JET3@PSUVM.BITNET (02/28/89)
Let's try this again with a little more information. I have a person here
who would like to transfer their DEC files to an IBM. Here are the details
that I could find out from her:
1. The DEC is a Digital Decmate II, PC 278-A, keyboard LK201BA. The
system has two 5.25" floppy drives.
2. The IBM is an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, with one 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive.
Well, what do you think, is it easy? convertable? Let me know at
JET3@PSUVM. Thank you all of you for your previous responses.
Jean Thompsoncurci@stat.uucp (Ray Curci (scri)) (02/28/89)
In article <73511JET3@PSUVM> JET3@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >Let's try this again with a little more information. I have a person here >who would like to transfer their DEC files to an IBM. Here are the details >that I could find out from her: > 1. The DEC is a Digital Decmate II, PC 278-A, keyboard LK201BA. The > system has two 5.25" floppy drives. > 2. The IBM is an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, with one 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive. >Jean Thompson You may want to investigate putting KERMIT on both systems and attaching them with a serial cable. KERMIT at 9600 bps works quite well and is very inexpensive. You should be able to fetch the KERMIT software using anonymous/ftp from c.columbia.edu. A more expensive alternative is to attach a 5+1/4" disk to your PS/2 (I am unfamiliar with the decmate but assume it is an ibm pc/xt/at compatible machine?) I have added a Businessland 5+1/4" high density 5+1/4" external floppy disk drive to a ps/2 model 50z before. The kit has a cable that plugs in where nomally your drive b: would be on the ps/2 that runs to a special card. There is a cable that attaches to the back of the card that goes to a separate enclosure for the 5+1/4" disk. This kit costs around $400 or so. For ocassional use, Kermit is probably the best answer. Kermit will allow you to transfer both text and binary files, etc. You can place one PC in a server mode and execute all commands from the other system. Kermit for the PC also has a DEC vt102 emulation mode for using your pc as a terminal, etc. Good luck! ray curci fsu supercomputer institute curci@nu.cs.fsu.edu, curci@stat.fsu.edu
jdc@naucse.UUCP (John Campbell) (03/01/89)
From article <7417@pyr.gatech.EDU>, by curci@stat.uucp (Ray Curci (scri)): > In article <73511JET3@PSUVM> JET3@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>Let's try this again with a little more information. I have a person here >>who would like to transfer their DEC files to an IBM. Here are the details >>that I could find out from her: >> 1. The DEC is a Digital Decmate II, PC 278-A, keyboard LK201BA. The >> system has two 5.25" floppy drives. >> 2. The IBM is an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, with one 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive. >>Jean Thompson > > You may want to investigate putting KERMIT on both systems and attaching them > with a serial cable. KERMIT at 9600 bps works quite well and is very > inexpensive. You should be able to fetch the KERMIT software using > anonymous/ftp from c.columbia.edu. A more expensive alternative is to > attach a 5+1/4" disk to your PS/2 (I am unfamiliar with the decmate but > assume it is an ibm pc/xt/at compatible machine?) Really, you shouldn't post if you're "unfamiliar" with one of the machines. The DECMate, vanilla--without a Z80 board, has no operating system--it is generally used as a proprietary word processing system. Text, as I understand it, isn't even stored in ascii on the floppies... KERMIT doesn't exist for it. The DECMate does have a built-in communication package--I've been able to talk to other machines (RAW mode, no protocol) and even upload files from the DECMate to the host. The problem with this is that users are used to having their DECMate bolding, underlining, ruler lines, etc. all go to another word processing system intact. DEC sells a product to allow a WPS to WPS (the internal word processing system) transfer to occur which will preserve all this. I've forgotten the product's name, but I know it exists for the VAX VMS and, of course, for the DECMate. With no money, no VAX, but a lot of time on your hands you might do what I did. Since the DECMate is not programmable, and since I wanted the output document, I wrote a program to capture output from the printer port. This is a bit nasty, maybe even silly, but it worked for me. One thing you have to do, however, is respond to the frequent printer queries that are sent by the DECMate to tell if the printer is still active and alive (DEC printers can talk back if given response queries). The code wasn't trivial--don't try this unless you're very comfortable building escape sequence recognizers and communication programs. (Of course, when you're all done you have a file with ANSI escape sequences in it--on to another filter!) -- John Campbell ...!arizona!naucse!jdc CAMPBELL@NAUVAX.bitnet unix? Sure send me a dozen, all different colors.
aad@stpstn.UUCP (Anthony A. Datri) (03/01/89)
>You should be able to fetch the KERMIT software using >anonymous/ftp from c.columbia.edu. KERMSRV at CUVMA for bitnet people, and I believe a uucp site at okstate. >attach a 5+1/4" disk to your PS/2 (I am unfamiliar with the decmate but >assume it is an ibm pc/xt/at compatible machine?) The DECmate II is a PDP-8 on a chip. . . -- @disclaimer(Any concepts or opinions above are entirely mine, not those of my employer, my GIGI, my VT05, or my 11/34) beak is@>beak is not Anthony A. Datri @SysAdmin(Stepstone Corporation) aad@stepstone.com stpstn!aad
bekele@fsadmn.dec.com (DTN: 435-5387/2817) (03/02/89)
<...!arizona!naucse!jdc> <CAMPBELL@NAUVAX.bitnet> writes: > Really, you shouldn't post if you're "unfamiliar" with one of the machines. > The DECMate, vanilla--without a Z80 board, has no operating system--it is > generally used as a proprietary word processing system. The originals were the "WT78" & "WS78". With an 8" floppy drives, they were for the most part word processing "workstations". Latter the VT278 was added and that machine, called DECmate I, ran both the word processing package (WPS-8) as well as "COS-310, an operating system, I am certain, a few "old time" readers of this file fondly remember. Latter, DEC packaged the DECmate I into a smaller PC-like box with 5 1/4" drives (optionally a Winchester drive with 5/10/20 meg) that you could put a Z80 card (or an XPU card) to run CP/M inaddition to the aformentioned. This machine is known as DECmate II. There is, yet, a smaller box that runs the same software as the DMII called DECmate III. With the exception of the WT78 all DECmate versions run COS-310 and you could write code using DIBOL for these machines. Now that we have gotten our "DEChistory" straight, back to the original question: > In article <73511JET3@PSUVM> JET3@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >>Let's try this again with a little more information. I have a person here >>who would like to transfer their DEC files to an IBM.... What are you trying to transfer? WPS-8 documents? COS-310 files? CP/M files? DOS files?
pechter@scr1.UUCP (03/04/89)
>From article <7417@pyr.gatech.EDU>, by curci@stat.uucp (Ray Curci (scri)): > In article <73511JET3@PSUVM> JET3@PSUVM.BITNET writes: >Let's try this again with a little more information. I have a person here >who would like to transfer their DEC files to an IBM. Here are the details >that I could find out from her: > 1. The DEC is a Digital Decmate II, PC 278-A, keyboard LK201BA. The > system has two 5.25" floppy drives. > 2. The IBM is an IBM PS/2 Model 50Z, with one 3.5" 1.44Mb floppy drive. >Jean Thompson There's a company in California (Exceptional Business Solutions, or something like that) that has a word processor called "WPS-PC" which also has the DEC dx protocol file transfer built in. This will take the WPS-8 word processing files and tranfer them to the PC -- keeping the formatting intact. Also, they'll translate it to straight DOS ascii from their WPS-PC format from within WPS-PC. -- Bill Pechter -- Home - 103 Governors Road, Lakewood, NJ 08701 (201)370-0709 Work -- Concurrent Computer Corp., 2 Crescent Pl, MS 172, Oceanport,NJ 07757 Phone -- (201)870-4780 Usenet . . . rutgers!pedsga!tsdiag!scr1!pechter "Work didn't drive me to drink . . . I have my own car."