|Publication number||US7827329 B2|
|Application number||US 12/222,328|
|Publication date||Nov 2, 2010|
|Filing date||Aug 7, 2008|
|Priority date||Sep 27, 2001|
|Also published as||US7124218, US7441057, US20030061277, US20060259550, US20080307129|
|Publication number||12222328, 222328, US 7827329 B2, US 7827329B2, US-B2-7827329, US7827329 B2, US7827329B2|
|Inventors||Richard G. Hartmann, Daniel L. Krissell, Thomas E. Murphy, Jr., Francine M. Orzel, Paul F. Rieth, Jeffrey S. Stevens|
|Original Assignee||International Business Machines Corporation|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (19), Non-Patent Citations (1), Classifications (15), Legal Events (3)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/493,886, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,441,057, issued Oct. 21, 2008, filed 26 Jul. 2006, for “System and method for providing character interactive input/output”, which is a Continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/965,075, filed Sep. 27, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,124,218, issued 17 Oct. 2006 for “System and Method for Providing Character Interactive Input/Output”.
1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to inter operability among various computer platform architectures existing in a network. More particularly, it pertains to providing the look and feel of character interactive I/O operation across disparate architectures.
2. Background Art
In a client/server computer network, inter operability among the various platform architectures that exist in the network is a primary goal of the network. In particular, client/server network applications such as Telnet, SMTP, FTP, LPD, etc. are expected to be able to work equivalently, independent of the platform architecture on which they are implemented. However, due to differing architectures of the various platforms, there are often obstacles that severely limit developing and providing a common “look and feel” in terms of network application user interfaces presented on each platform. One such architecture example is the half-duplex block-mode display devices supported by the IBM 5250 architecture iSeries (AS/400) and 3270 (S/390) platforms. Another architecture example is the character interactive I/O architecture, such as supported by Unix (including AIX, Linux, etc.)
There is a need in the art for a system and method for providing the same “look and feel” of network applications on each platform, even though they must be supported differently by the architectures. The physical rendering of the client user interface can often limit the logical requirement of the server application in the network.
For example, when using Telnet from a Unix platform to communicate with an iSeries platform, it is expected that using Telnet from the iSeries platform to the Unix platform (the reverse direction) will work in an equivalent manner and have similar “look and feel” at the user interface. Failure to work in such a bi-directional manner is an inter operability problem. Failure to inter operate creates significant user dissatisfaction due either to loss of functionality or the need to learn custom circumventions or workarounds. Worse, lack of inter operability leads to inability to market or sell a product as a solution in a client/server computer network.
One such networking inter operability problem exists between the iSeries and the Unix platforms. The iSeries is a half-duplex block-mode display device architecture, which is characteristic of all 5250 and 3270 based display devices and any clone implementation. The Unix box is a character interactive echo-plexed architecture. Unix based display sessions are based on VTxxx type terminals and define a standard character interactive I/O keyboard as the default that must be supported by any display clients wishing to run traditional text display based Unix applications. In the Telnet protocol, a client host rendering a display should emulate the VTxxx (i.e. VT100, VT220) based display and keyboard characteristics to the best of its ability. Due to the IBM 5250/3270 display device architecture of half-duplex block-mode buffering, characters are collected in a buffer until an action identifier (AID) key is entered (such as Enter, program function PF1-PF24 keystrokes, etc.) and all the keystrokes in the buffer transferred to the iSeries application, rather than processed one at a time by an application. This conflicts with the need for a VTxxx type terminal to do character interactive I/O, which essentially means it needs to process each character, as it is typed. This means each character keystroke typed in a half duplex block mode (iSeries Telnet) client session that is running a character interactive I/O application on a Unix server does not necessarily get processed within the context of the server application as a VTxxx keystroke. Instead, it is buffered in the iSeries display device until an action keystroke is pressed. The action keystroke required is normally an enter or program function (PF) key. This is a character interactive I/O inter operability problem on the Telnet client side.
An example of a character interactive I/O inter operability problem involves password fields. In a native character interactive ASCII environment when the client connects to a Unix Telnet server, the user is presented with a login (or sign-on) panel in which to enter the profile or userid name and password. Typically, each character of the profile or userid name is echoed to the screen as it is typed in, and the cursor position moves with each character typed in. However, each character of the password is hidden by the application itself, which echos a replacement character or characters, such as an asterisk “*”, blanks, XXX, etc. . . . , or by not echoing a character at all and leaving the cursor position unchanged. Unfortunately, again due to half-duplex block-mode architecture design, character substitution does not automatically occur for an iSeries Telnet client. The current iSeries Telnet client circumvention requires the user to press the program function key assigned to the special function “hide keystroke echoes until the next action key”, which is set to PF6 by default for iSeries Telnet client. This local “hotkey function” signals the iSeries Telnet client program that the characters that follow are to be hidden. The iSeries Telnet client refreshes the screen input fields with non display attributes therein instructing the display device to simply send in the keystrokes with the next action key (AID) to avoid displaying the keystrokes to the screen. This also has the side effect of defeating the ability of the application to substitute any preferred different
Another example of a character interactive I/O inter operability problem relates to the use of graphical characters in different contexts. Consider a Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application to work with saved 1-2-3 files. Lotus 1-2-3 has a classic menu hotkey, where the spreadsheet application recognizes the “/” as a special version of the introducer character. In the context of the Lotus 1-2-3 application, the “/” character is to be used as a command to pop up an application selection menu, not as a direct character to be echoed to the display or typed into the spreadsheet itself. In order to send the “/” alone as a “real” ASCII client would, the iSeries has to use the PF11 (“send without carriage return”) trick to cause a client Telnet to avoid sending the Enter keystroke equivalent for ASCII carriage return (0x0D).
These examples are deviations from VTxxx defacto standards required by users of 5250/3270 architectures, and it forces users to memorize custom workarounds that are generally not well-known to the average character interactive I/O network user. These workarounds and circumventions are not well received by customers when 5250/3270 platforms are marketed as a solution in any network with character interactive I/O operating systems, and ironically do not inter operate with AIX (a RISC platform).
The above discussion of half duplex (see
There is a need in the art for a system and method which solves the character interactive I/O inter operability problem on the iSeries Telnet client.
It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an improved system and method for rendering a common “look and feel” on different platforms and architectures.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system and method for character interactive I/O in a half duplex block mode environment.
A system and method for supporting character interactive input/output operation in a half-duplex block-mode environment including a workstation and a server. Keystrokes at the workstation received into an auto enter, non-display entity on the workstation display are automatically transferred as entered from the workstation to a server application which processes the keystroke and responds in a manner appropriate to the context of the application.
Other features and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the presently preferred embodiment of the invention, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the invention, an auto enter non-display character position on a local display is used to receive text based keystrokes from the keyboard.
In an exemplary embodiment, in a half-duplex block-mode device, such as a 5250 display device, buffering of typed characters, in the sense of block-mode buffering done by the 5250/3270 architecture, is avoided and each character as typed is translated from EBCDIC to ASCII and then forwarded in a manner like that of a native character interactive I/O network client.
Several acronyms are used herein, including the following:
VT100 is a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) model that has become the de facto standard for text based display mode.
As characters 51 are typed at workstation keyboard 50, an attention identifier (AID) 79 is signaled from the workstation (running Client Access Express) 55, to the iSeries Telnet client 77 via the iSeries Telnet server 78 as represented by line 57B, and a 1-byte character input field content is retrieved from a keystroke buffer 53 and sent, as is represented by line 56, workstation (running Client Access Express) 55 and passed on to iSeries Telnet client 77 via the iSeries Telnet server 78 as represented by line 57 b. ISeries Telnet client 77 then translates the character from EBCDIC to ASCII and safely transmits the keystroke, as is represented by line 57A, to remote Unix application 58 via Unix Telnet Server 58B, where the keystroke is interpreted within the context of the Unix application 58. As is represented by line 59A, the output (if any) of Unix application is then returned to the iSeries Telnet client 77 and passed on to workstation (running Client Access Express) 55 via the iSeries Telnet server 78 and, as represented by line 60, to workstation display 52 (which is “business as usual”).
Thus, by configuring display device 52 to a 1-byte field 53, processing occurs immediately for each character 51 typed at keyboard 50, as opposed to buffering many keystrokes while waiting for action or AID key.
In accordance with this embodiment of the invention, a user typing a password, for example, for a character interactive I/O application 58 would see, in password display field 54 of display 52, the effect of application 58 hiding each keystroke of the password and, as shown in
This significantly enhances the iSeries's heterogeneous connectivity to more seamlessly connect with character interactive I/O dependent operating systems such as Unix.
A user terminal 62 including keyboard 50 and display 52, is connected through network 69A to iSeries Telnet server 78 and iSeries Telnet client 77 and ultimately via network 69B to server application 74 and host application 76. This is done via protocol stacks for workstation 84, 5250/3270 platform 100, and Unix box 84. These protocol stacks include a plurality of layers 64-67, 101-103, and 71-74, respectively, in, for example, a TCP/IP protocol suite (as further described in connection with
In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, workstation 84, iSeries Telnet server 78 and iSeries Telnet client 77 connecting to UNIX server 85 together represent a cascaded connection, which is a sequence of connections from the users local workstation to the final remote server on which the application is running, requiring character dependent input/output in full duplex mode.
It is an advantage of the invention that there is provided an improved system and method for rendering a common “look and feel” on different platforms and architectures.
It is a further advantage of the invention that there is provided an improved system and method for character interactive I/O in a half duplex block mode environment.
It will be appreciated that, although specific embodiments of the invention have been described herein for purposes of illustration, various modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. In particular, it is within the scope of the invention to provide a computer program product or program element, or a program storage or memory device such as a solid or fluid transmission medium, magnetic or optical wire, tape or disc, or the like, for storing signals readable by a machine, for controlling the operation of a computer according to the method of the invention and/or to structure its components in accordance with the system of the invention.
Further, each step of the method may be executed on any general computer, such as an IBM System 390 (z Series), AS/400 (i Series), PC (x Series), RISC/6000 (p Series), or the like and pursuant to one or more, or a part of one or more, program elements, modules or objects generated from any programming language, such as C++, Java, Pl/1, Fortran or the like. And still further, each said step, or a file or object or the like implementing each said step, may be executed by special purpose hardware or a circuit module designed for that purpose.
While the exemplary embodiments of the invention have been described primarily with respect a preferred client server application of Telnet and thus to a TCP/IP environment, the invention is not limited to such. IPX and SNA network transports can also benefit for use of the invention. Also, when reference is made to the Unix architecture, several flavors of Unix are contemplated, including AIX, Linux, Sun, and so forth. RISC and Sun Solaris computers are most often associated with Unix architecture, the iSeries computer is most often associated with 5250 architecture, and S/390 computers (such as those running the Virtual Machine (VM) operating system) most often associated with 3270 architecture. All these computer architectures can support the various network transports (TCP/IP, IPX, SNA, et.) and therefore this invention can apply to the many variations and permutations of each possible network configuration.
The invention is not even limited to networking environments since a Twinax display with standard 5250 architectural support of the auto-enter feature can be programmed to exploit this invention, affording the character interactive I/O.
Accordingly, the scope of protection of this invention is limited only by the following claims and their equivalents.
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|U.S. Classification||710/67, 709/229, 709/203, 710/64, 710/29|
|International Classification||G06F13/38, H04L29/08, G06F3/023, G06F13/12|
|Cooperative Classification||H04L69/329, H04L67/08, G06F3/023|
|European Classification||H04L29/08A7, H04L29/08N7, G06F3/023|
|Jun 13, 2014||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|Nov 2, 2014||LAPS||Lapse for failure to pay maintenance fees|
|Dec 23, 2014||FP||Expired due to failure to pay maintenance fee|
Effective date: 20141102