[gentoo-user] Searching something like a merge between gnu-screen and cutecom...

[gentoo-user] Searching something like a merge between gnu-screen and cutecom...

[tuxic]

Hi,

this is complicate for me to explain...let' try it nvertheless ;)

I am experimenting with FORTH (punyforth) on an ESP8266.
FORTH has a REPL, which -- especially in the beginning -- is
very helpful to try things out.

With cutecom I can connect to the ESP8266 and get a response.
Unfortunately - in this particular case - cutecom separates the
input line from what the ESP8266 i sending back.

With Arduino devices I had no problem to do the same thing with
gnu-screen like this 

    screen /dev/ttyUSB1 115200

...with the ESP8266 (using the same baudrate as with cutecom
before) the cursor get glued in the upper left corner.
Hitting a key, CTRL-D. CTRL-C, <RETURN> and other obvious
candidates does not help. The only waty out is killall.

Now I am in search of a "real terminal"-like thing, which 
allows me to interactively connect to the ESP8266 while
maintaining the chronological sequence of my inputs and
the returns of the ESP8266.

I tried minicom, but I always dislike the way that beast 
is configured,

Is there anything reliable available...may be even without a gui?

Thanks fpr any help in advance!
Cheers
Meino

Re: [gentoo-user] Searching something like a merge between gnu-screen and cutecom...

[R0b0t1]

Hello!

On Sun, Sep 17, 2017 at 10:41 AM,  <tuxic@posteo.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> this is complicate for me to explain...let' try it nvertheless ;)
>
> I am experimenting with FORTH (punyforth) on an ESP8266.
> FORTH has a REPL, which -- especially in the beginning -- is
> very helpful to try things out.
>
> With cutecom I can connect to the ESP8266 and get a response.
> Unfortunately - in this particular case - cutecom separates the
> input line from what the ESP8266 i sending back.
>

Like this (https://arduino.stackexchange.com/questions/24578/how-to-filter-a-blank-line-received-over-serial-esp8266)?

It sounds like the firmware on the chip is written incorrectly. If it
is doing something like echoing lines back with \r\n at the end you
can usually configure your terminal software to translate them to \n,
but if it's doing it sporadically you may need to put a layer in
between you and the terminal.

> With Arduino devices I had no problem to do the same thing with
> gnu-screen like this
>
>     screen /dev/ttyUSB1 115200
>
> ...with the ESP8266 (using the same baudrate as with cutecom
> before) the cursor get glued in the upper left corner.
> Hitting a key, CTRL-D. CTRL-C, <RETURN> and other obvious
> candidates does not help. The only waty out is killall.
>

I think screen can support dumb terminals, but this behavior makes it
sound like it is expecting smart hardware terminal feedback. Check the
manual.

> Now I am in search of a "real terminal"-like thing, which
> allows me to interactively connect to the ESP8266 while
> maintaining the chronological sequence of my inputs and
> the returns of the ESP8266.
>
> I tried minicom, but I always dislike the way that beast
> is configured,
>
> Is there anything reliable available...may be even without a gui?
>

http://pyserial.readthedocs.io/en/latest/tools.html#module-serial.tools.miniterm

pySerial ships with a minimal terminal emulator which is perfect for
reading device output. I tend to use it above anything else because it
is sufficient and I am generally working with Python. There is no
readline support, but you didn't ask about that.

Importantly it doesn't cook the input in any way or expect the
terminal to do anything, so you can use it to better figure out what
the ESP8266 firmware is doing.

Cheers,
     R0b0t1