wc3270 Frequently Asked Questions

If you have a problem building, installing, or running wc3270, please browse through this file first.

General Questions

Am I allowed to use it?

Yes. Full copyright information is in the Lineage file, but the gist is that anyone is free to use the code, and anyone is free to sell copies of the code.

You are also free to modify it and to redistribute it, provided you preserve the existing copyright notices.

What versions of Windows does wc3270 run on?

wc3270 runs on all 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows from Windows XP through Windows 10.

How do I change the font?

To change any of the screen properties for wc3270 not available in the Session Wizard (font, colors, cursor type, etc.), you should modify the properties of a wc3270 desktop shortcut, then run wc3270 to see the results. If you modify the properties of a live wc3270 session, you may get odd and inconsistent results.

Note that if you want to run anything other than one of the basic U.S. character sets (us-english or bracket), then it is not a good idea to change the font, because non-English character set support requires a full Unicode fixed-width font, and Lucida Console is the only one provided with Windows.

How do I change the keyboard mappings?

Eventually, there will be a utility to create and edit custom keymaps. In the meantime, a tutorial for the manual procedure is here and the reference for keymaps is here.

Getting Help

If you are still having a problem with wc3270, feel free to send e-mail to Paul Mattes, Paul.Mattes@usa.net No guarantees are made about responses to particular problems, but a patches are usually forthcoming in a few days. It will also get you on an x3270 mailing list, which also includes information on wc3270, and where you can find out about new releases and bug fixes.

When you send a question about wc3270, please include the following information. It makes it much easier to narrow down the problem.

  1. The version of wc3270 you are using, including all patches, e.g., "3.3.6p1".
  2. What operating system you are running, and what version, e.g., "Windows XP SP2 32-bit".
Complaints, suggestions and requests for enhancements are also welcome. Code changes for bug fixes and enhancements are also welcome, provided that you don't mind your code being placed (often anonymously) under the x3270 license.