Chapter 3: Sending And Receiving Files; File Transfer Commands - Atari XM301 Owner's Manual

CHAPTER 3
SENDING AND RECEIVING FILES
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FILE TRANSFER COMMANDS
After you connect online to another system, you will probably want
to send and receive files. There are two kinds of files: data and
text. You'll always want to transmit data files accurately, bit by bit.
You may or may not need to be that particular when you transfer
text files.
XE Term comes with two pairs of commands that transfer files.
One pair:
Send XMODEM
Receive XMODEM
transfers files using XMODEM protocol, the error-checking
procedure used most commonly in telecommunications.
You can transfer both data and text files using XMODEM protocol.
So why not always use XMODEM? XMODEM is slower than
transmitting without error-checking. Also, because each bit is
checked as it is transmitted, you are more likely to get a transmis¬
sion error with XMODEM. Then you would have to start over.
If you are transferring text such as letters, lists, airline schedules,
and stock reports, it may be quicker and easier to use the second
pair of commands:
Upload text
Capture text
Upload Text sends a specified file to the other system.
Capture Text differs from the other three commands, which only
allow you to transfer discrete files that have already been defined.
You can use Capture Text not only to receive files, but also to save
any information you see on the screen while you're online. Cap¬
ture Text stores all information — characters you type as well as
characters sent by the other system — from the moment you start
the command to the moment you stop it.
XE Term holds the information in a temporary storage area of your
computer's memory called the buffer. When you stop using the
Capture command, XE Term saves the information in a disk file
you specify.
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