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msbdm2.txt
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1988-08-16
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Acquiring KERMIT-MS for the DECmate II (plus Bootstrap Procedures)
by:
Charles Lasner
Charles Lasner Associates
72-55 Metropolitan Avenue
Middle Village, New York
11379-2107
Telephone: (718) 894-6499
Net Mail: OC.LASNER@CU20B
Like the DEC Rainbow, there are problems acquiring and bootstrapping
KERMIT-MS for MS-DOS on the DECmate II. This file describes all known
relevant methods to first acquire KERMIT, and then update it when
future releases are available.
1) Obtaining the distribution file(s) MSVDM2.BOO (or MSVDM2.EXE) by
communications methods.
The DECmate II does not provide any readily available program to
capture remote files directly other than the DEC-distributed
POLYGON Associates terminal emulator (POLY-COMM) which is both
expensive and obsolescent in light of KERMIT. In any case, the
few users who have access to the POLYGON product and can use
POLY-XFR to transfer a file from a host in conjunction with the
other side of POLY-XFR (the expensive server side product for a
variety of large systems) should use this method to obtain
MSVDM2.BOO, the 4-3 encoded binary form of MSVDM2.EXE and
MSBDM2.BAS, the MBASIC de-booing program.
It is also possible to use WPS-8 Document Exchange (DX) to acquire
these files as WPS documents (MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS are ASCII
files). The problem is getting MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS to the
other site with DX support (CU20B apparently does have DX-20);
but this is the same problem as finding a host with POLY-XFR
support and the files. DECmate II MS-DOS CONVERT will convert the
WPS documents into MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS (CONVERT is a
standard utility of DECmate II MS-DOS). DECmate II CP/M-80
WPSCONV can also be used to convert the WPS documents into CP/M-80
files MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS; MS-DOS CONVERT can create
MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS in either CP/M-80 or MS-DOS formats.
(See below for usage of the CP/M-80 file MSVDM2.BOO.)
The DECmate II also runs OS/278 with K12MIT (aka KERMIT-278).
This system can be used to obtain MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS and
convert them to WPS documents via the standard OS/278 utility
WPFLOP.SV. The user is referred to documentation elsewhere on
running OS/278 and K12MIT. Unlike DECmate II MS-DOS CONVERT,
OS/278 WPFLOP.SV is documented only via the help facility of
OS/278, as there is no actual manual for this system. It is
assumed that the user is a long-term familiar of PDP-8/DECmates
and needs only the minimal release notes over and above older
system documentation from former releases of OS/8 family systems
to "figure it out." The command HELP WPFLOP will reveal all that
is known about this utility. (CONVERT is adequately described in
the DEC MS-DOS user manual; the user is referred to that manual
for documentation on CONVERT, which is virtually self-documenting
and menu-driven.) A typical usage of WPFLOP follows:
}R WPFLOP Invoke WPFLOP.
*RX51:<RX50:MSVDM2.BO/O Convert MSVDM2.BOO to a
WPS document.
This causes the file MSVDM2.BOO to be replicated as a WPS document
on the specified drive (in this case drive 1 or B) as the document
of highest number (with no name field). WPS-8 can be used to
assign a normal name to the document, thus allowing MS-DOS CONVERT
to turn the document into MSVDM2.BOO.
The DECmate II can also run CP/M-80. Assuming the availability of
KERMIT-80 for the DECmate II, the files MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS
can be acquired as CP/M files. MS-DOS CONVERT allows conversion
of CP/M files into MS-DOS files; MSVDM2.BOO or MSBDM2.BAS can be
transformed into MS-DOS files as necessary. This method also
works with binary files, allowing the direct transfer of the
executable files MSVDM2.EXE, and MSBPCT.EXE, the high-speed
de-booing utility (also available in .boo format as MSBPCT.BOO),
or any other binary files. This assumes the availability of
MSVDM2.EXE and MSBPCT.EXE on the remote system, as well as binary
file transfer capability on the remote KERMIT. If the actual file
transfer was accomplished with WPS DX (ASCII files only), the
CP/M-80 utility WPSCONV can be used to produce the CP/M files
MSVDM2.BOO and MSBDM2.BAS from the corresponding WPS documents.
CP/M-80 runs a version of MicroSoft BASIC known as MBASIC (not
compatible with MSBPCT.BAS) which is compatible with Rainbow
CP/M-80/86 MBASIC and VT-180 Robin MBASIC. The files MSBDM2.BAS
and MSBRB1.BAS (the corresponding file for the Rainbow) can run
under CP/M-80 MBASIC to de-boo MSVDM2.BOO into MSVDM2.EXE (or
MSBPCT.BOO into MSBPCT.EXE) before using MS-DOS CONVERT to move
the file(s) to MS-DOS.
2) Obtaining the file(s) without communications methods.
Unfortunately, it is unlikely the user will be able to completely
exercise any of the above methods, as they all have "Catch-22"
drawbacks. Some other method must first be used to obtain the
file(s) directly. The DECmate II user has several choices:
a) Obtain a DECmate II MS-DOS disk from the author (address
above) for a nominal charge.
b) Obtain a disk from a DECmate III or III-plus site containing
the files in either WPS format or CP/M-80 format as above
(these systems run either identical WPS or compatible CP/M-80
systems). DECmate III CP-M/80 can run MBASIC and MSBDM2.BAS
(or MSBRB1.BAS) to de-boo MSVDM2.BOO into MSVDM2.EXE (or
MSBPCT.BOO into MSBPCT.EXE).
c) Obtain a disk from a Rainbow site containing the files in
either Rainbow CP/M-86/80 or Rainbow MS-DOS formats (these
systems are compatible with their respective DECmate II
counterparts). The Rainbow schemes have the additional
advantage of being able to de-boo the files before delivery to
the DECmate II by several methods. (The Rainbow can run the
de-booing programs MSBPCT.EXE (from C or ASM) under Rainbow
MS-DOS, or MSBRB1.BAS or MSBDM2.BAS with MBASIC under Rainbow
CP/M-86/80.)
d) Obtain a disk from a VT-180 Robin site containing the files in
CP/M-80 format. DECmate II or III (but not III-plus) CP/M-80
supports Robin disks (as read-only devices due to the lower
density). The Robin is probably able to run the DECmate II
de-booing program (MSBDM2.BAS) or the Rainbow de-booing
program (MSBRB1.BAS) with MBASIC.
e) Obtain a single-sided 8 or 9 sector IBM PC format disk (160k
or 180k) containing the files in MS-DOS format. DECmate II
MS-DOS supports single-sided PC disks (as read-only devices
due to the lower density). This method has all of the other
advantages of the Rainbow method (PCs also run MSBPCT.BAS
etc.) but might require multiple disks if moving several
files.
f) Obtain a disk from a PDP-8 site with an OS/8 family operating
system using the RX50-compatible FLP8 with 5.25" drives from
CESI containing the files in OS/278 RX50 format. DECmate II
(or III or III-plus) OS/278 supports this format for all
purposes except bootstrapping directly to the floppy disk due
to incompatible hardware-dependant boot block code. This
allows transfer of all .BOO format files or K12MIT (to allow a
communications method as above).
g) Assuming the user has the RX/78 8" floppy option:
i) Obtain a copy of the .BOO format files or K12MIT from an
OS/8 (PDP-8) or OS/78 (DECmate I) or OS/278 (DECmate II
with RX/78) site on RX01 or RX02, and proceed as in f)
above, or
ii) Obtain the files on 8" CP/M-80 diskettes. Decmate II
CP/M-80 supports standard 8" format in single-density
(RX01 format) only. (Most of the 8" CP/M-80 systems are
compatible with the standard (3740 or RX01) format). The
files will have to be copied to 5.25" diskettes before use
by some conversion utilities (MS-DOS does not support 8"
disks, so CONVERT wouldn't work, etc.) but you generally
proceed as above.
h) Obtain the generic MSVGEN MS-DOS KERMIT or generic CP/M-80
KERMIT from any of the above to in turn acquire the requisite
files. The generic KERMIT versions run very well under their
respective operating systems on the DECmate II, and will
actually exceed the baud rate limits cited in their respective
write-ups due to the superior i/o speed of the DECmate's 6120
(PDP-8) processor.
3) Running MBASIC and MSBDM2.BAS.
From the CP/M-80 prompt the user invokes:
A>MBASIC MSBDM2
The program will ask for the name of the file to be de-booed.
Respond with the appropriate file name (MSBPCT.BOO, etc.); all
normal (DEC) editing conventions apply including CTRL-C and DEL.
The .EXE file will be created automatically using the file name
imbedded in the specified boo-format file. The program will exit
to CP/M-80; therefore, the user must run it again to de-boo an
additional file.
4) De-booing recommendations.
The only way to de-boo the file MSVDM2.BOO directly from DECmate
II MS-DOS is to use the program MSBPCT.EXE (from either the C or
ASM versions). This is the recommended method for updating
KERMIT-MS to the next version, as all other methods are extremely
slow.
Use CP/M-80 MBASIC with MSBDM2.BAS once to convert MSVDM2.BOO into
MSVDM2.EXE, or to convert MSBPCT.BOO into MSBPCT.EXE. Use MS-DOS
CONVERT to move these files to the MS-DOS disk. MSBPCT.EXE and
MSVDM2.EXE will satisfy all future updating needs as new KERMIT
versions are distributed (MSVDM2.BOO). If MSBPCT.BOO is de-booed
by MSBPCT.EXE the resultant MSBPCT.EXE will be smaller (no CP/M-80
conversion overhead); this applies to all .BOO format files.