dev/ttys0) or the program will not work. You
    have to a statement to set this variable in the startup code of
    your login shell (.bashrc for bash or .cshrc for tcsh). Or better
    yet, add the resource 'Seyon.modem: /dev/ttys0' to your Xdefaults
    file or invoke seyon by the switch '-modem /dev/ttys0'. You have
    to specify the full path anme of the device in all cases.

    The name of the startup file is 'seyon'. That of the dialing
    directory is 'phonelist' and that of the protocols file is
    'protocols'. These have to be in directory called '~/.seyon' by
    default or in the current or home directoy. Examples are provided.

    To use Seyon, just invoke from anywhere by 'seyon &'. That's about
    it. Make sure before you do this that 'seyon', 'seyon-cmd' and
    'xterm' are in your search path.

Copyright:
==========

  Seyon is Copyright (c) 1992 of Muhammad M. Saggaf. Seyon is not
  public domain. Permission is granted to use and distribute Seyon
  freely for any use and to sell it at any price without reference to
  the copyright owner provided that in all above cases Seyon is intact
  and is not made part of any program either in whole or in part and
  that this copyright notice is included with Seyon. Permission is
  also granted to modify the source as long as the modified source is
  not distributed.

Contact:
========

    Muhammad Saggaf, alsaggaf@mit.edu.

    Or better yet, join the Seyon mailing list. See the FAQ on how to
    join. Any letter you send to the mailing list reaches me (and
    others who might help).

