[comp.sys.amiga.tech] DNET 7 bit support

dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon) (11/08/89)

	I'm going away for a week but have almost completed
    modifications to DNet for use over a 7 bit line or with other
    protocols.  This will become the default (with a switch for 8
    bit mode).  That way you guarentee that DNet will run on any
    connection or configuration by default.

	The modifications are as follows:

	SYNC character changed to 0x5B (from 0xFF)

	All packet header and control information redesigned such that
	all bytes fall within the range 0x20-0x7F

	Several new packet types added (invisible to user)

	Currently there is a PCMD_WRITE packet ... a data packet
    containing N bytes of 8 bit data.  I'm adding another packet type
    which will encode binary data into 6 bit bundles (or'd with 0x40
    to make them ascii) for 7 bit mode... resulting in an increase 
    of 25% in the packet size.  DNet will use whichever packet makes
    sense depending on the mode selected and the contents of the 
    packet.

	If anybody wishes to submit a simple block compression
    algorithm that works well with small blocks of data (history 
    storage is alloweds), please email me... I have room for a
    couple new packets and am seriously thinking about adding
    compression to the 8 bit mode.

	The compression would not effect the already slow keyboard
    response as it would be run only on packets larger than, say,
    32 bytes.

	P.S.  THIS MUST BE A FAST COMPRESSION ALGORITHM.  It also
    must use a statically sized history.

				-Matt

beh@caen.engin.umich.edu (Bob Hruska) (11/09/89)

From article <8911080305.AA03498@postgres.Berkeley.EDU>, by dillon@POSTGRES.BERKELEY.EDU (Matt Dillon):
> 
> 	I'm going away for a week but have almost completed
>     modifications to DNet for use over a 7 bit line or with other
>     protocols.  This will become the default (with a switch for 8
>     bit mode).  That way you guarentee that DNet will run on any
>     connection or configuration by default.

This is the greatest news I've heard in a long time!
Please let me know when and where I can get this, Matt.  I've been
dying to use DNET but suffer from the 7-bit blues.

-- 
Bob Hruska   University of Michigan Computer Aided Engineering Network (CAEN)

INTERNET: beh@caen.engin.umich.edu
    UUCP: {umix|ucbvax|uunet}!caen.engin.umich.edu!beh