GMW@psuvm.BITNET (06/05/85)
I am calling this release of Kermit a Beta-Test for several reasons. This version was slapped together from the sources I received from Dave Dermott and my improvements,updates from the lates Apple version. I wanted to get this out ASAP. As a result, there are several untested features, unimplemented features or some features which may be better if implemented in a different way. The ones I can think of are: Communications settings. SET RS232-REGISTERS should be replaced by SET BAUD and SET PARITY, which should really do what they say. The 6526 can do parity on its' own! Maybe there should also be a SET STOP-BITS? SET LOCAL-ECHO should be called SET DUPLEX (FULL/HALF) since, again the 6526 chips can handle these settings themselves. I haven't been able to test SET IBM or EIGHT-BIT-QUOTING transfers in this release, they may or may not work. Other things: There should be a timeout capability, the 64 has an internal clock! FILE-WARNING should be implemented. The cursor routines need a little fixing. The cursor is blinking too rapidly in the parser. A full ASCII character set would be nice. Maybe even the ability to choose between the PETASCII and ASCII sets? Doing ASCII will be a fairly trivial matter - I already have the code to do it, would it be wrong to display true ASCII even when talking between 64s? The information will still be transferred correctly. I haven't even had the time to check whether or not the character conversion routines behave the way they should for the different settings. 80 Columns? - This can be done in the terminal emulation routines. Would it be worth it to do in the entire Parser as well? (with the ability to switch between 40 and 80 columns at will). That would require lots more work. The ability to change screen colors. My proposal - whenever reading a key, check for: cntrl-1 : change bacground cntrl-2 : change border cntrl-3 : change character this would leave: cntrl-4 : clear screen, switch to 40 column mode cntrl-8 : clear screen, switch to 80 column mode and return nothing in the AC (like no real character read) so we don't screw up the parser or host on the other end. DOS should display block counts in decimal. STATUS isn't displaying the last error correctly. Oh well, you may even disagree with me on many of my ideas. If you have any comments, suggestion for improvement or bugfixes, please feel free to contact me. ARPA: Lavitsky@RUTGERS UUCP: ...harpo!whuxlb!ru-blue!lavitsky or ...allegra!ru-green!ru-topaz!eric SNAIL: CPO 2765, CN 700 New Brunswick, NJ 08903 or 14 Rock Ave. Swampscott, MA 01902 Phone: (201) 932 - 2443 (RUTGERS: Operators' Cubbyhole: leave a message) (617) 593 - 4841 (Real Home: leave a message) (201) 745 - 8143 (Campus Home during school semesters only) 3-Jan-85 18:12:07-EST,1577;000000000005 Return-Path: <LAVITSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Received: from RU-BLUE.ARPA by CU20B.ARPA with TCP; Thu 3 Jan 85 18:12:03-EST Date: 3 Jan 85 18:12:31 EST From: Eric <LAVITSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Subject: C64 Kermit-65 V1.2 Available. To: sy.fdc@CU20B.ARPA cc: laviTSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA Address: CPO 2765, CN 700, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, (201) 745-8143 Reply-To: Lavitsky@RUTGERS Hi, Version 1.2 of C64 Kermit-65 is now available. The highlights of the corrections/additions of this version are: 1) A full ASCII character set 2) New key translations for terminal emulation - including Function key definitions 3) SET PARITY now works correctly. 4) New commands: SET BAUD, SET WORD-SIZE 5) SET IBM now selects or deselects 7-bit word size, mark parity and local-echo. 6) Incorrect code that was replacing the first two bytes of binary files with $00 $20 on send/receive has been corrected. 7) C64DXL has been prettied up and should do what it is really supposed to. Some warnings: SET BAUD is not fully implemented, you may still have to fudge the RS-232 registers yourself with SET RS232-REGISTERS. EIGHT-BIT-QUOTING is still not supported. FILE-WARNING is still not supported. TIMEOUTS are still not supported. STATUS doesn't report disk errors correctly. There is still no bootstrap procedure (I'll get it done one of these years!). The documentation has been updated a little, it is still not perfect. I'll put the files in red:<microcomputer.cbm>c64*.* until you tell me you have them. Eric ------- 20-Feb-85 17:12:46-EST,1517;000000000011 Return-Path: <LAVITSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Received: from RU-BLUE.ARPA by CU20B.ARPA with TCP; Wed 20 Feb 85 17:12:24-EST Date: 20 Feb 85 17:10:37 EST From: Eric <LAVITSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA> Subject: C64 Kermit V1.3 To: sy.fdc@CU20B.ARPA cc: laviTSKY@RU-BLUE.ARPA Address: CPO 2765, CN 700, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, (201) 745-8143 Reply-To: Lavitsky@RUTGERS Hi, Version 1.3 will be ready for release on Friday, Feb 22, along with documentation and a bootstrap procedure for people who do not yet have Kermit. The bootstrap proceudre was written by Robert Scott Lenoil (Lenoil@Mit-XX) in CLU (availabe on DEC-20s' and Vaxen running UNIX, I believe). I hope to have a Fortran translation of the mainframe end shortly (it is really quite simple). This version of Kermit includes the following updates and fixes: 1) Full support for 1200 baud communications. a) Flow control, (XON/XOFF) b) Correct setting of baud rate, correcting errors in the standard RS232 Kernel routines. 2) File-Warning has been implemented, a la Apple Kermit. 3) VT52 emulation should work completely in 40 column mode. This includes printing of tabs! 4) You can set the word-size for communication (7 or 8 bit) 5) You need not exit and restart Kermit to bring into effect changes made in the communication parameters. 6) Server commands definitely work the *first* time. The files will be available in the ususal place at Rutgers in: RED:<MICROCOMPUTER.CBM>C64*.* Enjoy! Eric -------