Subject: 5250 Telnet enhancements and PCO

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1998 10:28:14 -0800

The new 5250 Telnet enhancements are a leap forward in allowing more
     AS/400 applications to be used over TCP/IP.  This will be gratefully
     received by the world at large.  However, there is still one type of
     AS/400 application which can't run:  PCO (also known as Personal
     Organizer).

     PCO is a feature that allows host applications to initiate programs on
     workstations that support it.  The user enters STRPCO (start pco) on a
     command line, and then enters STRPCCMD (start pc command) to issue
     commands to the workstation.  Or, a host system administrator may
     design menus and programs that issue pc commands under the covers.  In
     either case it results in sending a specially formatted screen to the
     workstation.  It requires the client to have code that detects and
     responds to a certain character pattern in the screen buffer.

     Historically, 5250 Telnet sessions have always been prevented from
     using PCO.  If you type STRPCO today then it is rejected with: "STRPCO
     can only be run from a programmable workstation".  The AS/400 has
     always used device descriptions for Telnet sessions with some internal
     bit turned off, so these sessions are unable to use PCO.  There is no
     API to toggle this capability; I think it can only be set when the
     device is created.

     Could we update the RFC to lift this restriction on PCO?

     I suggest adding a USERVAR to indicate if the client desires to have
     the PCO capability.  A possible form would be:

     USERVAR   VALUE               EXAMPLE   DESCRIPTION -------
     ----------------    -------   --------------- IBMPCO    us-ascii
     char(1)    Y | N     Personal Organizer

     The result of option 'Y' would have the telnet server allow STRPCO and
     STRPCCMD to be used in the session.  If this new USERVAR is not used,
     the default action should be to not allow PCO commands, which matches
     the traditional telnet behavior.

     Thanks in advance for your comments!

     Barry Hansen
     [email-masked]

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From: Jeffrey Stevens <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1998 13:30:13 -0400

Barry,

This is a good question; we investigated this and found
some PTF's for PCO support, which may help get you running:

PTF SF39121 (V3R2M0) for APAR SA60874
PTF SF39409 (V3R7M0) for APAR SA60877

I tried the command from a 5250 session to a V4R3M0 and V4R2M0
box and was successful.  I believe the only limitation to using
PCO was whether your client emulator software supports it (there
should not be any Telnet limitation).

==================================================================
Jeffrey Stevens/Endicott/IBM - AS/400 TCP/IP Applications (LPD/WSG/Telnet)
Work: [email-masked]     Private: [email-masked]
"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." - Alexander
Woollcott

[email-masked] on 04/02/98 01:55:49 PM
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Subject: 5250 Telnet enhancements and PCO

     Barry Hansen
     [email-masked]