TinyTERM’s keyboard mapper allows you to remap the NumLock key. Version 4 also has a Force Num Lock on setting that will keep NumLock on for the TinyTERM window.

Doing both of these on a Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista system causes a particular issue. When you hit the remapped NumLock key, it repeats the mapped action three times.

Those operating systems read both the key press and the key release as separate events. TinyTERM also reads the key press as an event. So what actually happens is that the mapped action is triggered once for each event.

If the NumLock key is not mapped in TinyTERM, there is no problem with the Numlock signal being processed more than once. But altering TinyTERM’s behavior for this would damage other keyboard mapping functions.

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On operating systems with a root or administrator login, always use that login or one with equivalent rights to install TinyTERM or TERM. When the install requires a reboot, login as an administrator when the reboot is complete, also.

Otherwise, TinyTERM’s and TERM’s installs can’t access the files and registry settings they need. Errors during install or when running the emulator will happen if this isn’t done.

This error happens during install of TinyTERM version 4 on Windows 95. It means that Internet Explorer version 4 or higher is not installed. For normal desktop usage, this error can be ignored.

TinyTERM accomplishes web-to-host connections using an ActiveX control. That control requires Internet Explorer 4 at a minimum. If an earlier version of Internet Explorer is installed, TinyTERM will not be able to open in the browser. However, it will still function as a standalone application.

TinyTERM versions prior to 3.0 and TERM versions prior to 7.0 store connection information in files with the .con extension. TinyTERM 3 and TERM 7 use the .tap extension, and TinyTERM version 4 uses the .tpx extension. Century Software, Inc., provided utilities to convert between the various formats, so you don’t have to set the connections up all over again.

For updating .con files to .tap files, TinyTERM 3 and TERM 7 include a convtap.exe program. To use it, run it at a command prompt, using the name of the .con file as an argument. For example, to convert the file sample.con to sample.tap, the command would be:

convtap.exe sample.con

To convert a .tap file to a .tpx file, use the script TAPtoTPX.cs included in TinyTERM 4. (You can also download a copy.) See the file C:\Program Files\Century\TinyTERM\TAPtoTPX.wri for documentation of this script.

Both TinyTERM versions 3.x and 4.x store keyboard mappings in the file keyboard.dat. The format of the two files is nearly identical, in fact. The only difference is in the section heading. For example, a keyboard scheme named “My Keyboard” would be set apart in version 3 like so:

[My Keyboard.kbd]

In version 4, it would be set apart like so:

[My Keyboard.keyboard]

So to copy a keyboard scheme from version 3 to version 4, you can simply copy the entire section of keyboard.dat, changing .kbd to .keyboard in the process.

Do not use the Windows Add/Remove Programs utility to uninstall version 3.3. It can erase your hard drive! Follow the manual uninstall instructions instead.

Actually, version 3.3 dated August 1999 or later can use Add/Remove Programs without a problem. So can the April 1997 release. But automatically uninstalling versions in between those can be disastrous.

With TinyTERM’s display language set to German, the Help file may not come up. The workaround is to locate the ttus.hlp file in C:\Program Files\Century\TinyTERM and double-click it. This was fixed in version 4.12.

You may need to change the number of columns displayed in TinyTERM manually during an active session. Rather than changing the Session Properties every time, TinyTERM version 4 can do this with a single keystroke.

Open the Session Properties and go to the Keyboard tab. Click the Edit button to bring up the keyboard map. In the map, click on the key you want to use. Change the Action field to COMMAND. In the Value field, type this as one long string:

if(teobj.NumColumns==80) {teobj.NumColumns=132; eobj.redraw();} else {teobj.NumColumns=80; teobj.redraw();}

Click the Set button, then close the keyboard map. On the Keyboard tab, click the Save As button to give the new keyboard scheme a name. OK everything and save the session. Hitting the selected key will switch the number of columns displayed between 80 and 132 columns on the fly.

On a PC using the NTFS file system, you may see “Error (1808) Could not run CSL entry point: main” from a desktop shortcut. Running TinyTERM from the Start menu works fine, though.

This is caused by an incomplete shortcut. In the shortcut properties, check the “Target” line. It should read something like this:

“C:\Program Files\Century\TinyTERM\tt.exe” -P52 default

It’s the path to the executable, then a dash option matching the first three letters of the serial number, and then the name of the .tpx file. Any other format can cause this error.

You may also need to relax security on the shortcut itself. All users must have read permission, of course. In some cases write permission is also required.

The problem does not happen on FAT or FAT32 drives. The additional security features available in NTFS contribute to this issue.

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This is a display bug in some versions of TinyTERM 4. There is no patch to fix it.

It does not affect functionality at all, though. You can ignore the display.

When connecting via modem, TinyTERM fails with a Windows protection error. Sometimes the error doesn’t come up until you have connected, then started typing.

This is caused by a problem with the modem driver in Windows. Update the driver and the errors should stop.