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- Date: 11 November 1986 19:00:28 CST
- From: Skip Russell <C04689SR@WUVMD.BITNET>
- Subject: comparison of Pascal and Harris Kermits
- To: Frank da Cruz <sy.fdc@cu20b.columbia.edu>
-
- You asked if I thought my Fortran version of Kermit should replace
- the Pascal one. Although I think my Kermit is generally a big
- improvement over the Pascal version, I don't think mine should replace
- it for two reasons:
-
- The first is that mine runs *only* as a remote server. There is
- no facility for driving a remote Kermit, either from within the program
- or through command-line arguments. So, for example, Harris-Harris xfers
- are not possible without using some intermediate like a PC. It is
- intended primarily for Harris--micro communications, where the micro has
- the "local" Kermit. Command line "send" and "receive" would be easy to
- add, but so far for us, the need hasn't arisen.
-
- Secondly, all the newer Harris machines have i/o processors which are
- capable of doing buffered single-character i/o. They are also capable
- of timing-out while waiting for input. These two capabilities are not
- present on many of the older Harris machines (including ours). The
- Pascal Kermit requires this hardware and my Kermit does not. On
- systems with the hardware, there is a potential advantage to using
- the Pascal Kermit, but I don't know what it really means in terms of
- effective baud rate, etc. I recently gave a copy of my program to
- Joe Doupnik who has access to a Harris machine. He has the Pascal
- Kermit, so maybe he will be able to compare the two.
-
- You also asked whether the Fortran compiler was standard on all
- Harris machines. Actually, both Harris Fortran 77 and Harris Pascal
- are optional products, so no system is guaranteed to have either one.
- However, I think the Fortran is considerably more widespread at
- Harris sites than Pascal, judging by the programs available in the
- Harris Users Exchange library.
-
- Incidently, the reason I am waiting to submit my Kermit is that
- "MSTIBM" (prelim 2.29a) has a glitch in the packet-size logic which
- is causing some problems. I have discussed it with Joe D., and I'm
- sure the two Kermits will be in concordance when the formal release
- of 2.29a comes about.
-
- I hope this answers your questions. I'll keep you posted on
- future developments. -- Skip
-
-
- Skip Russell (Washington University, St. Louis) BITNET: c04689sr@WUVMD
-