Columbia Kermit/kermit.zip/mskermit/msr314.ann

Text File | 2020-01-01 | 12KB | 241 lines

Thu, 13 Oct 1994 09:59:51 EST
From: Christine M Gianone <[e-mail]>
Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 Available for Beta Testing
Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, Hebrew, Data General Terminal Emulation
Keywords: Wyse Terminal Emulation, "Recovery, File Transfer", Cyrillic

This is to announce a beta testing period for MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 for the IBM
PC, PS/2, and compatibles with DOS or Windows.  The new MS-DOS Kermit release
was prepared, as always, by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah State University.

HIGHLIGHTS

FILE TRANSFER RECOVERY allows interrupted binary-mode transfers to be
continued from the point of failure.  Can be used with C-Kermit 5A(190),
which is still in Beta test, on UNIX, AOS/VS, Stratus VOS, and the Commodore
Amiga.  Maybe also with VMS, no promises.  And in the near future, probably
also with other major operating systems (stay tuned).

ANSI AND WYSE TERMINAL EMULATION add two popular terminal types to Kermit's
repertoire.  ANSI emulation, not quite the same as VT100 emulation, is used
to access most BBSs, and Wyse emulation is required by certain applications
and services.

Workarounds for buggy UART simulator on Pentium motherboards and other new
processors allows MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 to work on these systems, where earlier
versions might not have.  Also: support for the Hayes ESP serial
communications board in 16550A mode; support for Fossil drivers; dialing
scripts for more and more new kinds of modems (many of them with X and/or Z
in their names -- all the popular brands!).

Numerous additions to the script programming language, including a full
selection built-in functions compatible with C-Kermit's: \fsubstring(), etc.

Complete Hebrew and Cyrillic support packages are now included, and Kanji
terminal emulation is now available for DOS/V on IBM and compatible PCs.

Network, printer, keyboard, font, and other support support utilities are now
included in the basic package.

New smaller versions are available for those who don't need (or can't fit)
all the features of the full version.

Here is a more detailed list of the changes in version 3.14:

 . ANSI terminal emulation
 . Wyse-50 terminal emulation
 . Data General DASHER and DEC VT terminal emulation improvements
 . Kanji character-set translation during terminal emulation
 . HP-Roman8 terminal character-set
 . Control over timeslicing method in Windows, DesqView, OS/2, NT
 . Control over automatic video-mode switching
 . Selectable fore- and background colors for underline simulation
 . Additional scan codes for Alt/Ctrl/Shift - SpaceBar/EscKey combinations
 . DEC User Definable Keys (UDKs) now supported
 . Revised printer support for better interoperation with Novell CAPTURE
 . Additional control over TCP/IP and TELNET protocol features
 . Debugging display of TELNET options negotiation
 . Networking support for Telebit PPP
 . TCP/IP fixes, speedups, and refinements
 . Multiple TCP/IP sessions to the same host now allowed
 . Support for Artisoft Int14 redirector
 . Support for Meridian Technology SuperLAT network connections
 . Workarounds for buggy SMC FDC37C665 UART simulator on Pentium motherboards
 . Support for Hayes ESP serial communications board in 16550A mode
 . Support for Fossil Drivers
 . SET SPEED 28800
 . User control over treatment of carrier signal on serial connections
 . Binary-mode file transfer recovery
 . Ability to send partial files manually
 . Control of run-length encoding
 . Improved client/server operation
 . Prompt string value now evaluated each time prompt is issued
 . ASK/ASKQ responses now taken literally
 . New APC command sends APC strings
 . Incoming APC strings ignored by default for safety
 . Revised CONNECT-mode status line for additional information
 . Separate CONNECT-mode help and one-character command menus
 . New script programming commands
 . Improved consistency of backslash-quoting in commands
 . New built-in string, file, and numeric functions
 . Additional built-in variables
 . Revised command line handling of substitution variables
 . Transaction log of file transfers now records detailed rejection
   reason if based on file attributes
 . Available also in special reduced forms for limited memory, e.g. for
   use on 256K systems, or as an external protocol on BBSs, etc.

The organization of the files and the manner in which we are distributing them
as been improved.  We are now distributing Kermit on a high-density 1.44MB
3.5-inch diskette, which is pretty universally accepted these days, and on the
network in a ZIP file that mirrors this diskette.  This allows us to organize
and name the files more sensibly and to include material that previously would
not fit.  Here is a brief synopsis:

  READ.ME       Brief overview of what's on the disk (in the ZIP file)
  KERMIT.EXE    Full-function MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 (about 260K)
  KERMITE.EXE   A smaller version (about 180K - no networks, no graphics)
  KERLITE.EXE   A very small version (120K - scripting and file transfer only)
  MSR*314.PCH   Patch files (currently empty)
  MSKERMIT.INI  Standard initialization file
  MSCUSTOM.INI  Sample (note: -> SAMPLE <-) customization file
  DIALUPS.TXT   Sample dialing directory
  KERMIT.UPD    Documentation for new features
  KERMIT.HLP    Brief synopsis of commands
  KERMIT.BWR    "Beware" file - hints and tips, etc
  COLS80.BAT    Too hard to explain in one line, see READ.ME...
  COLS132.BAT   Ditto

KERMITE.EXE can be used on PCs with small memories, e.g. on old XTs,
where the full-featured version might not fit.  It can also be used if you
simply do not need Kermit's networking or graphics terminal emulation
capabilities, in which case you can run bigger programs "under" Kermit in the
extra free memory.

Of particular interest to BBS proprietors, KERLITE.EXE is an "extra-lite"
version which is like the "lite" version, but also eliminates the terminal
emulator (and the CONNECT command) entirely, but still includes the full
script programming language, weighing in at only 120K - perfect for use as an
external protocol and script execution engine.

With Kermit Lite plus Fossil and ESP support, there is every reason to
upgrade the Kermit support in BBSs to the most advanced and fastest Kermit
protocol implementation available for DOS.  For further information, see the
new BBS OPERATORS GUIDE section in the KERMIT.UPD file.  (Vendors of BBS
software who want to include Kermit with their product should contact us for
further information.)

Now come the subdirectories.  Each one has a READ.ME file that explains
its contents.

PERFORM
  An article on Kermit file transfer protocol performance.

MODEMS
  Dialing scripts for 19 different modems, including most popular
  high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing models.

NETWORKS
  Everything you need for MS-DOS Kermit TCP/IP networking except the
  specific driver for your network board, including all the famous "shims"
  that convert between one "standard" and another, such as the latest
  version of Dan Lanciani's ODIPKT, plus Joe Doupnik's DIS_PKT9, plus the
  WINPKT shim to be used when Windows is involved, and a SLIP driver in case
  you don't have a network board, all of which have been verified to work
  with this version of Kermit and other popular software.  Plus a new
  overview document to help you make sense of this ever-more-confusing tangle.

KEYBOARD
  Complete key mappings for DEC VT220/320 and DG DASHER emulation.  The
  "Gold key" TSR, for making Num Lock work like the F1 key.  LK250 drivers
  (for DEC keyboards that plug into IBM PCs).  A little TSR for swapping the
  Caps Lock and Ctrl keys and Esc and tilde.

UTILS
  General utilities, like the famous XSEND program for transferring entire
  directory trees, plus various printer items.  (Did you know Kermit could
  transfer directory trees intact?)

WINDOWS
  Windows Program Information File for Kermit.

PCFONTS
  This is something new -- public domain fonts (code pages) for your PC that
  are easy to load dynamically -- no more endless and fruitless wandering
  through the corridors of IBM or Microsoft to track down a Hebrew or Cyrillic
  code page; no more editing AUTOEXEC.BAT (DISPLAY.SYS, NLSFUNC blah blah,
  MODE CON CP PREPARE blah blah, MODE CON CP SELECT blah blah) and then
  rebooting to install a new code page, no more limit to four "prepared" code
  pages.  Now you can just "loadfont" whatever code page you want, any time
  you want.  This directory includes code pages for Western and Eastern
  European languages (CP437, 850, and 852), Icelandic (861), Hebrew (862) and
  Cyrillic (863), plus utilities to load and display them.  Our thanks to
  Joseph (Yossi) Gil at The Technion in Haifa, Isreal, for this wonderful
  collection (and this is only a small part of it -- look in
  kermit.columbia.edu:pcfonts for more, and maybe find even more at the
  Technion - ftp.technion.ac.il).

CYRILLIC
  Also new.  Key mapping and screen translation setups to be used with the
  Cyrillic font, plus Cyrillic character-set tables.  Use MS-DOS Kermit for
  Russian terminal emulation (and Ukranian, Bielorussian, etc), using any of
  the popular host encodings: ISO, KOI-8, or Short KOI.  Now you can read
  those Russian newsgroups!  Thanks to Konstantin Vinogradov of ICSTI in
  Moscow, Russia, for the .INI files.

HEBREW
  Also new.  The files in this directory give MS-DOS Kermit full Hebrew
  terminal emulation capability, including the standard (i.e. WordPerfect :-)
  key map for entering Hebrew letters on the PC keyboard, complete with
  automatic English/Hebrew switching directed by the host, everything you get
  on a real Hebrew-model VT420 terminal.  Thus the standard MS-DOS Kermit
  distribution now replaces the various "Hebrewized" offshoots of MS-DOS
  Kermit that have been in circulation for some years, e.g. for use with the
  ALEPH bibliographic software.  You even get a PostScript picture of the
  key map.

ROMAN
  Character-set tables for Roman-based character sets used by MS-DOS Kermit.

HOW TO GET IT...

The ZIP file is available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu in the
directory kermit/test/bin, filename msv314.zip.  Transfer it in binary mode,
and then unzip it, read the top-level READ.ME file, and go from there.

By the way, do not unzip the ZIP file over your old Kermit directory, or
you will lose your old MSCUSTOM.INI file and your old dialing directory!
Either make a new directory for MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, or copy your MSCUSTOM.INI
and DIALUPS.TXT files to a safe place before wiping out your old one, for
example:

  cd \kermit
  copy mscustom.ini mscustom.old
  copy dialups.txt dialups.old
  pkunzip mstibm.zip
  copy mscustom.old mscustom.ini
  copy dialups.old dialups.txt

Also in the kermit/test/bin directory: mstz10.exe, MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 for
the Heath/Zenith 100.  Other versions (Victor 9000, etc) will be added as
time goes on.

There are also textual encodings of the ZIP file in BOO and UUENCODE format.
These are available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu, directory
kermit/test/text, text mode, files mstibm.boo and mstibm.uue.  These two
files are also available on CUVMA for retrieval via BITNET KERMSRV.

Our deepest thanks, as always, to Joe Doupnik for bringing another new
version of MS-DOS Kermit to us.

Please send comments on MS-DOS 3.14 Beta via email to [e-mail].
In particular, we are interested in the new layout of the disk, and that all
internal cross references among files (text, command, and program) are
consistent and working.

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(Formal release announcement to be added here...)

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