SY.CHRISTINE@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU.UUCP (05/23/86)
Info-Kermit Digest Thu, 22 May 1986 Volume 4 : Number 30
Departments:
ANNOUNCEMENTS -
New Release of Prime Kermit
Sliding Windows Kermit Available for PC-DOS
VMS Kermit 3.2.077 Hex File
MISCELLANY -
Stevens P/OS Kermit Doesn't Work Under P/OS 3.0
Sending BREAK from C-Kermit on the Fortune 32:16?
Speed Difference Between Upload and Download Using Kermit?
Humble Apology for Amiga Kermit Beware File Mistakes
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Date: Thu 22 May 86 16:55:47-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: New Release of Prime Kermit
Keywords: Prime, Windows
This is to announce version 7.57 of Prime Kermit for the PRIMOS operating
system, R19 or later, contributed by John Mulligan and Hugh Matlock of The
Source Telecomputing in McLean, VA. This version corrects the bugs that
were reported for the last version and also supports the sliding window
protocol extension. It is in use at The Source, and has been used
successfully over Telenet (with its characteristic delays) with very high
efficiency, as reported in previous issues of the Info-Kermit Digest.
The new version is in KER:PRIME.* on CU20B, available via anonymous FTP
(Internet) or NFT (CCnet), and in PRIME * on CUVMA, available via KERMSRV on
BITNET. Thanks to Leslie Spira of The Source for sending it in.
The old version, which contains some special functions for dealing with SPSS
Portable Files, remains available as KER:PRIMEK.* (PRIMEK * on BITNET).
------------------------------
Date: Thu 22 May 86 16:59:56-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Subject: Sliding Windows Kermit Available for PC-DOS
Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit, Windows, C-Kermit
This is to announce a version of Kermit that runs on the IBM PC and
compatibles under PC-DOS, and which supports the sliding window protocol
extension. It may be used in conjunction with Prime Kermit to accomplish
very efficient data transfers. It was written by Jan van der Eijk of NUS,
commissioned by The Source Telecomputing, based on an old version of
Columbia C-Kermit. It has not been integrated with "real" C-Kermit yet for
a variety of reasons, but this will come eventually. The files are in
KER:WKERMIT.* on CU20B, available via anonymous FTP (Internet) or NFT
(CCnet), and in WKERMIT * on CUVMA, available via KERMSRV on BITNET. Thanks
to Leslie Spira of The Source for submitting it.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 May 86 09:15:10 EDT
From: SY.FDC@CU20B
Subject: VMS Kermit 3.2.077 Hex File
Keywords: VMS Kermit
When VAX/VMS Kermit 3.2.077 was announced in Info-Kermit Digest V4 #29, the
hex file for the program's task image was inadvertantly not updated.
Apologies to those who took the trouble to get the file and dehexify it,
only to find that it was still 3.2.075, and thanks to those who reported the
problem. A hex file for 3.2.077 is now available in KER:VMSMIT.HEX on CU20B
(and VMSMIT HEX on CUVMA).
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 22 May 86 09:15:10 EDT
From: rmcqueen (Robert C McQueen) @ sitvxb.ccnet
Subject: Stevens P/OS Kermit Doesn't Work Under P/OS 3.0
Keywords: Professional-300, P/OS
The DEC Professional-3xx version of Kermit from Stevens doesn't work in
version 3.0 of P/OS. It worked in all of the field test versions of the new
P/OS 3.0, but doesn't work in the released version. We are currently
working on the problem, but I can not give you any time frame as to when it
will be fixed in that version.
Bob
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Date: Mon, 12 May 86 11:18:09 BST
From: Philip Dunne EuroKom <mcvax!euroies!philip@seismo.CSS.GOV>
Subject: Sending BREAK from C-Kermit on the Fortune 32:16?
Keywords: C-Kermit, Fortune
I have just installed the C-KERMIT programs on a FORTUNE 32:16 (OS 1.2.3).
The executable file was created using the make ft17 option. I am using
C-KERMIT to transfer files between the Fortune and a GEC 63/40 running
SYSTEM V. Inorder to contact the GEC I have to go through a Gandalf switch.
When I try to send a BREAK to get the attention of the switch I get this
message:
Can't send BREAK : Not a typewriter.
Can anyone tell me what alterations are needed so that I can send a BREAK
from the Fortune and so use KERMIT normally.
Thanks in advance
mcvax!euroies!philip
[Ed. - The Fortune support in C-Kermit uses the 4.2 BSD method for sending a
BREAK, namely ioctl(ttyfd,TIOCSBRK,(char *)0). You are apparently getting a
negative return code from this function, which means either that that's not
really the right way to send a BREAK on the Fortune (anybody know for sure?),
or the function isn't implemented correctly, or somehow you're passing it a
file descriptor that's not for a tty. The code in question is in the file
ckutio.c, function ttsndb().]
------------------------------
Date: 9 May 86 16:40:49 GMT
From: P Wei <wei%princeton.uucp@brl.arpa>
Subject: Speed Difference Between Upload and Download Using Kermit?
Keywords: Performance
I am using Kermit (v.2.26) transfering files between IBM PC and VAX (running
UNIX 4.2bsd and C-Kermit). Everything works fine except that it only takes
a few minutes to download 50K bytes file from VAX to PC, whereas it takes
*hours* to upload the file. (I am using a network line with 9600 baud rate.
The only setting after I invoke ms-kermit is "set parity even" and "set baud
9600". AND the transfering is at midnight. The vax has less people to serve
at this hour than in daytime). Can anyone shine some light on me ? What is
going wrong ? Is this an intrinsic problem with the kermit program? Thank
you in advance for your help!
[Ed. - The speed difference you observe is not the normal behavior of
Kermit. It's probably caused by the network. Many network terminal
concentrators, statistical multiplers, and similar devices allocate much
higher bandwidth in the host-to-terminal direction than in the terminal-to-
host direction on the assumption that the data coming from the "terminal"
consists only of human keystrokes, whereas the host is capable of spewing
forth vast amounts of data in response to a short command. Of course, when
the terminal is really a PC running a file transfer program like Kermit,
this assumption is very wrong.]
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 20 May 86 17:03 EST
From: <DPVC@UORDBV.BITNET>
Subject: Humble Apology for Amiga Kermit Beware File Mistakes
It has come to my attention that a preliminary evaluation that I wrote
concerning Phil Julian and Jack Ralphs' version of Amiga Kermit was distributed
along with the CKIKER.BWR file for Amiga Kermit. This report was not intended
to be included in the beware file, and has been removed. It contained a
number of inaccuracies, which I hope to remmedy below. More important, is was
viewed as a condemnation of Phil and Jack's version, which it was not meant to
be. Phil and Jack have been very generaous to me in sending their code for
evaluation. I learned a lot from it, and I find it to be an excellent
product, far superior to mine in many respects. My main intent in that letter
was to indicate that the files, as they were given to me, were not in a form
appropriate for distribution, and that some work would be required to put them
into a distributable form. It did not mean that the program should not be
distributed, nor that major changes were required to make it distributable.
This was not clear from what I said in my letter, for which I appologize.
Phil and Jack's version WILL be distributed, and I recommend that people use
it. I suggested (recently) that their version replace mine as the "official"
version, but I do not know whether this will happen. I will continue to work
on an Amiga-style interface for Kemit (something along the lines of MacKermit)
that is menu-driven and uses requestors, etc. This will be some time in
coming, however, I'm afraid.
Since my complaints about Phil and Jack's version were aired publicly, I
think that the corrections to my complaints should be as well. Many of the
"problems" I listed were really personal preferences, not mistakes with the
product. These should not have been included in a list of bugs. Inaccuracies
in the list that was published include the following:
1) It no longer uses the C-Kermit 057 version files.
2) The function keys do not, in fact, produce garbage, they produce no
output, and the arrow keys produce arrow movements as they should.
In addition, a number of the most important ANSI escape sequences are
correctly interpreted by the console driver, so that Amiga Kermit
can be used with many full-screen programs that expect a VT100
terminal. The HELP key is the only one I could find that produced
strange results.
3) The changes I claimed were made to the Unix modules actually were made
in the Amiga-dependent code, which is OK to do. The copy I received
was missing a section of Unix code in one place, but I understand that
this has been replaced in the final version.
4) The reference to "inferior code" in the summary section referred to
MY version, not Phil and Jack's; this was not clear from the context.
One final disclaimer: my letter did not affect the decision about which
version to distribute, as my version was announced in the INFO-KERMIT Digest
BEFORE I sent that evaluation. I deeply regret any misunderstandings that
may have been caused by the publishing of that report.
Davide P. Cervone
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End of Info-Kermit Digest
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