SY.CHRISTINE@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU (Christine M Gianone) (11/13/86)
Info-Kermit Digest Wed, 12 Nov 1986 Volume 5 : Number 16
Today's Topics:
Announcing HP9845 Kermit in BASIC
Updates to Cyber Kermit
Oksatate Kermit Distribution
Getting Kermit Files
F11 and F12 on new IBM PC Keyboard
TSO Kermit Fix
Fix to os9 Kermit Server
Portable 68000 Kermit
More on CompuServe vs. Kermit
CompuServe and Kermit
VAX/VMS Kermit to PROCOMM
PROCOMM's Kermit and the VAX/VMS
PROCOMM Kermit File Transfer Problems
Kermit-32 and PROCOMM
How to Transfer Binary from UNIX to VMS?
VAX/VMS & Kermit
C-Kermit and Xenix 3.0
Re: FIDO - UNIX Kermit problem
Rainbow MSKERMIT initialization
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Date: 7-NOV-1986 12:53:27
From: DGM1@UK.AC.YORK.VAXA
Subject: Announcing HP9845 Kermit in BASIC
Keywords: HP9845 Kermit
Please find attached a listing of a minimalist kermit data
transfer program in interpreted Basic (!) for the HP9845. As it's in
interpreted Basic a listing of the source code seemed the best form to
distribute it in. This implementation was developed by Chris Walker in the
Physics Dept here, and is principally designed for the transfer of
experimental data from a micro functioning as a data logger to a mainframe.
As such it lacks some features of a standard Kermit implementation, but it
works well and does what its supposed to do.
Cheers,
Doug
Doug Moncur, Computing Service, University of York, Heslington, York YO1 5DD
tel: 0904-430000x487 :: janet: DGM1@YORK.VAXA
[Ed. - Thanks for the new Kermit version. Many people have asked for this
in the past. The files are in KER:HP9845.*.]
------------------------------
Date: 12-NOV-1986 10:14:07
From: SYSKERMIT%vax1.central.lancaster.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk
Subject: Updates to Cyber Kermit
Keywords: Cyber Kermit
A new version of Manchester University's Cyber Kermit (CYB) has just
arrived here: I've attached their release notes below.
Alan
CYBKER.UPD
In addition to several minor alterations and improvements, there are
two major changes to Cyber Kermit which have been requested by many
users of the program:
A Directory command has been added to list the names and lengths of
local files. When an optional filename parameter is specified, only
those files with matching names are listed. This command is avail-
able both as a local command on the Cyber and as a remote command in
server mode.
The wildcard character '*' is allowed in file names after DIR, SEND,
remote DIR, and remote GET commands.
[Ed. - These files will placed in KER:CYB*.* as soon as they arrive over the
network.]
------------------------------
Date: Tue 11 Nov 86 09:50:49-EST
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Oksatate Kermit Distribution
Keywords: Okstate, UUCP
For those who may have missed previous announcements about this, here is a
brief description of the dialup Kermit file services available from Oklahoma
State University, Department of Computing and Information Sciences, Stillwater,
Oklahoma. The OK state collection has just been brought up to date to reflect
the new 3-area organization, and to include the Kermit versions that have been
announced since last August. OK State provides both UUCP and Kermit dialup
access.
The files from TAPE A are in /usr/spool/uucppublic/kermit-a/*
The files from TAPE B are in /usr/spool/uucppublic/kermit-b/*
The files from TAPE C are in /usr/spool/uucppublic/kermit-c/*
-- UUCP --
You need to set up "okstate" as a site in your "L.sys" UUCP dialing file
using the information listed below. You can then issue the following
commands on your system:
uucp okstate!~uucp/kermit-a/aaaread.me /usr/spool/uucppublic
(this example will retrieve a general information file about the entire
Kermit Distribution. DO THIS FIRST!)
uucp okstate!~uucp/kermit-b/ck\* /usr/spool/uucppublic
(this example will retrieve the current version of C-Kermit)
There are several files available that contain information about the entire
distribution. We recommend that you retrieve these files first. They are
"aaaread.me" which explains the file name conventions used, "aafiles.hlp"
which explains how to find the different kermit versions, and "aafiles.dir"
which is a complete listing (by name) of all files in the in each kermit
directory. These files will enable you to choose the right files the first
time.
UUCP Login information:
Site Name : okstate
Phone number : (405) 624-6953 (300/1200 baud)
Login name : uucpker
Password : thefrog
Hours : 24 hours per day, 7 days a week
Problem : okstate!uucp-support (UUCP)
reports : uucp-support@a.cs.okstate.edu (ARPA)
The following is a sample L.sys line (\r is a carriage return):
okstate Any ACU 1200 405-624-6953 "" \r ogin: uucpker word: thefrog
-- KERMIT SERVER ACCESS --
Okstate also provides access to the Kermit distribution via a Kermit Server.
The number is the same as above for the uucpker login, so the line may be busy
quite a bit. This server is a specialized server with controlled access. At
present, the server is only allowed access to the Kermit directories on our
machine.
You need the following information in order to access the server:
KERMIT login : kermsrv
Password : piggy
Parity : even
Data path : 7 bit
Available : 24 hours/day, 7 days a week
When the login is completed, the server will start, and you should escape
back to your local KERMIT to issue further commands. If the server remains
idle for a period of time around 10 minutes, it will be stopped.
The best place to start after logging on is "REMOTE HELP", followed closely by
the desired "REMOTE DIR" commands. If you don't include an argument to REMOTE
DIR, you should be prepared for more than 600 lines of output. It is usually
better to read the 'aaaread.me' file (using REMOTE TYPE perhaps) and then do
the DIR with some kind of wildcard (like "REMOTE DIR ck*").
Mark Vasoll
Computing and Information Sciences Internet: vasoll@a.cs.okstate.edu
Oklahoma State University UUCP: {cbosgd, ihnp4, isucs1,
Stillwater, Oklahoma pesnta, uokmax}!okstate!vasoll
[Ed. - Once again, many thanks for providing this service. A much longer and
more detailed description of how to access the OK State Kermit files may be
found in the file AANOKS.HLP in the Kermit distribution. There may be a
slight delay before this service is fully available because of a last-minute
foulup (Columbia's fault) with the tapes.]
------------------------------
Date: Wed 5 Nov 86 14:16:29-EST
From: Ken Rossman <sy.Ken@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Getting Kermit Files
Keywords: FTP, Arpanet
It seems to be a general problem with the ARPAnet backbone these days.
There's been lots of speculation on what the actual problem is and how to
solve it on lists like TCP-IP. In any case, the only thing I can recommend
at this point in time is to try the file transfer during off hours and on
weekends. I think I've had my best successes with FTP on Saturday nights/
Sunday mornings. Submit a batch job to get the files, so you don't actually
have to be there at that time. /Ken
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 29 Oct 86 08:59:32 PST
From: forags%violet.Berkeley.EDU@berkeley.edu
Subject: F11 and F12 on new IBM PC Keyboard
Keywords: IBM PC Keyboard
Following is a note from our kermit guru, Greg Small (gts@populi.berkeley.edu)
regarding patches he made to our version of Kermit to allow use of F11 & F12.
The patches DO NOT specifically apply to any other versions of Kermit, but
may provide a starting point for patching other versions.
Al Stangenberger
Forestry & Resource Mgt.
U. C. Berkeley
[Ed. - Thanks for the patch. Many people have asked about this. Greg's
changes have been forwarded to Joe Doupnik for inclusion in the next
release, coming Real Soon Now...]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 18:10:24 pst
From: thobe@ee.UCLA.EDU (Glenn Thobe)
Subject: TSO Kermit Fix
Keywords: TSO Kermit
TSO Kermit v.1.1 appeared to be broken as file transfers would regularly
fail at the same point in the transmission. I was advised to enter the
following TSO command:
profile char(bs)
which totally fixed the problem. Apparently anything other than "bs" for this
profile parameter causes some character translation which interferes with the
incoming data. I hope this information will be of use to others.
-Glenn Thobe
[Ed. - This message has been added to the TSO Kermit beware file -
KER:TSOKER.BWR ]
------------------------------
Date: Mon 3 Nov 86 23:42:40-PST
From: Bob Larson <BLARSON@USC-ECLB.ARPA>
Subject: Fix to os9 Kermit Server
Keywords: os9 Kermit
After seeing a rather vague bug report in the mod.os.os9 usenet newsgroup
about os9 kermit, I did find the bug in the os9srv.c module of os9 kermit:
It did not allocate space for the receive file name to go into. I have not
tested this fix for the same reason I never tested the host mode originally:
my system is not set up to answer the phone. The fix is rather
straitforward (two lines of code) and obviously needed, so I am including
the fixed os9srv.c at the end of this message.
The answer to the question of who should get the os9 kermit bug reports is
probably me, being the person who submited the last two versions to the
columbia kermit archives and the latest to the os9 users group. Reports
sent to info-kermit@cu20b.columbia.edu would probably get to me also.
Bob Larson
Arpa: Blarson@Usc-Eclb.arpa or Blarson@Usc-Oberon.Arpa
Uucp: sdcrdcf!usc-oberon!blarson
[Ed. - Thanks Bob! The new file KER:OS9SRV.C has replaced the old one. The
old file has been moved to KO:OS9SRV.C.]
------------------------------
From: RBG.XX@GEN.BITNET
Date: 11 nov 86 14:38 GMT +0100
Subject: Portable 68000 Kermit
Keywords: 68000 Kermit
[Ed. - This is from Roberto Bagnara, Physics Department, Bologna University
(Italy), concerning a Kermit program he's developing for the Motorola 68000
family of processors, designed for portability among 68000 operating systems
and assemblers, particularly those of the sort that are sold as turnkey
systems for lab work, with little or nothing in the way of utility software
or operating system support for many of the functions we take for granted.
Anyone who has an interest in such systems, please respond to Roberto's
questions directly, or through Info-Kermit. Thanks!]
I'm writing to you, in order to clarify some points about the Kermit
program that I'm developing. Here they are:
a) I'm working hard, because I'd like to carry out my job by
the end of this month. The first version of Kermit68K will
be necessarily a preliminary one, due to the fact that, being
employed at a department of physics, I haven't the advantage
of a useful exchange of ideas, suggestions, etc.
I need strong user/implementor feedback, in order to make the
program effectively portable to different machines and
operating systems, and to refine it, so that it works at its
best. Having said all that, do you think that it's better to
include it in the official distribution as a preliminary or
you know any potential user/implementor, whom I can address
to, in order to get this feedback?
[Ed. - Any "alpha test" volunteers out there? If not, then let's just
install the preliminary version for distribution.]
b) Ensuring portability while maintaining, as much as possible,
a unique source code would be a nice result. Unfortunately
the assemblers differ, in general, in the syntax of the
directives, besides some of them produce machine code
directly, thus not allowing linking with other modules, that
is separate assembly is impossible.
Is there a public domain or highly diffused pre-processor
for files inclusion and conditional text insertion ?
That's all for now.
Thank you very much.
Roberto
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 3 Nov 86 23:24:09 est
From: jpm@bnl.ARPA (John McNamee)
Subject: More on CompuServe vs. Kermit
Keywords: CompuServe
Most CompuServe users access the service via CompuServe's own network, which
has dialups all over the place. Very few come in via Telenet, Tymnet, etc.
The CompuServe network nodes are quite smart and have large input buffers,
and CompuServe may even move some or all of file transfer protocol handling
off the mainframes and into the nodes.
------------------------------
Date: Mon 3 Nov 86 22:40:40-EST
From: Russ Forster <OC.RUSS@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: CompuServe and Kermit
Keywords: CompuServe
I have used compu-serv rather extensivly in the last little while and have
experenced a number of problems in downloading files. This is partly due to
going through DATAPAC here in the 'Great White North'. CIS does not support
KERMIT at all and this can (and does) cause problems for us AMIGA owners.
XMODEM pads out to 256 characters per line, so if the line is less, it gets
filled with nulls. Because the AMIGA is multi- tasking, It must know the
length of the file to find a place for it in memory. We AMIGAns have
developed a number of Chomping programs to eat up the null's that XMODEM
insists on putting in.
The bottom line is yes Yes YES!!!! I would love to see KERMIT infiltrate
these networks like CIS and PEOPLE LINK. Us AMIGIANS need it.
/Russ
ps. This was in response to the latest KERMIT digest.
Disclaimer ..
The above commnets are my own not my employeers.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Nov 86 18:08:14 pst
From: thobe@ee.UCLA.EDU (Glenn Thobe)
Subject: VAX/VMS Kermit to PROCOMM
Keywords: VAX/VMS Kermit, PROCOMM
In reference to Lawrence Clark's communication (IKD v.5, no.15), I have had
difficulty transferring files from VAX/VMS Kermit-32 v.3.2.077 to Procomm
v.2.4 on an IBM-PC (that's the other direction from what L.C. was trying to
do). The transfer of a text file was successful but very slow. The VAX
would send out a data packet immediately upon receipt of an ack and wait,
time out, send a repeat of the data packet, wait some more, finally receive
the ack, etc. This is just one experience, not a controlled experiment, so
I wouldn't hasten to make any hard and fast judgements from it.
-Glenn Thobe
thobe@ee.ucla.edu (arpa)
[Ed. - See the following messages...]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 86 16:42:15 est
From: Robert Montante <seismo!iuvax!bobmon@columbia.edu>
Subject: PROCOMM's Kermit and the VAX/VMS
Keywords: PROCOMM, VAX/VMS
In response to Lawrence Clarke's question about ProComm's Kermit and VAX/VMS
Kermit: I am using ProComm v2.42 for Kermit transfers quite successfully, to
and from a VAX/VMS V4.2 with Kermit-32 (and also with ckermit running under
UNIX on another VAX). I have noticed that both ProComm and the host Kermits
make some default-setting assumptions that are incompatible (and occasionally
inexplicable). Something like the "block check type" may need to be adjusted
locally or on the host (or both); this was necessary to get me going on UNIX.
...Bob Montante...
Datclaimer: "[Usual disclaimer: I have no opinion, therefore I don't exist .]"
Disclaimer: I opine, therefore I am. My employer, however, is a figment.
RAMontante
Computer Science "Have you hugged ME today?"
Indiana University
[Ed. - Block check type is something that two Kermit programs are supposed
to negotiate between themselves. It's possible that ProComm isn't doing
this right.]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 14:13:09 est
From: phri!dvm!frank@columbia.edu (Frank Wortner)
Subject: PROCOMM Kermit File Transfer Problems
Keywords: PROCOMM
I noticed the last Kermit Digest had a note from Lawrence Clarke about the
difficulty getting PROCOMM and Kermit to speak to eachother. I've had this
problem also. File transfers were OK when MSKERMIT 2.29 talked to C-Kermit
4C(58) on the VAX ( an 11/780 running DEC Ultrix ), but when PROCOMM 2.42
took over, the Kermit transfers simply stopped working.
All was not lost, however, since I discovered that if I changed some of
PROCOMM's line settings, everything worked again. I used the Line-Settings
menu (Alt-P) to set the parity to space, and Kermit then happily resumed
shipping files. I don't know how or why this worked, but if anyone out
there wants to use PROCOMM to talk to Kermit, experimenting with parity
bit settings is worth a shot.
Frank Wortner
UUCP: frank@orville.UUCP
(... allegra!phri!orville!frank )
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 08:58:17 EST
From: rmcqueen (Robert C McQueen) @ sitvxb
Subject: Kermit-32 and PROCOMM
Keywords: Kermit-32, PROCOMM
In response to Lawrence Clarke in the Info-Kermit Digest V5 #15:
Try using at least version 3.2 of Kermit-32 to see if the problem still
exists that and PROCOMM. We have fixed lots of random problems along the
way and could have resolved this problem.
Bob
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 4 Nov 86 12:16:52 pst
From: black@ee.UCLA.EDU (Rex Black)
Subject: How to Transfer Binary from UNIX to VMS?
Keywords: C-Kermit, VAX/VMS Kermit, Binary Files
My advice is to archive the file (since that changes format) and try that.
If that fails, you know that it is NOT the data format which is tripping up
the machine, but rather some form of hardware/communications problem between
DEC and Pyramid.
It's always a good idea to isolate your bug.
Rex
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 11 Nov 86 23:03:16 est
From: Bob Sutterfield <bob@ohio-state.ARPA>
Subject: VAX/VMS & Kermit
Keywords: VAX/VMS Kermit
In article <1679@ncoast.UUCP> btb@ncoast.UUCP (Brad Banko) writes:
>Kermit dogs our VMS system down... whenever one of us uses kermit
>to communicate over the modem, it really dogs our 11/750 down... it is
>particularly bad when typing long messages or kermitting files... has anybody
>else had this type of problem, and is there an easy fix?
> I don't know if the problem is with VMS, or Kermit... Thanks.
Yes, I've noted that problem on a 750 running VMS. Even at
1200 bps on a DMF-32 modem port, filling a screen (like by cat(1)ing a
text file on the remote system) can grab over 90% of an otherwise-busy
CPU (thus saith MONITOR). Curiously enough, unlike your report, I
only saw the problem while CONNECTed to a remote system, never while
SENDing or GETting a file to/from a remote server.
The clue to the cause is to look (still via MONITOR) at all
the buffered I/O that's going on in your process. Think about all
those characters passing through the port drivers, the class drivers,
etc. to get to your screen, generating high-priority interrupts as
they go. It's pretty gruesome.
I tried various permutations of the SYSGEN parameters
concerning silo and DMA and typeahead buffer sizes, particularly the
one that controls when the minimum-size thing that triggers a switch
to "DMA mode" from character-by-character interrupt mode - I think
it's TTY_DMASIZE (I no longer have any connection with VMS systems, so
my memory is foggy of its name). Nothing seemed to help me.
It seems to me that the only way to improve this problem would
be to make Kermit much more intelligent about VMS guts, in order to
bypass some of the layers that characters have to go through. This,
of course, would make it much less portable, even to new versions of
VMS, as the terminal driver is wont to change occasionally. Like,
apparently, with new major releases of the operating system.
------------------------------
Date: Wed 5 Nov 86 16:58:31-EST
From: Christine M Gianone <SY.CHRISTINE@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: C-Kermit and Xenix 3.0
Keywords: C-Kermit, Xenix
Has anyone has any experience running C-Kermit under the Xenix operating
system, version 3.0A, on the AT? If you got it to work, what "make" options
did you use, or what modifications did you make to the source? We're
getting a lot of questions about this.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Nov 86 13:59:29 est
From: munnari!latcs1.oz!philip@seismo.CSS.GOV (Philip Lee)
Subject: Re: FIDO - UNIX Kermit problem
Keywords: FIDO, C-Kermit, UNIX Kermit
Found the problem, FIDO kermit allways sends out file with 8th bit quoting
(with '&' prefix), even when you come in with 8 bits and no parity! I
should've guessed it when the received binary file is bigger than the
original. I've been told that it would be fixed in the next version of FIDO,
the one I've been connected to runs on ver 11W.
Philip P.H. Lee,
La Trobe University,
Dept. of Computer Science, PHONE: +61 03 478 3122 ext 2902
Bundoora, A/CSnet:philip@latcs1.oz
Victoria 3083, ARPA: philip%latcs1.oz@seismo.css.gov
AUSTRALIA. UUCP:{seismo,hplabs,mcvax,ukc,nttlab}!munnari!latcs1.oz!philip
[Ed. - There have been many complaints from people downloading ARC files
from FIDO BBS's with Kermit that the files cannot be successfully unARC'd.
This could be the problem! A cursory examination of a packet log shows
that 8-bit quoting was not negotiated, but was used by FIDO anyway, so
that the resulting downloaded file was filled with extraneous & characters.
We'll try to check this in more detail.]
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Nov 86 08:07 ???
From: RLH <HAAR%RCSMPA%gmr.com@RELAY.CS.NET>
Subject: Rainbow MSKERMIT initialization
Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit, DEC Rainbow
Does anyone have a good .INI initialization file for the MS-DOS version of
Kermit on a DEC Rainbow?
What I want to do is to get the terminal emulation to look as much like a
VT200 series terminal as I can - particularly as far as having the function
keys transmit the right sequences so that I use the key definition
facilities of VAX/VMS and the TPU editor.
If you have a .INI that does a good job of this, would you send me a copy?
thanks,
Bob Haar
[Ed. - Try KER:MSIRB2.INI on CU20B (MSIRB2 INI from KERMSRV). You're welcome.]
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End of Info-Kermit Digest
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