Terminate
Encyclopedia
Terminate was a shareware
modem
terminal
and host
program for MS-DOS
and compatible operating systems developed from the early to the late 1990s by the Dane
Bo Bendtsen. The last release (5.00) was made in 1997; no details are available for the first, but the T-Cfg program which performed config upgrades from 1.0 to 1.1 is dated 1994, so it seems reasonable to assume 1.0 was not that much earlier.
Compared to similar programs of its time, Terminate had a large number of built-in features like: a powerful phone book
with long distance calling cost calculation, Fido Mailer
, QWK offline mail reader, file manager, text editor, keyboard mapping, ISDN support http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/echo/MSG-1286.HTM, fax and voice-call features, chat, IEMSI, VGA mode detection, audio CD player, and a REXX
-like scripting language.
Supported terminal emulation modes included ASCII
, Avatar, ANSI
, RIP
, VT102
, and others. A number of file transfer protocols like Zmodem
were built into the application, along with support for external protocols like HS/Link and BiModem
. The built-in support for advanced file transfer protocols made Terminate very popular at the time.
The installation program could import the phone book and settings from other applications like: Telix
, RemoteAccess
, Frontdoor
, BinkleyTerm, Portal of Power, as well as (indirectly) Minicom and Commo
.
Shareware
The term shareware is a proprietary software that is provided to users without payment on a trial basis and is often limited by any combination of functionality, availability, or convenience. Shareware is often offered as a download from an Internet website or as a compact disc included with a...
modem
Modem
A modem is a device that modulates an analog carrier signal to encode digital information, and also demodulates such a carrier signal to decode the transmitted information. The goal is to produce a signal that can be transmitted easily and decoded to reproduce the original digital data...
terminal
Terminal emulator
A terminal emulator, terminal application, term, or tty for short, is a program that emulates a video terminal within some other display architecture....
and host
Bulletin board system
A Bulletin Board System, or BBS, is a computer system running software that allows users to connect and log in to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, a user can perform functions such as uploading and downloading software and data, reading news and bulletins, and exchanging...
program for MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
and compatible operating systems developed from the early to the late 1990s by the Dane
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Bo Bendtsen. The last release (5.00) was made in 1997; no details are available for the first, but the T-Cfg program which performed config upgrades from 1.0 to 1.1 is dated 1994, so it seems reasonable to assume 1.0 was not that much earlier.
Compared to similar programs of its time, Terminate had a large number of built-in features like: a powerful phone book
Contact list
A contact list is a collection of screen names in an instant messaging or e-mail program or online game or mobile phone. It has various trademarked and proprietary names in different contexts....
with long distance calling cost calculation, Fido Mailer
FidoNet
FidoNet is a worldwide computer network that is used for communication between bulletin board systems. It was most popular in the early to mid 1990s, prior to the introduction of easy and affordable access to the Internet...
, QWK offline mail reader, file manager, text editor, keyboard mapping, ISDN support http://www.blkbox.com/~bgfax/echo/MSG-1286.HTM, fax and voice-call features, chat, IEMSI, VGA mode detection, audio CD player, and a REXX
REXX
REXX is an interpreted programming language that was developed at IBM. It is a structured high-level programming language that was designed to be both easy to learn and easy to read...
-like scripting language.
Supported terminal emulation modes included ASCII
ASCII
The American Standard Code for Information Interchange is a character-encoding scheme based on the ordering of the English alphabet. ASCII codes represent text in computers, communications equipment, and other devices that use text...
, Avatar, ANSI
ANSI escape code
ANSI escape sequences are characters embedded in the text used to control formatting, color, and other output options on video text terminals. Almost all terminal emulators designed to show text output from a remote computer, and to show text output from local software, interpret at least some of...
, RIP
Remote imaging protocol
The Remote Imaging Protocol Scripting Language, more commonly known as the Remote Imaging Protocol or RIPscrip, is a scripting language created by Jeff Reeder, Jim Bergman, and Mark Hayton to enhance bulletin board systems and other applications.RIPscrip was introduced in 1993 and consisted of...
, VT102
VT100
The VT100 is a video terminal that was made by Digital Equipment Corporation . Its detailed attributes became the de facto standard for terminal emulators.-History:...
, and others. A number of file transfer protocols like Zmodem
ZMODEM
ZMODEM is a file transfer protocol developed by Chuck Forsberg in 1986, in a project funded by Telenet in order to improve file transfers on their X.25 network...
were built into the application, along with support for external protocols like HS/Link and BiModem
BiModem
BiModem was one of the last file transfer protocols developed for use in Bulletin Board Systems. It was created by Erik Labs, and was revolutionary for its day....
. The built-in support for advanced file transfer protocols made Terminate very popular at the time.
The installation program could import the phone book and settings from other applications like: Telix
Telix
Telix is a telecommunications program originally written for MS-DOS by Colin Sampaleanu and released in 1986. More recent versions were distributed by deltaComm Development, including a version for Microsoft Windows....
, RemoteAccess
RemoteAccess
RemoteAccess is a DOS Bulletin Board System software package written by Andrew Milner and was published by his company Wantree Development in Australia. RemoteAccess was written in Turbo Pascal with some Assembly Language routines. RemoteAccess began in 1989 as a clone of QuickBBS by Adam Hudson...
, Frontdoor
FrontDoor
FrontDoor was one of the most popular mailers in the FidoNet-compatible networks in the 1990s acting as the physical representation of the written network node connection and mail handling standards. It was a DOS-based shareware written by Joaquim Homrighausen...
, BinkleyTerm, Portal of Power, as well as (indirectly) Minicom and Commo
Commo (Terminal Emulator)
Commo is a telecommunications program which was written and maintained from 1989 to 1998 by Fred P. Brucker. It was a macro-driven package and could be customized by the user...
.
External links
- Official Web-site (portions no longer available)
- Terminate - the final terminal - a June 1995 article from the PC Update Magazine