Terminal Sockets: Terminal emulator to Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) network programming interface specification for Microsoft(RTM) DOS

Windows Sockets is an industry standard for Microsoft Windows providing a universal interface to compliant applications and the Transport Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) stack. Microsoft DOS, however, lacks such a standard--each vendor must devise a unique interface. Terminal Sockets (Termsock) would fill that void. Termsock is an application programming interface (API) that supports both interrupt and DOS C access. Interrupt access conforms to 3Com's Bridge Application Program Interface specification. The bottom (TCP/IP side) of Termsock is sockets compliant.;To prove the Termsock concept, a draft specification was developed based on a study of current technology. Next, a working model API was built and exercised with a Termsock compliant terminal emulator. Empirical results were incorporated into the final version of the draft Termsock specification.;The working model experiment validated the Termsock concept. With the additional benefit of ease-of-programming, conformance to the Termsock specification could simplify network terminal emulator development.