`K e r m i t 9 5`

We love our city. Remember it as it was.
New York City

Welcome to the Kermit 95 evaluation package. For an overview of what K95 is and what it does, please visit the Kermit 95 website:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95.html

This evaluation package is identical to the full-featured retail product, except that:

It is not shrinkwrapped.
It does not include the C-Kermit 7.0 CD ROM.
It can be used only until 31 December 2001, after which time it expires.
The published manuals are not included since they are the property of the publishers (see below).
This package might or might not include secure authentication and encryption, depending on which version you downloaded. By USA export law, pending export license, the secure version may be downloaded only in the USA and Canada.

Aside from security (outside the USA and Canada), no features are disabled or excluded.

Before evaluating Kermit 95, please note that this is its final Console-only release. The next release, 2.00, will run in a GUI window like other Windows programs and will include built-in scriptable, secure SSH, FTP, and HTTP clients (subject to USA export laws and whether we succeed in obtaining an export license). The new GUI release solves numerous problems that affect all Windows 95/98/ME Console applications:

Inability to use the [x] box as expected.
Inability to use scroll bars to access scrollback buffers.
Inability to change code pages or display multiple languages at once.
Inability to save font preferences.
Inability to display underlined or double-high/wide characters.
Countless problems caused by bugs in the Windows Console driver: the disappearing cursor, Caps Lock confusion, the "incredible shrinking window", extraneous or out-of-order characters on screen, loss of focus when started from a GUI application, various Copy/Paste problems, inability to use Input Method Editors, and on and on and on.

For more about the forthcoming GUI release, CLICK HERE.

The nonprofit Kermit Project is supported entirely by software license and manual sales. Much of our software is free-for-use; Kermit 95 is the only exception, and it is our primary source of revenue, and therefore subsidizes the continued development of our free-for-use and Open Source products. If you pay for and register the current version, the shrinkwrapped GUI release will be sent to you as soon as it is ready and in the meantime, you will receive a serial number and instructions for applying it. To register, visit our secure registration website:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/register.html

Low-cost Bulk Right-to-Copy and Academic Site licenses are also available. CLICK HERE for details.

Meanwhile, in your evaluation, please concentrate on the actual functionality of Kermit 95 as a terminal emulator, modem program, Telnet and Rlogin client, file-transfer agent, and scripting tool, rather than on its "DOS-like" look and feel and Windows Console-related limitations, all of which are addressed in the forthcoming release. If you have questions, feel free to send them to:

  kermit-support@columbia.edu

Getting Started

After installing the Kermit 95 demo package, you should find three icons on your desktop or in your Start menu:

The Kermit 95 icon. This invokes Kermit 95 directly.
The Kermit 95 Dialer icon. This invokes a graphical tool for setting up your connections.
The K-95 Manual icon, which brings you to this page in the demo, but would bring you to the real manual in a registered copy.

Kermit veterans -- those who have experience with MS-DOS Kermit or C-Kermit -- can start Kermit 95 (K95.EXE) directly, and will quickly see the similarities, especially to C-Kermit: K95 is C-Kermit adapted to Windows, with a full-featured terminal emulator and other features added. If you can use MS-DOS Kermit or C-Kermit, you can use K95. You can run as many copies of K95.EXE simultaneously as you wish; one connection per copy.

Those who have no prior experience with Kermit software should begin with the K95 Dialer, an easy-to-use graphical method for setting up each connection you want to make. You don't need to use the Dialer to make a connection, but if you do, then it is saved in a database (and optionally also as a desktop icon) and can be used again at any time by clicking your mouse. Start only one copy of the Dialer at a time; it can control multiple K95 sessions simultaneously.

For a more detailed introduction to Kermit 95, visit:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/k95tutorial.html

Documentation

The documentation for Kermit 95 (which is not included with this demo package) consists of:

Using C-Kermit: The C-Kermit 6.0 manual, published as a book by Digital Press. This is a 622-page introduction to and technical reference manual for C-Kermit, upon which Kermit 95 is based. This book covers the command language, the commands themselves, making serial and network connections, transferring files, converting among character sets, and writing script programs. This book is available separately from Digital Press or the Kermit Project (in book form). An electronic copy is included in PDF format with the retail version of Kermit 95, which you receive when you register.
The C-Kermit 7.0 Update Notes: Documentation of the changes in C-Kermit from 6.0 to 7.0 (which corresponds to Kermit 95 1.1.20), online at the Kermit Project website.
The Kermit 95 User Manual: Published by Manning Software, Inc. An electronic copy is included with the retail version of Kermit 95, which you receive when you register.

A wealth of additional product and technical information on Kermit 95 and other Kermit software is available at the Kermit Project website. Be sure to check back periodically for news about the next release.

Links

Kermit 95 / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / September 2001