A0. Problem solving ________________________________________________________________ dataComet documentation. (Rev. 1/27/08) Copyright 1995 databeast, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This document has information on (select and use "Find..." to go to the section): General notes Fonts "How do I select a separate print font size?" Function keys don't work dataComet crashes on launch Pressing Return in ASCII emulators gets two responses IBM mainframe QMF application shows "GDDM" error Funny characters appear in 3270 displays Serial problems ___________________________________________________ General notes ___________________________________________________ Compatibility: dataComet-X and dataComet-Secure X are compatible with OS X 10.2 and later. Menu-key equivalents are superseded by macro keys, but the menus are not corrected. If you try to download a file to a locked disk, after the file transfer fails you will not be able to access that particular file again until you quit and restart dataComet; you will not be able to completely dismount the disk because the file will be "busy", although you can eject the disk, unlock it, and access other files. ___________________________________________________ Fonts ___________________________________________________ You will obtain best results in screen display with Comet-Fonts in the 9, 12, or 16 point sizes. Note that the Comet Fonts must be installed in the Fonts folder under OS X before they will be available. These fonts allow display of special graphics characters used by VT100, PC-ANSI or SCO-ANSI, and IBM terminals. Versions of dataComet after 10.0.2 include TrueType fonts so printing of these characters is fully supported under OS X; if you select smaller sizes other than 9, 12, or 16 for on-screen display, you get a TrueType rendition, which may not appear as legible. ___________________________________________________ "How do I select a separate print font size?" ___________________________________________________ dataComet allows you to select a print font and size different from your normal screen font and size: hold down the Option key while selecting the font from the "Control->Font->" submenu to select a separate print font; hold down the Option key while selecting the "Control->Size->" submenu to select a separate print font size. The separate print font and size will be marked with a '>' character in the submenu. ___________________________________________________ Function Keys don't work ___________________________________________________ Dashboard and Expose, among other MacOS X applications, are configured to use some of the Function keys. You can free up the Function keys by opening the System Preferences "Dashboard & Expose" panel and changing the keymappings. You can change other Function key remappings that might be in effect by opening the System Preferences "Keyboard & Mouse" panel and selecting "Keyboard Shortcuts". ___________________________________________________ dataComet crashes on launch ___________________________________________________ dataComet may crash when launched if the "Comet Default" document in the dataComet Preferences folder has become corrupted (in User Preferences/dataComet Preferences under OS X or the System Folder/Preferences/dataComet Preferences under OS 9). Try deleting the document and launching again. ___________________________________________________ Pressing Return in ASCII emulators gets two responses ___________________________________________________ If you get two lines or skip the "password:" line on login after pressing Return, try changing the settings for "Return key sends:" "Carriage Return", "Line Feed" in the "Control Emulator" dialog. dataComet ASCII sessions default to the Telnet standard and sends CR-LF when return is pressed; sometimes hosts are configured to interpret BOTH as Carriage Returns, so you get two responses when you press Return once: one responding to the line you entered, and one responding to an "empty" line. ___________________________________________________ IBM mainframe QMF application shows "GDDM" error ___________________________________________________ If you get a message like this from your IBM mainframe host when attempting to use dataComet: DSQ40079 GDDM error ADM0088 E QUERY VALUE ERROR: TOKEN '*', HDR X'001C8186', O FF X'1B'. Severity 8. you can fix it by enabling the "Control Color..." dialog item "É except Background" so that dataComet will report that it doesn't offer background colors. ___________________________________________________ Funny characters appear in 3270 displays ___________________________________________________ If you see odd characters appearing in a 3270 display, you should try selecting the font again (preferably Comet Mona, a standard Macintosh font, or Comet ALA for NOTIS library system access). You can also correct this by manually selecting the "Control Translation" setting; this is performed automatically when you select a font. Note, however, that no EBCDIC mappings are currently provided for "3270 {} Comet ISO-Latin-1", "3270 {} Comet DEC Multinational", or "3270 {} Comet PC-ANSI", so extended ASCII characters > 128 will not be translated correctly for these special non-Macintosh character sets. ___________________________________________________ Serial problems ___________________________________________________ These are often the most complex and difficult problems to resolve due to the variety of settings possible and the vagueness of the RS-232C port on most modems (which is interfaced to an RS-422 port on the Macintosh). This warning also applies if you're using a USB to serial adapter to make a serial connection. If you're using hardware handshake, which is the preferred mode, make sure that you have a cable which supports hardware handshaking. If you are experiencing data loss or errors in transmission, try lowering the baud rate to 19,200 or 9600; if your cable is not of good quality and there is a lot of EMI present (Electro-Magnetic Interference) from other computers or electronic devices, the signals on the cable may be corrupted by the interference. ________________________________________________________________