Chapter 3. Using the IRIS 3270 Emulator with an ASCII Terminal

This chapter provides information on how to run the IRIS 3270 Emulator software on an ASCII terminal. The IRIS 3270 Emulator supports three ASCII terminal types: VT100, iris-ansi, and xterm terminals. With an ASCII terminal, the IRIS 3270 Emulator supports only IBM 3278 Model 2 terminal emulation. You can access a 3270 terminal emulation session by remotely logging in to a workstation running the IRIS 3270 Emulator. ASCII terminals can support only one active session at a time.

Starting the 3270 Emulator with an ASCII Terminal

This section explains how to run an IRIS 3270 Emulator session by establishing an active link to the host, starting a session, and operating the ASCII terminal as a 3278 terminal.

IBM Keyboard Mapping for Supported ASCII Terminals

During a 3270 emulator session, many of the standard keyboard characters are assigned added functions needed in the 3270 environment. You can make use of these functions by pressing keys in various combinations. To see an online list of key combinations for ASCII terminals, press <Ctrl-e> from the 3270 emulation window.

Table 3-1 shows the IBM 3270 keys and the equivalent VT100, iris-ansi, and xterm key sequences.


Note: Keys not identified in Table 3-1 have identical functions in all environments.


Table 3-1. Functions and Key Sequences

IBM Key

iris-ansi, vt100 or xterm Keys

ENTER

Enter

PF1

Esc 1

PF2

Esc 2

PF3

Esc 3

PF4

Esc 4

PF5

Esc 5

PF6

Esc 6

PF7

Esc 7

PF8

Esc 8

PF9

Esc 9

PF10

Esc 0

PF11

Esc -

PF12

Esc =

INSERT

Esc i

ERASE INPUT

Esc E

CLEAR

Esc c

PF13

Esc !

PF14

Esc @

PF15

Esc #

PF16

Esc $

PF17

Esc %

PF18

Esc ^

PF19

Esc &

PF20

Esc *

PF21

Esc (

PF22

Esc )

PF23

Esc _

PF24

Esc +

DELETE

Esc d

FIELD MARK

Esc f

DUP

Esc p

PA1

Esc q

PA2

Esc w

PRINT

Esc P

DEV CNCL

Esc D

ATTN

Esc a

RESET

Esc r

IDENT

Esc I

ERASE EOF

Esc e

SCREEN REFRESH

Ctrl r

SYS REQ

Esc s

UP ARROW

Up arrow

DOWN ARROW

Down arrow

LEFT ARROW

Left arrow

RIGHT ARROW

Right arrow

BACK TAB

Esc b

TAB

Tab

HOME

Esc h

NEW LINE

Esc n

SWAP25

Ctrl a

QUIT

Ctrl d

IND$FILE

Ctrl b

Test

Esc t

HELP

Ctrl e

IRISXFR

Ctrl f

BACKSPACE

Backspace

<can't find symbol>

^

[

|

]


Starting an Emulation Session

Enter this command in the IRIX shell to start the 3278 display session on an ASCII terminal:

/opt/3270/bin/t3278

Quitting an Emulation Session

To close a host session, press <ctrl-d>.

Saving Screen Images to a File

Press <ESC P> to save your current screen image as described in Chapter 2, “Using the IRIS 3270 Emulator.”

3270 Terminal Status Line

The 3270 terminal status line displays operational status information from the host and the 3270 system about the validity of session-specific operations.

Refer to Appendix C, “3278 Status Line Codes and Messages” for descriptions of the most commonly encountered status line codes and messages and the equivalent IBM 3278 graphic symbols for each message. If you encounter an error message not described in Appendix C, press the <RESET> function key and retry the operation. If this attempt is unsuccessful, refer the problem to the system administrator.

To display the status line, press the <SWAP25> key, which is <Ctrl-a> on the IRIS keyboard. The <SWAP25> key is a toggle. The first time you press it, it displays the status line, overwriting line 24. When you press <SWAP25> a second time, the status line disappears and line 24 is displayed again. Normally, the status line is not shown. Use <SWAP25> to check the status of your session if the host is taking an unusually long amount of time to respond and the status line is not currently displayed.

IRISXFR Operations

To activate the IRISXFR Set Up screen, press <Ctrl-f>. Data entry instructions for each field of the menu are displayed in the help area. Once you have initiated the transfer, the IRISXFR Transfer Summary appears. For complete information about IRISXFR, see Chapter 4, “Transferring Files.”

IND$FILE Operations

To activate the IND$FILE Set Up screen, press <Ctrl-b>. Data entry instructions for each field are displayed in the help area. Once you have initiated the transfer, the IND$FILE Transfer Summary appears. For complete information about IND$FILE, see Chapter 4, “Transferring Files.”