Columbia Kermit/kermit.zip/e/v15.3

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10-Apr-92 16:27:41-GMT,11312;000000000001
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Date: Fri, 10 Apr 92 12:27:31 EDT
From: Christine M Gianone <[e-mail]>
To: Info-Kermit
Subject: Info-Kermit Digest V15 #3
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Info-Kermit Digest         Fri, 10 Apr 1992        Volume 15 : Number 3

Today's Topics:

              Prime Kermit version 8.14
            A few release files more for Kermit-12
            New BOO file Encoder / Decoder
         Re: Unique Log File Names for MS-DOS Kermit
           RE: Question on MS-KERMIT 3.10 Terminal Emulator

Digest submissions may be sent to [e-mail] or
[e-mail].  Requests for addition to or deletion from the
Info-Kermit subscriber list should be sent to [e-mail] or
[e-mail].  These messages must be of the form:

  SUBSCRIBE I-KERMIT <your-personal-name>    (To start a subscription)
  UNSUBSCRIBE I-KERMIT                       (To cancel a subscription)
  REGISTER I-KERMIT <your-personal-name>     (To correct your name)

Kermit files may be obtained over networks and by mail order.  On the
Internetwork, use FTP to log in to host WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU, a SUN-4/280
running UNIX (SUNOS 4.1), IP host number 128.59.39.2.  Login as user anonymous
(note, lower case), any password, and GET or MGET (MULTIPLE GET) the desired
files.  The Kermit files are in directories kermit/a, kermit/b, kermit/c,
kermit/d, and kermit/e.  Test versions are in kermit/test.  All files in these
directories should be transferred in text (ASCII) mode.  Binaries are in
kermit/bin (use ftp in binary mode).  You can also get Kermit files over the
BITNET/EARN network; to get started send a message with text HELP to KERMSRV,
the Kermit file server, at host CUVMB.  For detailed instructions, read the
file kermit/a/aanetw.hlp (AANETW.HLP on KERMSRV).  To order by mail, request a
complete list of Kermit versions and an order form from Kermit Distribution,
Columbia University Center for Computing Activities, 612 West 115th Street,
New York, NY 10025 USA.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 14 Feb 92 19:51:17
From: John Horne <[e-mail]>
Subject: Prime Kermit version 8.14

The current version of Prime Kermit, version 8.12, has now been superceeded
by version 8.14. This new version incorporates many bug fixes, and some
new functionality over version 8.12. The intermediate version 8.13, was
never released since it was a development version.

This release also contains an updated copy of the PRIME.HLP file listing
all development work carried out up to the present. Unfortunately this
file was not updated at the release of version 8.12.

Some of the changes at revision 8.14 are :

*   Checks for the remote server being present in the BYE and FINISH commands.

*   The receive timeout code has been improved, and the timer converted from
    from minutes to seconds. The send packet timer may also now be set.

*   The AMLC line speeds are now set to Prime supplied default values, and
    only the validity of any specified speed is checked. This is necessary
    since the AMLC code in Kermit is somewhat 'awkward', because the Primos
    subroutines used to handle AMLC/ICS line speeds have several significant
    changes from Primos revision 21 to 22. The handling of data along AMLC
    lines has also been corrected to eliminate POINTER_FAULT$ errors.

*   Multiple file transfers with a specific file type has been corrected,
    and the MS-DOS pound sign conversion is also correctly handled. The
    automatic file type checking code has been improved, and the setting of
    a file type may be abbreviated to "FT" or any sub-string of "FILE_TYPE"

*   The "REMOTE SPACE" command will now show the amount of disk space (records)
    on the current partition, as well as the current directory quota.

*   The users 'environment' is re-evaluated after they have PUSHed from Kermit.
    This is in case they changed anything in their environment, e.g. message
    status, duplex settings, etc, whilst at Primos command level.

*   The exact file length is now sent in the attributes packet. Previously
    no account was taken of the Prime space compression character, thus
    misleading the remote Kermit.

*   The Kermit command line will now accept the "-INIT pathname" option to
    startup Kermit with an initialization file. If no pathname is specified,
    then the file "PRIME_KERMIT.INIT" is looked for in the current directory.

*   The sliding windows code has been improved, and uses a default window
    size of 6. Note, however, that it seems there are still problems with
    sliding windows by users dialing in to a Prime computer from a C-Kermit or
    MS-DOS Kermit machine. It does, however, work when using MS-DOS Kermit
    connected to the Prime by some other medium.

More details of these, and other changes, can be found in the PRIME.HLP
file. This version has been successfully run at Primos revisions 22.1.1b
and 23.2.0b.

Finally, I would like to thank Matthew Sutter for all his work on Prime
Kermit. Matthew has, I gather, now left the world of Computers to become
a Paramedic. Despite this I shall still be bug fixing Kermit, and improving
it as time permits!

John Horne,
Polytechnic South West, Plymouth, U.K.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 15:52:25 EST
From: Charles Lasner <[e-mail]>
Subject: A few release files more for Kermit-12

In /uw/guests/lasner/nufiles is two new versions of K12DEC and K12ENC
which now have a new feature for image transfer of an entire device.
This comes at the request of several users, and was quite easy to add.
As before, the source documents how to use it, etc.

I am working on an upgrade (specifically a handler) for OS/278 to allow
complete transfer of RX50 diskettes as an encoded ASCII-fied file.
This utility merely handles records available to the normal file
structure, but in the OS/278 RX50 case (from DEC) this is not the whole
disk.  In part this is a safety feature, so you can't access the
"slushware" tracks, but in any case, you can't transfer an entire image
of an RX50 currently, but when the system is upgraded with a suitable
handler, then the encoder and decoder gain access to the entire device,
along with all other utilities.

If the handler project takes too long (it is actually quite involved
surprisingly enough) I will possibly resort (by popular demand) to
releasing an interim program that does its own RX50 I/O as a special
case of encode and decode.  That would be withdrawn later when the
handler is available.  (DECmates are becoming available to various
people around the world, but they don't have the support software to
get it running; this method would allow them to get their machines up
after they had merely an OS/278 bootable disk (available from DECUS)
and Kermit-12 stuff :-).)

In any case, the two new files are useful for other devices.  For
example, an entire OS/8 RX01 or RX02 can be encoded as a file.  With
the WPS-oriented handlers installed (commonly available), images of an
RX01 WPS document disk can be encoded/decoded directly.  (This even
includes bootable WPS RX01 systems diskettes, or even RT-11 RX01
disks!)  The existant WPS/COS-style handlers allow transfer of any RX01
as long as track zero can be ignored.  This is generally the case on
RX01/02, but NOT RX50, thus the above problem.

------------------------------

Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 10:33:38 EST
From: Christine M Gianone
Subject: New BOO file Encoder / Decoder

Charles Lasner, the author of PDP-8 / PDP-12 / DECmate Kermit and of the
previous message, discovered a while ago that the well-known flaw in BOO-file
encoding could have distastrous effects on computers where executable program
images included checksums or other checking information.  The flaw is that the
4-for-3 encoding used in BOO files could add 1 or 2 extraneous null bytes to
the end of a file.

Christian Hemsing, in his work on C-Kermit for OS-9, found this flaw to be
fatal for OS-9 also.  Charles had suggested a method for having the BOO files
record the exact image of the encoded file by adding special codes to the end
to "take back" the extraneous null bytes.  This method has the benefit that it
is compatible with old BOO file decoders.  Christian added the code for this
to the MSBMKB (BOO file maker) and MSBPCT (BOO file decoder) programs.

The new programs are now available in kermit/a/msbmkb.c and msbpct.c on watsun
and MSBMKB.C and MSBPCT.C from CUVMA.  Thanks to Charles and Christian for
this valuable contribution!

------------------------------

Date: Thu, 16 Jan 92 10:33:38 CET
From: "Janusz S. Bie/n" <JSBIEN@PLEARN>
Subject: Re: Unique Log File Names for MS-DOS Kermit

Info-Kermit Digest Vol. 14 No 2 contained the following advice:

[...
  SET COUNT 999
  :LOOP
  DEFINE \%F \V(NDATE).\V(COUNT)
  IF NOT EXIST \%F GOTO OK
  IF COUNT GOTO LOOP
  ECHO Sorry, you've already created 1000 log files today!
  STOP
  :OK
  LOG SESSION \%F

That should give you a unique filename.]

I tried it with MS-Kermit 3.11. It works only if DEFINE is replaced by ASSIGN.

Regards

Janusz S. Bie/n
Institute of Informatics, Warsaw University

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 21:41:44 CST
From: Dave Mausner <[e-mail]>
Subject: RE: Question on MS-KERMIT 3.10 Terminal Emulator

In the past I reported that Kermit 3.11 would hang when receiving bursts
of textual data at 19200 or above. This occurred in DOS 4.0, and 5.0 with
or without HIMEM/EMM386 loaded. I never used ANSI.SYS ever.

I recently downloaded UMBDR522.ZIP from EXEC-PC which loads HIMEM.SYS
in the UMA and dispenses entirely with EMM386. It increases the amount of
free main memory in DOS 5.0 from 621000 to 640000 bytes (not 640K mind you).
It claims to remap chunks of ROM to speed up memory access.

I downloaded NNANS591.ZIP from the USENET c.b.i.p. It advertises an ability
to speed up screen writes of every type (DOS, BIOS).

Don't ask me why, but with these things in charge, i no longer experience the
Kermit hangs at 19200. I am a happy camper even if i have to use voodoo.

Since the KERMIT.BWR file mentions the hang problem under DOS 5.0, i thought
you might find the above interesting for future reference. Regards,

Dave Mausner, Senior Consultant
Datalogics Inc
Chicago IL / 312-266-4450
[e-mail]

[From jrd - Interesting indeed.  About the best suggestion I have about why
outages occurred previously is the video Bios held off interrupts too long
while it scrolled the screen; such Bios's do vary quite a bit.  By moving the
Bios to fast memory (shadowing it) one gets work done faster there and hence
fewer outages.  Do be aware that when changing between 132/80 columns Kermit
will need to look into that Bios for a signature of known boards, and if the
"stealth" option of some memory managers is used to map away the Bios then
Kermit won't find the signature.]

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End of Info-Kermit Digest
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