ray@j.cc.purdue.edu (Ray Moody) (08/29/87)
Hello!
We hope Kermit v2.0 has been helpful to a lot of you out there in Netland. We
have received quite a bit of feedback as to what new features to add, and, yes,
even a few bugs.
Currently we are working on the next release of Kermit, which will be v2.1.
Ray is doing most of the programming, and Kent is working on a completely re-
vised manual which will include a tutorial section. Ray is currently very busy
between class and a REAL job (gasp!) so it may take a little longer than we
would like to finish v2.1. It will be completed ASAP.
Here are some of the things which may be new or different in v2.1: (none of the
features that aren't actually done can be guaranteed, though)
Bugs and minor improvements:
1) SITUATION: Screen flickers in Commodore 128 mode.
CAUSE: Wrong address computed by mistake (oops!).
STATUS: Fixed!
(For those of you with v2.0, here is the fix:)
LOAD "KERMIT",8
POKE 26018, 244
OPEN 15,8,15,"S0:KERMIT"
CLOSE 15
SAVE "KERMIT",8
2) SITUATION: Lots of words not capitalized, one or two spelled incorrectly.
CAUSE: A conversion on the source file filtered all the capital letters
out.
STATUS: Fixed!
3) SITUATION: Many people need DEL more frequently than backspace.
CAUSE: Many people use crazy operating systems. :-)
FIX: Change them around.
STATUS: Done.
4) SITUATION: STATUS command bombs if there is a disk error (Intermittent
bug. Yuck).
CAUSE: Not determined yet... just found out about it (old bug, from at
least as far back as v1.5).
STATUS: Working on it.
5) SITUATION: Using some characters from the function keys can be awkward.
CAUSE: Hard to remember which key is which, and keys are kinda hard to
reach.
FIX: Move the characters to the main keyboard.
STATUS: Done.
Major features:
1) FEATURE: Finished VT-100 emulation. This includes the graphics character
set, cursor key activation, PF key support, and a few re-defined keys.
LIMITATIONS: VT-100 features not supported (in most cases due to hardware
limitations and/or lack of memory): double height & double width
characters, only two character sets (no foreign sets), 132 column mode,
smooth scrolling, reverse screen (substituted changing background to a
lighter color), LED sequences, and some terminal reports (some of them make
no sense when using Commodore hardware). Also, if you use the C-64 80-
column screen driver, and you print a non-blank bold character next to a
regular character, there is a 50/50 chance one will become the same color
as the other. Nothing we can do about this as it is a hardware limitation
involving color memory.
STATUS: Done!
2) FEATURE: Power-C (formerly C-Power) C compiler source file translation for
up/downloads.
STATUS: Working on it. Should be no problem.
3) FEATURE: SET COLOR command (for background, border, character, bold, & lt.
background colors).
STATUS: Not implemented yet, but it definitely will be in v2.1.
In the future (beyond v2.1), some major work needs to be done on the command
parser and the protocol section. Most of this work won't do much for Kermit
users, but the work has to be done to free up memory for other features (and to
clean up a bug or two). Two things that will be introduced with the work on
the protocol will be long packets and simple file compression.
Please keep sending us your comments, suggestions, and even bug reports (Bugs?
What bugs? :-).
Ray Moody
ray@j.cc.purdue.edu
ihnp4!pur-ee!j.cc.purdue.edu!ray
Kent D. Sullivan
ihnp4!pur-ee!corvairdennisf@marque.UUCP (Dennis Flaherty) (08/30/87)
Is there any chance that Kermit v2.1 may be distributed via either:
1) A posting of the binary to usenet, or
2) A mailing list ?
I'm sure there are a lot of comp.sys.cbm.people who already have
Kermit v2.0 and could simply download the new software, saving
a great amount of time and money.
Thanx a lot!
Dennis Flaherty
dennisf@mu.edu Marquette University
marque!dennisf@csd1.milw.wisc.edu USNail: 826 N. 20th St.
uwvax!marque!dennisf Milwaukee, WI 53233bowen@sunybcs.uucp (Devon E Bowen) (08/30/87)
In article <5200@j.cc.purdue.edu> ray@j.cc.purdue.edu (Ray Moody) writes: > > 3) SITUATION: Many people need DEL more frequently than backspace. > CAUSE: Many people use crazy operating systems. :-) > FIX: Change them around. > STATUS: Done. Is this a mistake? DEL is the default and backspace is ctrl-h (a pain!). This is the main reason I only use kermit for file transfers and use another program for working (one which I can define the delete key). I'd also like to take this time to request an internal buffer for trapping text. Or at least allowing text to go to the printer. That'd be enough to make me a full time kermit user. Devon Bowen (KA2NRC) University of Buffalo ********************************************************* uucp: ..!{ames,boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!bowen Internet: bowen@cs.Buffalo.EDU BITNET: bowen@sunybcs.BITNET *********************************************************
hmiller@mit-eddie.UUCP (08/30/87)
In article <4941@sunybcs.UUCP> bowen@joey.UUCP (Devon E Bowen) writes: >Is this a mistake? DEL is the default and backspace is ctrl-h (a pain!). >This is the main reason I only use kermit for file transfers and use >another program for working (one which I can define the delete key). What version of Kermit are you using? The copy I got from Ray (admittedly a beta version) has DEL sending ^H and INST sends DEL. This a real annoyance for those of us who use Emacs (quick, some Emacs user back me up on this - or am I the only one dumb enough to use Emacs coming from a 64 at 1200 baud?) since ^H calls up Emacs help. --Herb ARPA: hmiller@eddie.mit.edu CHAOS: ham@deep-thought.mit.edu UUCP: ...mit-eddie!hmiller
bowen@sunybcs.UUCP (08/31/87)
In article <6708@eddie.MIT.EDU> hmiller@eddie.MIT.EDU (Herb Miller) writes: >In article <4941@sunybcs.UUCP> bowen@joey.UUCP (Devon E Bowen) writes: >>Is this a mistake? DEL is the default and backspace is ctrl-h (a pain!). >>This is the main reason I only use kermit for file transfers and use >>another program for working (one which I can define the delete key). > >What version of Kermit are you using? The copy I got from Ray (admittedly >a beta version) has DEL sending ^H and INST sends DEL. I've got the 2.0 release from Dr. Evil's. I know it's sending DEL instead of ctrl-h because my csh doesn't understand it (my csh backspace is set to ^H) but my tcsh works fine with it (which accepts either DEL of ^H as the backspace character). I'll double check it, but I'm 99% sure. Could I have accidently changed this by messing with parameters? I'd much prefer having it as ^H. Devon Bowen (KA2NRC) University of Buffalo ********************************************************* uucp: ..!{ames,boulder,decvax,rutgers}!sunybcs!bowen Internet: bowen@cs.Buffalo.EDU BITNET: bowen@sunybcs.BITNET *********************************************************
barts@tekchips.TEK.COM (Bart Schaefer) (08/31/87)
[ Apologies if this appears twice. The news feed to/from ogcvax has been
flakey lately, so I'm re-posting from tekchips. ]
First of all, thanks to those who gave suggestions on how to load KERMIT from
a BASIC program. As it turns out,
LOAD "KERMIT",8,1
does indeed work. I looked back at my program, and discovered that I was doing
KT=1:LOAD "KERMIT.BOOT",8,1
Line 10 (first in the program) has to look like
IF KT=1 THEN END
in order for this to work -- the END causes KERMIT.BOOT to run when the BASIC
program exits. I would still like to know why this is only partly reliable,
but since directly loading KERMIT works, I'll do that.
Now on to another question. Has anybody out there doctored KERMIT 2.0 to use a
different character set? I find it very difficult to distinguish some
characters in the set used. I have worked out the pixel patterns for a more
legible 80-column set used by the program that came with my modem, and I wonder
how difficult it would be to to substitute this set into KERMIT. (Aside:
Please don't start discussing whether or not YOU find the KERMIT set legible.
That doesn't help me.)
Of course, any 80-column set on the C64 screen has its drawbacks; the authors
of KERMIT seem to have decided to maximize spacing BETWEEN letters, while the
set I prefer maximizes spacing WITHIN letters (allowing wide letters like W to
touch adjacent letters). As an example of character widths, the KERMIT
character set leaves a detectable space between a pair of hyphens, i.e. "--",
while the set I prefer runs them together into a single long line. The effects
of all this are that certain letter combinations are less legible in my
preferred set, but "solitary" letters (surrounded by whitespace or by narrow
letters) are always easily distinguished, which is not true in KERMIT (at least
to my eyes on my screen).
Can anyone help me with this? And if the authors of KERMIT are watching, are
you interested in a possible alternate character set? How about two sets,
"wide" and "narrow" for the next version, where "narrow" is the current set,
and let the user choose his preferred configuration?
--
Bart Schaefer CSNET: schaefer@Oregon-Grad
UUCP: ...{tektronix,verdix}!ogcvax!schaefer
"Face it ... computers have revolutionized the workplace."
"Right. The Ayatollah did the same thing to Iran." -- J. MacNelly
--
Bart Schaefer
Oregon Graduate Center ...!tektronix!ogcvax!schaefer
Guest at Tekchips ...!tektronix!tekchips!barts