Telstar Viewdata Client

To experience Telstar properly it needs to be accessed by a microcomputer or Viewdata Terminal from the 1980s. However, for a simple way to get started, the Telstar Viewdata Client can be used.

The Telstar Viewdata client is available for Mac, Linux and Windows and has no dependencies, It allows access to viewdata systems through either a direct TCP/IP connection or via a Modem connected to a local serial port.

• Linux (amd64)
• Linux (arm64)
• MacOS (arm64)
• Windows (386)
• Windows (amd64)

All versions of the telstar-client are available here https://github.com/johnnewcombe/telstar-viewdata-client/releases. The software was originally written to test Telstar and will attempt to connect to Telstar when it starts. However this behaviour can be changed, see below. The client uses a small ‘connection file’ to determine the system it should connect to and these are simply loaded as required. These are supplied with the above package or can be downloaded separately.

Installation

Linux

Download the appropriate zip from releases:

• TelstarClient-linux-arm64-<version>.zip — arm64
• TelstarClient-linux-x64-<version>.zip — x64

$ ./install.sh

You will be presented with an option to install for all users or for the current user.
A suitable uninstall script will then be created allowing the program to be uninstalled.

MacOS Installation

Download the appropriate zip from releases:

• TelstarClient-macos-arm64-<version>.zip — Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4)
• TelstarClient-macos-x64-<version>.zip — Intel

Extract the zip and move TelstarClient.app to your Applications folder.

First Run

As TelstarClient is not notarized with Apple, macOS may report it as damaged
or block it from running. To bypass this:

Option 1 — Ctrl-click method:

Ctrl-click the TelstarClient.app icon and select Open. This only needs to be done once.

Option 2 — Terminal method:
Execute the following command in a terminal.

xattr -cr /Applications/TelstarClient.app

Then double-click as normal.

Option 3 — System Settings:
System Settings → Privacy & Security → scroll down → click Open Anyway.

Option 4 — Ad-hoc signing:
If you have Xcode command line tools installed:

codesign --force --deep --sign - /Applications/TelstarClient.app

Then double-click as normal.

Windows

Download the appropriate setup executable from releases:

• TelstarClient-Win-arm64-Setup-<version>.zip — ARM 64
• TelstarClient-Win-x64-Setup-<version>.zip — x64

Run the downloaded setup program.

Log Files

C:\Users\johnn\AppData\Roaming\TelstarClient\logs

• Linux = ~/.config/TelstarClient/logs
• macOS = ~/Library/Application Support/TelstarClient
• Windows = %APPDATA%/TelstarClient/logs

When using Windows, %APPDATA% can be determined by executing the following command…

echo %APPDATA%

And use the context menu item ‘Show Package Contents’ e.g.