CentOS - Oct 2008 - Minicom capture file

I'm trying to capture text data coming in on serial port to put into a
plot on a web page.
Running minicom 2.3 on a Fedora 9 box the capture file is updated
immediately. Running minicom 2.1, stock on a Centos 5.x box the capture
file doesn't update until you exit capture mode.
Is there any way to have it update immediately or is there an
alternative application to write incoming data to a text file. Likely
many ways to accomplish this but my brain is out of ideas today.
Dean