That’s the ability to send whole files of text or data—including programs, too.
CAPTURE ABILITY
With capture ability you can keep a record of each end of a keyboard conversation with both people typing away. You tell your computer to open up a buffer in its RAM—the temporary memory. The buffer captures the conversation. And if it fills up, some software will automatically “write” to your floppy disk, then reopen the buffer. Some programs won’t write to the disk at the ends of your conversations unless you command them to, meaning that the absentminded will see their bits and bytes vanish.
PROTOCOL FLEXIBILITY
Beyond changing bit numbers, etc., you may want software that can handle different kinds of protocols—sets of rules telling how computers transmit different sets of information.
One possible protocol for you to use—at least in conversations with other micros—would be the XMODEM Protocol or Ward Christensen Protocol. The receiving computer tallies up the number of bits and bytes transmitted from blocks—tiny parts of material—and compares this check sum to the number that the originating machine says it sent. And if there’s a mismatch? The receiving computer asks for the block again.
You might also use no protocol at all. It’s as if you’re sending material simply by tapping away on the keyboard without any elaborate rules for the other person’s machine. You two should still, however, agree on basics like baud rate, data bits, stop bits, and parity.
Protocols use handshaking as part of their bags of tricks. Handshaking, computers swap bits and bytes to verify that they’re on speaking terms. A common form is XON/XOFF.
Some mainframes use XON/XOFF to talk to micros and vice versa. The receiving computer gives an XOFF signal, telling the transmitting one to pause while the receiving machine “writes” to its disk. XON means, “Okay, my buffer’s almost empty. Send more!” Without this flow control, you might overwhelm the buffer and lose information.
AUTOMATIC DIALING AND OTHER TRIMMINGS