SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) (04/24/88)
>I have an Applied Engineering Serial Pro that I use for telecommunications (as >opposed for printing). The card works well with Apple Access, DCOM3.3 but not >very well Kermit 3.75 - 3.82. > >The Serial Pro is ostensibly a Super Serial clone and should work with >Kermit's SSC driver. It doesn't, so I use the Versatec driver. It is >described as a SSC driver without interrupts. It works poorly. The only >thing Kermit can be used for with the Serial Pro is file transfer. Full >screen editing at 1200 baud is hopeless. Too many characters are lost. I use >Apple Access a lot, DCOM 3.3 when I want a VT100 emulation and Kermit for file >transfer. > >Anyway, I have received several opinions and vibes about the problem. And, here's yet another vibe. Sometimes it helps to read the documentation. You'd find out for example, that you can retrieve Kermit's source code from KERMSRV@CUVMA (version 3.81 is what they have at present). I own a Microtek 622C and understand the character loss problem. Apple Access, and the other programs you mention use 'polling' rather than interrupts. Polling avoids one problem at the expense of others (polling is VERY hardware specific, so it becomes necessary to write drivers for EVERYTHING -- lots of 80 col cards for instance). I suspect the long and the short of it is, Kermit-65's is just going to be limited with serial hardware that won't support interrupts. Ted's made some efforts to avoid character loss (see note from the documen- tation reproduced below), but Apple's, software scrolling, 80 column firmware is simply too slow to capture everything. Your nodeid indicates you are using a VAX. I've been given to understand that at least some VAX communications software provides an option for padding transmitted lines with nulls. If you can do that, it probably would solve your problem (IBM's protocol converter provides no means for padding lines, so I'm limited to risking frying my motherboard trying to modify the 622C to support interrupts or putting up with lost characters -- it's even worse at 2400 baud). -------------------------Excerpts from Kermit 3.8x documentation------------- Prior to using Kermit-65 for transferring files, the modem interface must be set to handle data in a certain manner. First, the data format should be 8 data bits and 1 stop bit. Second, the card should be set to no parity. The baud rate (if adjustable) must be set to whatever rate the modem can handle. For the D.C. Hayes Micromodem, these parameters are set correctly by default, so very little has to be done. For the Apple Super Serial Card these are set from within Kermit-65 except the interrupt switch (sw6-2) which must be set for interupts on. For the Microtek SV-622, all applicable parameters are set by Kermit-65. Some mainframes may need parity checking (i.e. most IBM machines). In this case some parity setting (other than none) will usually work. When talking with such mainframes, binary and basic files on the Apple cannot be transferred unless Eighth-bit-quoting is acceptable to the host. If you have the parameters set correctly then the "connect" command will start Kermit talk- ing out the communication port. ...If you have trouble with the super serial driver you might try the MSV driver. Kermit-65 3.x has been separated into two assemblies, the main routines and the com card routines for the devices shown in Table 1-1. A vector has been set up in low memory for the two assemblies to communicate. Look at the working com drivers for tips on how to incorporate your version of the com driver. some things to note: It is probably best to buffer the input from the remote and to get input characters from the remote every chance you get. Note the Microtek SV-622 driver, whenever the input is checked for a character and has a charac- ter the character is put into the buffer immeadiatly. Also when the output is checked for ready to output, if the card is not ready to output then it is checked for a character to input. All this should help prevent losing charac- ters. ------------------------------------End excerpt------------------------ The following two files which you can obtain by sending a SENDME command to KERMSRV@CUVMA may be of help: APPMSV.M65 Microtec com card source APPSSC.M65 Super serial com card source --------------------- Disclaimer: The "look and feel" of this message is exclusively MINE! (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited) ARPA: sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu Murphy A. Sewall BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM School of Business Admin. UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL University of Connecticut
jetzer@studsys.mu.edu (jetzer) (04/24/88)
In article <8804231402.aa18500@SMOKE.BRL.ARPA>, SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall) writes: >>I have an Applied Engineering Serial Pro that I use for telecommunications (as >>opposed for printing). The card works well with Apple Access, DCOM3.3 but not >>very well Kermit 3.75 - 3.82. >>The Serial Pro is ostensibly a Super Serial clone and should work with >>Kermit's SSC driver. It doesn't, so I use the Versatec driver. It is >>described as a SSC driver without interrupts. It works poorly. The only >>thing Kermit can be used for with the Serial Pro is file transfer. Full >>screen editing at 1200 baud is hopeless. Too many characters are lost. I use >>Apple Access a lot, DCOM 3.3 when I want a VT100 emulation and Kermit for file >>transfer. I also have a Serial Pro, but use if for printing. The manual says that by closing dip switches 1 and 2, you will enable interrupts from the ACIA chip. Have you tried this? (this seems painfully obvious, but this ought to solve your problem, I think). On another note, the Serial Pro is not quite an exact replacement for the SSC, since some graphics print programs (actually, it seems all Broderbund programs, and no other ones that I've run across) require you to access the control panel and disable linefeeds before printing graphics. Otherwise the graphics are printed with blank lines between lines of graphics. Other programs (ImageWriter toolkit, Triple Dump) seem to work just fine without changing the control panel. Anyone know a fix for this? -- Mike Jetzer "Hack first, ask questions later."