SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU (Frank da Cruz) (10/09/86)
Info-Kermit Digest Wed, 8 Oct 1986 Volume 5 : Number 13
Today's Topics:
Kermit Book Available
New C-Kermits on the Way
Other New Kermits On The Way
Re: Screen Saver Feature as Part of Kermit
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Date: Wed 8 Oct 86 11:35:52-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Kermit Book Available
The Kermit book is finally in print. Thanks to all the members of the
Info-Kermit community who provided information, responded to queries, read
drafts, and helped in other ways, and especially to Don Knuth for contributing
the Foreword. And thanks are due, perhaps even more, to all of you who have
kept Kermit alive and growing over the years by generously contributing your
time and effort to its design, development, and distribution, and to the
keepers of the computer networks that have made the rapid spread of Kermit
information and programs so easy. Kermit is truly a community project. I
tried to fit as many of you as I could into the acknowledgements, and
apologize in advance to anyone I might have missed.
The book is called "Kermit, A File Transfer Protocol," (author me), published
by Digital Press. It does not replace the Kermit User Guide, because specific
Kermit programs are not described in detail, but it supplements it by
discussing motivation, commands, operation, and tricks in greater detail, and
filling in more background -- there are tutorials on file systems and on data
communications (RS-232, modems, cable-building, etc), plus many new tables,
diagrams, pictures, summaries, a glossary, etc etc. There's a troubleshooting
guide, a new bootstrapping technique including a "baby Kermit" program in
BASIC short enough to type in to a PC, hints to programmers for writing and
submitting Kermit programs, etc etc.
The book does, however, replace the Kermit Protocol Manual; it presents the
protocol in more detail, and (I hope) more coherently, than the PM, and
includes program fragments from a bare-bones version of C-Kermit to illustrate
each facet of the protocol, in a much more layered and structured fashion than
was done before (but the PM will still be kept around).
It will take some time before the book reaches the bookstores, since it only
left the bindery this week. In the meantime, it can be ordered direct from
Digital Press by calling 1-800-343-8321, order number EY-6705E-DP. It is also
being distributed this week at DECUS in San Francisco, but reportedly it's in
short supply. Anyone who has checked the book box on Columbia's Kermit order
form should be getting their copies within 2-3 weeks, maybe sooner (we'll send
them out as soon as we get them).
Disclaimer: I am obviously biased about this book. Reviews, favorable or
not, will be most welcome and will be published in the Info-Kermit digest.
Reports of mistakes, typos, etc, are also welcome (so they can be fixed in
the next printing, if any) as well as suggestions for changes to make in
future editions.
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Date: Wed 8 Oct 86 11:45:52-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: New C-Kermits on the Way
There is a lot of work underway to bring C-Kermit to new systems. Below is
a brief list of the work in progress; the major intention is to prevent
duplication of effort, and to promote cooperation. If you are working on a
Kermit program for any of the systems listed below, or know anyone who is,
please have them contact us, so we can put them in touch with the people who
are working on these projects:
Apollo Aegis
Apple II GS, CPW (windows)
Apple Macintosh (convert Mac Kermit to Lightspeed C)
Data General MV series, AOS/VS
MS-DOS
NCUBE parallel processor with AXIS OS
VAX/VMS (add more knowledge about VMS file system)
If you know of anyone adapting C-Kermit to any systems not listed above,
also have them contact us, so we can add them to the list. Thanks!
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Date: Wed 8 Oct 86 10:14:45-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Other New Kermits On The Way
Here are some other Kermit development efforts. Again, if you are (or know
of anyone who is) doing any work along the same lines, please (have him/her)
contact us:
Apple II: (1) New CROSS release for DOS; (2) new release in native assembler.
ProDOS support may appear in one or both of the above.
Apple III (yes Apple III)
CDC Cyber 170 Series: Various new versions, improvements to current ones.
CP/M-80: New release, will support many more systems more modularly.
CP/M-86, Concurrent CP/M-86: IBM PC
Data General MV Systems, AOS and AOS/VS: versions in Fortran, C, DGL
HP-9000 and 98x6 BASIC systems
Honeywell DPS6/GCOS6
IBM System/370 Series: Major effort underway to integrate CMS and TSO versions
Intel development systems (many separate efforts underway)
Japanese micros - many versions available through NEC or NTT
Motorola 68000 assembler version, OS-independent
Motorola development systems (Xormacs, VME, Versados, etc etc)
MS-DOS: Version 2.29a will be ready soon!
MUMPS-11 (improved version reportedly done, on the way)
Philips development systems
Pick Operating System (IBM PC, etc)
There are also many, many others of a less certain nature. All of these
efforts are listed in the file KER:AAWAIT.HLP on CU20B (AAWAIT HLP on
CUVMA).
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Date: Mon, 6 Oct 86 15:30:20 pdt
From: tweten@ames-prandtl.ARPA (Dave Tweten)
Subject: Re: Screen Saver Feature as Part of Kermit
Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit, Screen Saver Feature
You don't need to put a screen saver feature into Kermit. There are
several public domain terminate-and-stay-resident screen saver programs
available, any one of which can be started before running Kermit
(perhaps in an AUTOEXEC.BAT file), and which will be effective while
Kermit runs. The Info-IBMPC source code library at USC-ISIB.ARPA has at
least two. I wrote another (which has the user-settable time feature
you requested). I'm sure many others exist in the public domain. A
little asking around should net you one you like.
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End of Info-Kermit Digest
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