info-kermit@ucbvax.ARPA (05/11/85)
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.ARPA>
Info-Kermit Digest Fri, 10 May 1985 Volume 2 : Number 25
C-Kermit 4C Available for Unix, Macintosh, and VAX/VMS
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Date: 10 May 1985 7:01pm
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B>
Subject: C-Kermit 4C Available for Unix, Macintosh, and VAX/VMS
Release 4C of C-Kermit is now available. It does not embody major
functional changes over the previous version, 4.2 (note, the version
number style was changed to avoid confusion with Berkeley Unix version
numbers), but has many bugs fixed and includes support for many more
systems, including:
. Berkeley Unix 4.2 (Columbia U)
* . Berkeley Unix 4.1 (Charles Brooks, EDN)
* . ATT System III and System V (Herm Fischer, Encino CA)
* . Unix Version 7 (Gregg Wonderly, Oklahoma State U)
* . Berkeley Unix 2.9 (based on V7)
. Some "custom" Unix-like systems, including:
* - PC/IX on IBM PC/XT (Herm Fischer)
* - Xenix on IBM PC/AT (Herm Fischer)
- DEC Pro/Venix Version 1 (improved performance & functionality) (Columbia)
* - NCR Tower OS 1.02 (didn't work before, allegedly fixed) (John Bray)
. And two major non-Unix systems...
- Apple Macintosh (Columbia U)
* - VAX/VMS (Stew Rubenstein, Harvard; Martin Minow, DEC)
Adding support for all these new systems has been a network-wide effort.
Although every attempt has been made to ensure that adding support for
system B did not break the program for system A (and adding support for C
did not break A and B, etc etc), some of the key contributors have become
unavailable since sending in their code and have not been able to test it.
The implementations marked with an asterisk above have not been tested
in the very latest edit; they worked recently and should work now, but this
cannot be guaranteed. I would appreciate it if users of each of these
systems could report back to Info-Kermit indicating whether the program
works on their system, and if not, what the symptoms are and if possible
include fixes.
* Legalisms
Copyright notices have been added to all the source modules to reduce the
possibility that restrictions upon distribution and redistribution of the
Kermit source code could be imposed by ATT or ATT sublicensees.
* Distribution File Names
Since so many more systems are now supported, it has become necessary to
devise a more sensible naming scheme for the source files. This was done,
and is described in the file CKAAAA.HLP. The files have all been (re)named
accordingly.
* Protocol
Many changes have been made to the protocol modules and header files shared
by all the systems that run C-Kermit. The changes are listed in detail in the
CKUKER.UPD file; a few of the major ones are:
. Organizational changes to allow better support for mouse/window systems.
. The method for mapping between CRLF and a system-dependent newline character
is now selectable at compile time, rather than hardwired into the program.
. In the last release of this program, files transfer would occasionally
omit bytes and the end of a file; this no longer happens.
. R, X, or F packets sometimes had garbage characters preceding their
intended contents; this no longer happens.
. The file output function did not return a failure code upon i/o error or
disk full, so failed transfers were reported as OK; this no longer happens.
. Unix-specific symbols or values (like init file name, program return code)
that were hardwired are now compile-time symbols.
* Unix
In addition to the support for extra Unix and Unix-like systems, several
functional changes were made to the program:
. Interactive command lines and lines in take files may now be continued
on new lines by putting a single '\' character at the end. This can
make long script commands more readable.
. Some attempt is made to recover from i/o or disk full errors when writing
to the session log during connect.
. Support for new modem dialers added - Racal-Vadic, Penril, Cermetek, etc.
. Script command has a few new escapes: ~d(elay), ~w(ait), ~x(on).
. Long strings and/or (f)printf arguments have been shortened enough for
them to work on all systems (let's hope!)
. File renaming and name collision avoidance is improved.
. Directory command is no longer "recursive".
. '!' command now invokes user's login shell instead of always using sh.
* VAX/VMS:
C-Kermit has been adapted to VAX/VMS; the result has been tested
successfully, but not extensively. The main deficiencies are probably in
the areas of performance and intelligence about the VMS/RMS file system.
C-Kermit for VMS should not be regarded as a replacement for the Stevens
Institute of Technology Bliss implementation, but reports as to its
usefulness are solicited.
* Macintosh:
A prerelease of this program appeared a couple weeks ago. Since then, thanks
to many helpful bug reports from the net, many improvements have been made:
. Parity settings should now mostly work.
. Improved file dialog boxes, available now for GET, RECEIVE as well as SEND.
. Many new file settings available (text/binary, data/resource, supersede/
preserve, etc), savable in the settings file (Note, settings files have
new format, old ones can no longer be used).
. ASCII text files now stored correctly, so Mac applications can use them.
. Remote command window pops up automatically when needed.
. Mac Kermit can be a limited server, responding to SEND, GET, BYE, FINISH,
and REMOTE HELP commands.
. Various changes relating to selection/specification of disk/volume/folder.
. The beginnings of a manual (CKMKER.DOC).
Several major areas will have to be attacked in subsequent releases (in order
of priority):
. Key redefinition, support for function keys, keypad, etc.
. Saving screen contents into a file.
. Support for XON/XOFF during terminal emulation.
. Support for additional VT102 features.
. Modem dialer support.
. Login scripts.
. Raw file upload.
. Printer support.
. Translation to a native Macintosh C compiler so you don't need a VAX
to build the program (with conditional support for SUMACC left in), and
so that the program can grow by taking advantage of dynamic segment
loading, which SUMACC doesn't support.
We are working on the first two items ourselves; contributions in other
areas would be welcome.
Macintosh C-Kermit has been successfully tested in conjunction with DEC-20s
and VAXes (full duplex mainframes) at speeds up to 9600 baud, with IBM
mainframes (half duplex, handshake, various kinds of parity) on both ASCII
async ports and 3270-emulation ports at speeds up to 4800 baud, and with
another Macintosh in server mode at speeds up to 57.6K baud. It runs on 128K
and 512K Macs and on the "Macintosh-XL", standalone or with the switcher.
* Distribution
The files have been placed on CU20B in the area <CKERMIT>. The <MACKERMIT>
area has been removed. The previous releases of C-Kermit (4.2) and MacKermit
(Steve Engel's original from Harvard) will remain in KER: until we receive
reports verifying that the new version installs and works as advertised on
all the systems listed above. Prompt reports would be appreciated, so that
we can start putting the new C-Kermit on our distribution tapes. The files
may be obtained via anonymous FTP from Internet host CU20B as <CKERMIT>*.*.
The file <CKERMIT>CKAAAA.HLP explains what all the files are. Be sure to
read the appropriate "beware" (.BWR) file before installing or running the
program -- these files list all known bugs, restrictions, and peculiarities
of each implementation.
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End of Info-Kermit Digest
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