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000022_news@columbia.edu_Sun Dec 3 04:19:04 1995.msg
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From: vogt12@meena.cc.uregina.ca
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.kermit.misc
Subject: Downloading a file directly from the host's Web-browser
Date: 3 DEC 95 04:19:04 GMT
Organization: MIT PLASMA FUSION CENTER
Lines: 45
Message-Id: <3DEC95.04190434@meena.cc.uregina.ca>
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Apparently-To: kermit.misc@watsun.cc.columbia.edu
A few years ago I bought MS-Kermit 3.0 complete with the book "Using MS-DOS
Kermit", first edition, 1990. I use it to connect with DEC & IBM mainframes and
I only run DOS 3.3; so that after I created some "take" files with ample defi-
nitions for DEC VT & IBM 3270 special keys (I still don't know all of 'em!),
this version of Kermit has always met all my needs. Until now:
One of two VT-type Web-browsers on the VMS-running VAX here goes by the
name of "VTWWW". This is its name as defined in a DCL global symbol. Its real
name may be something else. Any guesses? That symbol disappeared yesterday, and
I might find this Web-browser's directory if I know its real name. Unlike Lynx,
it uses typed numbers instead of the right-arrow key to follow a link. Anyway,
it has a very convenient feature provided your Kermit is new enough to exploit
it. (Mine isn't.) It gives you the option of printing via CKermit the current
file on your PC's printer. You don't have to do anything to make this happen!
It just happens, and the screen continues to display the host session. Further-
more, if you escape and issue "SET PRINTER file.nam" to the local Kermit, the
Web-browser's file will go to a DOS file instead of to PRN.
But my 3.0 Kermit lacks the SET PRINTER feature. To get around this, I
installed a TSR, "VPRINT.COM", that hooks Print BIOS Int 17h to redirect print
jobs to a disk file. Then with Kermit going, I asked VTWWW to "print" an .html
to my PC. It worked; the .html appeared on my DOS disk as a text file, spaced
like the original but with no mark-up stuff in it. So far fine. But when I went
back and tried to bring down a *binary* .ZIP file this way, the job was termi-
nated after a few (dozen) characters. The incomplete file that turned up on my
PC when typed looked as it did when it was displayed by the Web-browser on the
host.
I eliminated VPRINT.COM as the cause of the problem. It definitely can
handle binary files without modifying them in the smallest way if so requested.
I also compared the short corrupted binary file received with an intact copy.
The damage is extensive, but I noticed one thing: the printing Kermits change
nulls (ASCII 0) into CR/LF's (etc). So I tried an experiment: I set the VAX's
term to "/DEV=UNKNOWN /NOANSI" and the PC's term type to "NONE". The attempt
failed exactly as before.
Reading a newer version of KERMIT.HLP, I think I know how VTWWW initi-
ates the output to PRN: by issuing the sequence ESC [ ? i 5 to start printing
and ESC [ ? i 4 to stop. But these are for line-by-line or text-mode printing.
For binary-mode printing of all characters, the sequences are ESC [ i 5 and
ESC i 4. Note the absence of the the "?"
Do you agree with me that the VTWWW program on the VAX was not set up
to issue the second control pair and was not even able perhaps to tell a binary
file from a text one? Or does the problem lie elsewhere, like in a Kermit quirk
that can only be solved by upgrading from version 3.0 to 3.14?
And what is the real name for the VMS Web-browser whose alias is apt to
be "VTWWW"? Your answers to these questions will be highly appreciated, and
when I succeed in solving this problem I'll tell you how I did it with your help
Yours truly, Warren