This error is caused by a bug in TinyTERM 4.11. The only solution is to use a different version of TinyTERM.

“Invalid object instance” means that the file transfer object is unable to be located. It happens when items are not registered properly.

To resolve this, open a Windows command prompt and change directory to C:\Program Files\Century\TinyTERM. Run the following four commands:

regsvr32 cente.ocx
regsvr32 cenft.dll
regsvr32 cenbrows.ocx
regsvr32 cencom.dll

Each should give you a success message. Once that’s done, the file transfer error should be fixed.

Using the included CScript language and the keyboard mapper, you can configure a key in TinyTERM 4.02 or higher to copy the entire screen to the clipboard. Earlier versions of TERM or TinyTERM for Windows do not have this capability. And there’s no default clipboard in DOS or UNIX.

Open the Session Properties and go to the Keyboard tab. Click Edit to bring up the keyboard map.

In the map, click the key you want to use. You can click Ctrl, Alt or Shift first, or even Ctrl+ Shift, if you prefer.

Change the Action field to COMMAND. In the Value field enter this string:

te.CopySelection(-1,-1,-1,-1);

Click Set, then close the keyboard map. Click the Save As button to give the new keyboard scheme a name, then OK and save everything. The next time you hit that key, the entire screen will be copied to the Windows clipboard.

TinyTERM version 4.x will sometimes bring up the Page Setup dialog when a data capture is started. If you OK the dialog, the capture goes to the printer instead of the specified file. If you Cancel the dialog, nothing is captured.

This is a bug in TinyTERM. It most often happens if you’re using a .tpx file that was opened after you started TinyTERM.

The only workaround is to exit TinyTERM, then double-click the .tpx file you want to use. While it is the only file open, try the data capture again. You may need to do this more than once. Changing the version of TinyTERM you have installed may also help.

CR 81, improved in TinyTERM 4.11
CR 501, fixed in TinyTERM 4.7.0

If you highlight text in TinyTERM for Windows, and it disappears when you do, this indicates a corrupt configuration file. Delete the .tap or .tpx file you’re using. The next time you start TinyTERM, it will give a “file not found” error. Accept the defaults, and configure your connection again. Highlighted text will still be visible after that.

TinyTERM versions 4.20 and earlier will only accept plain text in the WRU Answer Back field. Version 4.21 and higher will accept the same special strings that are used in script.

There is a patch that will add this functionality to TinyTERM 4.20, but not earlier versions. You can download it here. To use it, copy it to your C:\Program Files\Century\TinyTERM folder. Locate the existing CenTE.ocx in that folder and rename it as a backup. Then rename the patch to CenTE.ocx. The next time you start TinyTERM, the WRU Answer Back will accept the special strings.

CR 240, added in TinyTERM 4.21

When building strings in TERM Script Language or TinyTERM’s CScript, you may need to enter non-printable characters. Also, the \ and @ characters are reserved for special functions normally, but you may need them as literals instead. In fact, the backslash character \ allows you to enter the non-standard characters like so:

^	control character; e.g., ^X for Ctrl-X
\b	backspace (hex 08)
\e	escape (hex 1b)
\f	form feed (hex 0c)
\n	line feed (hex 0a)
\r	carriage return (hex 0d)
\t	horizontal tab (hex 09)
\v	vertical tab (hex 0b)
\@	at sign (hex 40)
\^	carat (hex 5e)
\	backslash (hex 5c)
“	double quote (hex 22)
‘	single quote (hex 27)
\x	hexadecimal number follows; e.g., \x1b for escape
\0 thru \7	octal constant follows; e.g., \024 for Ctrl-T

All the above may be used together to specify complex strings. In addition, you can use the / character to separate directories in any version of TERM or TinyTERM; e.g.,

setvar sample_path “C:/Temp”

CR 710

In some cases you may not hear beeps that should be generated by the host system. This is especially common on systems without sound cards.

TERM and TinyTERM automatically play the system default sound — a beep on systems without sound cards, the default sound otherwise — when they receive a ^G character, ASCII value 7. But on desktop systems that are fast enough, that beep may be played through the speaker as a faint, very fast click.

To test for this, go to a command prompt while you’re logged in and enter the following command. It may need to be changed slightly for your individual system:

echo “\007\007\007 \007\007\007”

This should play six beeps in a row, which will usually string together as a normal beep rather than a click. If you hear nothing then, check your PC’s sound settings. The default sound may be turned off.

There is one known incompatibility, the Toshiba Satellite Pro 6000 running Windows XP. TinyTERM plays no sounds in this environment.

CR 376

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.

TinyTERM 4.40 added support for the UTF-8 character set. TinyTERM 4.42 added Unicode support for Big5, GB2312, Shift-JIS, and KOI-8. This expanded the languages that could be displayed to include Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

To use the available double-byte characters, you need an appropriate font installed in Windows. For example, you might use PMingLiU.ttf or simsun.ttc for Chinese support.

Once you have installed the right font for the language you want to display, open the TinyTERM Session Properties and go to the Fonts tab. Add the font to the list in TinyTERM, and change its matching code page to Unicode Font. Apply the change, but don’t click OK yet.

Go to the Code Page tab next. In the lower left, there’s a drop-down box. Select the appropriate Unicode option there, then click OK and save the settings. Double-byte characters should display correctly after that.

TERM for UNIX/Linux has no font settings. It relies on the operating system for all character display.

For more information about Unicode, see the official Unicode web site.

CR 334, Japanese added in TinyTERM 4.40
CR 531, Unicode added in TinyTERM 4.40
CR 667, enhancement request for UTF-8 support in TERM for UNIX/Linux