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| Developed by | David Alverson |
|---|---|
| Latest release | 1.0 / 19 April 1994 |
| Preview release | 1.1b7 / 7 October 2002 |
| OS | Mac OS, Mac OS X |
| Type | terminal emulator |
| License | $20 shareware |
| Website | http://homepage.mac.com/dalverson/zterm/ |
ZTerm is a shareware terminal emulator for Apple Macintosh computer systems. It was introduced in 1992 running on System 7 and has been updated to run on the latest Mac OS X. Contrary to the built-in Terminal.app, which only communicates with other software programs, ZTerm only communicates with hardware serial ports (or USB serial adaptors on Mac OS X), giving it a unique use for BBSers and hardware tinkerers. Its name comes from its use of the Zmodem file transfer protocol.
When it was first introduced, ZTerm was one of the highest performing terminal emulators on the Mac, both in terms of basic text display as well as file transfer performance. Its hardware support included both carrier detect (CD), hardware hangup (DTR) and hardware flow control, as well as speeds up to 119,200 bps on those machines that supported it.
ZTerm supported one of the widest variety of file transfer protocols available, including a full implementation of ZModem, YModem, YModem-G, almost all of the common varieties of XModem with different packet sizes and error correction codes, and even the rare but useful B protocol for use on Compuserve. ZTerm also supported auto-starting transfers from ZModem and B.
Additionally, ZTerm included a complete PC graphics character set and ANSI escape codes, including color. This made it one of the few terminals on the Mac that properly displayed ASCII art, and allowed full interaction with PC-based BBS systems that used these features extensively. ZTerm also allowed the mouse to be used to position the cursor, sending the correct stream of ANSI codes to move it to the clicked location.
By the time that Mac OS X was being released around 2001, the BBS world had largely disappeared. However, a number of devices still use serial ports to communicate, typically for diagnostic and debugging purposes. On 19 April 2001 Alverson released version 1.1b4 that ran on OS X and OS 8 and 9 using the Carbon.[1] A later version was released that did not use Carbon, allowing it to run on older machines that could not support OS 8 or 9. On modern machines without built-in serial ports, it can identify and use a wide variety of USB-based serial devices.[2]
References
- ^ Dennis Sellers, "ZTerm gains Mac OS X compatibility", MacCentral, 19 April 2001
- ^ Dave Alverson, "ZTerm - Macintosh Modem Communications", 03 May 2008
