"Hugo Cornwall "The Hacker's handbook"" - читать интересную книгу автора

package, a way of mimicking all the popular types.
Basic software to get a computer to talk through its RS232C port,
and to take in data sent to it, is trivial. What the hacker needs is
software that will make his computer assume a number of different
personalities upon command, store data as it is collected, and print
it out.
Two philosophies of presenting such software to the user exist:
first, one which gives the naive user a simple menu which says, in
effect, 'press a key to connect to database' and then performs
everything smoothly, without distracting menus. Such programs need an
'install' procedure, which requires some knowledge, but most
'ordinary' users never see this. Normally, this is a philosophy of
software writing I very much admire: however, as a hacker you will
want the precise opposite. The second approach to terminal emulator
software allows you to re configure your computer as you go on--there
is plenty of on-screen help in the form of menus allowing you to turn
on and off local echo, set parity bits, show non-visible control
codes and so on. In a typical hack, you may have only vague
information about the target computer, and much of the fun is seeing
how quickly you can work out what the remote computer wants to 'see'
- and how to make your machine respond.
Given the numbers of popular computers on the market, and the
numbers of terminal emulators for each one, it is difficult to make a
series of specific recommendations. What follows there- fore, is a
list of the sort of facilities you should look for:
On-line help You must be able to change the software
characteristics while on-line--no separate 'install' routine. You
should be able to call up 'help' menus instantly, with simple
commands --while holding on to the line.

Text buffer - The received data should be capable of going into the
computer's free memory automatically so that you can view it later
off-line. The size of the buffer will depend on the amount of memory
left after the computer has used up the space required for its
operating system and the terminal software. If the terminal software
includes special graphics, as in Apple Visiterm or some of the ROM
packs used with the BBC, the buffer space may be relatively small.
The software should tell you how much buffer space you have used and
how much is left, at any time. A useful adjunct is an auto-save
facility which, when the buffer becomes full, stops the stream of
text from the host computer and automatically saves the buffer text
to disc. A number of associated software commands should let you turn
on and off the buffer store, clear it or, when off-line, view the
buffer. You should also be able to print the buffer to a 'line'
printer (dot-matrix or daisy wheel or thermal image). Some terminal
emulators even include a simple line editor, so that you can delete
or adjust the buffer before printing. (I use a terminal emulator
which saves text files in a form which can be accessed by my
word-processor and use that before printing out.)
Half/full Duplex (Echo On/Off) - Most remote services use an echoing