From cmg Fri Aug 3 14:50:25 1990 Return-Path: Received: by watsun.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA29240; Fri, 3 Aug 90 14:50:25 EDT Date: Fri, 3 Aug 90 14:50:24 EDT From: Christine M Gianone To: Info-Kermit Subject: Info-Kermit Digest V12 #2 Reply-To: Info-Kermit@watsun.cc.columbia.edu Queries-To: Info-Kermit-Request@WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Message-Id: Info-Kermit Digest Fri, 3 Aug 1990 Volume 12 : Number 2 Departments: ANNOUNCEMENTS - Another Update of the MS-DOS Kermit 3.02 Test Release Version 8.12 of PRIME Kermit Now Available New Documentation Available for VAX/VMS Kermit-32 3.3.126 New Test Release of DEC Rainbow Kermit MS-DOS KERMIT - MS-DOS Kermit 3.0x and Microsoft Windows 3.0 MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 Hints MS-Kermit Server and Hayes 2400bps Modems? KERMIT-370 - IBM Mainframe Kermit and Trailing Blanks IBM Kermit 4.2 and tn3270 Digest submissions may be sent to Info-Kermit@WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU, requests for addition to or deletion from the Info-Kermit subscriber list to Info-Kermit-Request@WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU or to KERMIT@CUVMA.BITNET. Kermit files may be obtained over networks and by mail order. On the Internetwork, use FTP to log in to host WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU, a SUN-4/280 running UNIX (SUNOS 4.1), IP host number 128.59.39.2. Login as user anonymous (note, lower case), any password, and GET or MGET (MULTIPLE GET) the desired files. The Kermit files are in directories kermit/a, kermit/b, kermit/c, kermit/d, and kermit/e. Test versions are in kermit/test. Binaries are in kermit/bin (use ftp in binary mode). You can also get Kermit files over the BITNET/EARN network; to get started send a message with text HELP to KERMSRV, the Kermit file server, at host CUVMA. For detailed instructions, read the file kermit/a/aanetw.hlp (AANETW.HLP on KERMSRV). To order by mail, request a complete list of Kermit versions and an order form from Kermit Distribution, Columbia University Center for Computing Activities, 612 West 115th Street, New York, NY 10025 USA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed Aug 1 19:56:09 1990 >From: Christine M. Gianone Subject: Another Update of the MS-DOS Kermit 3.02 Test Release Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.02 >From Joe Doupnik. Changes since the version announced in Info-Kermit V12 #1 are listed below. Items 38 and 39 will be of interest to Honeywell users for supporting connections to the Honeywell DPS-6 (see article by Frank Dreano in Kermit News #4) -- they remove the need for a custom version of MS-DOS Kermit to communicate with the the Honeywell systems. Please report any problems to Joe at JRD@USU.BITNET or JRD@CC.USU.EDU. 30. Add correction to ensure NUL and DEL are passed through when printing transparently. msxibm 31. Revise REPLAY filespec a little. Previously at the end of the file any key would exit Connect mode. Now all keys remain active so that screen dumping and screen rollback function; ALT-X and Control-C (emergency bailout) exit Connect mode. msxibm 32. Internal revisions to details of handling 75/1200 baud split speeds. Previously, filling the receiver buffer would cause an XOFF to be sent at 1200 baud rather than at the correct 75 baud. Now the XOFF character is sent at 75. A pseudo-queue is present to prevent conflicts of using the timer chip for beep or regular 75 baud output when the receiver interrupt occurs (and resulted in the XOFF being sent at interrupt level rather than at task level). The queue makes the XOFF be sent at task level and at the proper 75 baud rate. Dan Norstedt had the idea, this queueing stuff is my solution. 75 baud output is done as a software UART. msxibm 33. Details here and there to save code segment space, from Dan Norstedt. 34. Add terminal type of VT100. This performs identically to a VT102 except the response to the type inquiry from a host is ESC [ ? 1 c (a VT100). 35. Found and fixed a protocol problem present in MSK 3.0 to date. If an I packet is sent to a server Kermit which does not understand I packets the resulting Error packet from the server is to be taken as a forgivable error, rather than otherwise being a fatal one. The version 3.0 and 3.01 code forgot to forgive. I packets are sent by GET and REMOTE commands. Fixed on 19 July. mssser. 36. Remove VTxxx response to CSI [ .. R. That should not have been present. Thanks to Ted Medin for discovering its presence. 37. Add 80/132 column support for Paradise Autoswitch EGA Mono board, thanks to David Zielke of Duke Univ. msyibm 38. Add two new commands SET SEND DOUBLE-CHAR which sends this character twice in a row in outgoing packets. The doubling occurs as packet bytes are being sent to the communications channel and hence does not occur during packet construction. This accomodates communications devices which need doubling to let through a single copy. The doubling will not appear in the packet log. Padding characters are not affected by this command since padding is to be discarded at the other end anyway. SET RECEIVE IGNORE-CHAR which ignores this character in received packets. This accomodates communications devices which may insert a character into a stream, such as a Line Feed inserted before a Carriage Return. The ignored character will not appear in the packet log. Note that NUL (0) and DEL (127) are normally ignored even without this command. 39. Add terminal type of HONEYWELL to the emulator. This is a VT100 with two special responses. A received ENQ character, decimal 5, causes the emulator to send the 14 characters '7813 P GC A' 03h and receipt of ESC y causes the emulator to send the 27 characters ESC '[8p OT' 03h ESC '[y7813 P GC A ' 03h where the quote marks (') above are not sent but are present so we can see the spaces which are sent; other spaces are for reading convenience. 03h is Control-C, a binary value 3. The terminal ident response is VT100. These Honeywell VIP7809 emulation features are from Frank Dreano, dreano@trout.nosc.mil. 40. Modify the internals for SET KEY LK250 to result in checking for an active external LK250 driver and if found activate the LK250 usage in Kermit. If the driver is not found the message "?LK250 keyboard external driver is not active." is displayed. Note that to obtain the default LK250 key mappings the user must say SET KEY CLEAR after the above command, and then add any local definitions. Tnx to Terry Kennedy. msuibm 41. In command WAIT \CD \CTS \DSR let the backslash character be optional, to merge syntax with C Kermit 5A. mssscp 42. Add further Honeywell terminal type modifications from Frank Dreano: - change invocation ESC y to be ESC [ y (see item 39 above) This will cause loops if the host echoes the response. - add ESC ` (accent grave) clears screen and homes the cursor. 43. Revise slightly the query for the active Code Page, and the table of character sets for use by SET FILE CHARACTER-SET, to be system dependent so that MS-DOS in Japan can be used more effectively. That MS-DOS lacks the concept of Code Pages. Thanks to Hirofumi Fujii for the suggestions. 44. Add another host invocation control sequence to the text terminal emulator. Reception of CSI Pn;...Pn ~ invokes a macro named PRODUCT, if it exits, and sets variables \%1, \%2, and so forth up to \%9 to be the ascii version of the numeric parameters Pn above. Omitted parameters are taken to be zeros. Only as many variables are set as numeric parameters, and script item ARGC is one larger than this quantity. If macro PRODUCT does not exist only the \%x items are changed. Connect mode is not reentered automatically if the macro exists. This is very similar to TERMINALR and TERMINALS, except for the variable setting part. The invocation sequence may change so don't write it into applications until Kermit is released again. It is not invocable from the keyboard, because of the needed parameters. mssset.asm, msyibm.asm, mszibm.asm. 45. Correct a keyboard translation problem. Control codes could be translated to printable characters for a few National Replacment Character sets, because that was where the special graphical symbols are located on the IBM PC display adapter. This has been corrected to never translate control codes. 46. Slightly revise script INPUT and REINPUT command sensing of timeouts to do the time reading after each serial port character reading operation. This might cure complaints of REINPUT 0 reporting premature FAIL status. 47. If disk reading fails while sending a file tell the receiver to dispose of the file with a Delete status, rather than the previous status of just end-of-file. There is no other simple way of informing the receiver of such a local problem. Other files in a group will be processed normally. More changes are expected. ------------------------------ Date: Fri Aug 3 10:46:17 1990 >From: Christine M. Gianone Subject: Version 8.12 of PRIME Kermit Now Available Keywords: PRIME Kermit >From Matthew Sutter of Lincoln National Corporation in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA, comes version 8.12 of PRIME Kermit, an upgrade of version 8.00 that was prepared by John Horne of Polytechnic South West in Plymouth, England. The major feature of version 8.12 is support for local-mode (dialout) operation using the AMLC lines. CONNECT, GET, FINISH, and BYE commands have been added, as well as the script commands INPUT, OUTPUT, CLEAR, and PAUSE. This version also contains fixes to repeat character processing and sliding windows, but the sliding window feature still needs more work in order to interoperate with MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 or C-Kermit 5A. This work is underway, watch Info-Kermit for further announcements. The new files are in kermit/d/prime8.* on watsun, and PRIME8.* on CUVMA. There is, as yet, no new documentation. Thanks to Matt for his work and for contributing it to the Kermit collection! ------------------------------ Date: Wed Aug 1 18:29:49 1990-EDT >From: Christine M. Gianone Subject: New Documentation Available for VAX/VMS Kermit-32 3.3.126 Keywords: VAX/VMS Kermit The VAX/VMS Kermit-32 chapter of the Kermit User Guide has been updated to include all the information about the new release, and the help text has also been updated. Thanks to Jonathan Welch of the University of Massachusetts for his help in clarifying the actions and interaction of the SET FILE BLOCKSIZE and SET FILE TYPE commands, and for proofreading the manual. The files for the new manual are VMSHDR.MSS and VMSMIT.MSS (Scribe source), VMSMIT.DOC (plain ASCII text) and VMSMIT.PS (Postscript). The help text is in VMSMIT.RNH (Runoff source). Tape B (kermit/b, etc etc). ------------------------------ Date: Thu Aug 2 13:01:34 1990-EDT >From: Christine M. Gianone Subject: New Test Release of DEC Rainbow Kermit Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit, Rainbow Kermit, DEC Rainbow >From Robert Weiner, a new version of Kermit for the DEC Rainbow, based on the system-independent parts of the July 22nd MS-DOS Kermit 3.02 test release. The Rainbow version lacks many of the IBM-specific enhancements that appeared in MS-DOS Kermit 3.0, like international character sets, instantaneous screen rollback, etc, but these MAY be added before the final release of this program. The system-independent features -- script programming enhancements, sliding windows, long packets, VT200/300 emulation (it's still at the VT102 level), etc. Thanks to Rob for keeping the Rainbow up to date! The files are in kermit/a/mstrb1.boo ("BOO" file to be un-boo'd into an .EXE file using any of the MSBPCT files) on the Internet or MSTRB1 BOO on BITNET KERMSRV at CUVMA. For internet binary-mode FTP access only, also kermit/bin/mstrb1.exe. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Aug 90 11:18:30 PDT >From: william@xlnvax.novell.com (William Hall) Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.0x and Microsoft Windows 3.0 Just tried MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 in enhanced mode Windows. I began by running a DOS shell then running Kermit. Did not bother with a PIF file. I changed the settings to run from exclusive to background. You can get to these setting with ALT-SPACE, then moved it to a Window. For fun, I ran vttest on UNIX and checked the character set, especially the one for DEC special graphics. They looked as expected. Then I tried a long file transfer. I made the window iconic, and the file transfer ran in the background to completion with no errors. At the end, the bell beeped to let me know it was done. So it works and quite well to the extent that I tested it. --Bill ------------------------------ Date: 1-AUG-1990 20:33:04.67 >From: Joe Doupnik Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 Hints Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.0 Troubleshooting [Ed. - This is extracted from a reply by Joe to a user who reported a nonfunctioning Kermit on a Compaq computer.] One common item is an internal modem which fails to follow the normal rules of how to behave like a regular serial port. Another is two devices are having a small battle for an IRQ line or a memory (port) address. MS-DOS Kermit 3.02 (not 3.2) is strictly development software, as indicated in the note file MSR302.UPD and on the startup banner. The REMOTE command problems you report fall into the category of fixed, broken, and then fixed again (sigh). In all of the broken cases Kermit would retry many times and that takes up to a minute or so to finish. While that is happening one side can send an XOFF to the other and forget to send a matching XON later; Kermit waits 10 seconds to figure out this situation when it needs to send and breaks through regardless. So, this "flow control deadlock" can add to the waiting interval, but it's better than being told to never speak ever again. Another situation, which happened to me a couple of years ago, was the poor hard disk controller had a conflict with another board and every once in a while the machine would hang waiting on the hard disk for 10 minutes or more. Usually I had to push the big Red switch. When Kermit has to go to the hard disk then these kinds of things can happen. Generally, I try to sort out the problem by trying Connect mode between machines right away. If that works then I know the communications line part is basically ok. If packets fail then I say SET DEBUG ON and SET DISPLAY SERIAL to watch what's happening during a file transfer or REMOTE command (REMOTE WHO is my favorite "protocol" quicky, no disk access). Let's suppose the Compaq is in sad shape. My suggestion is to backup the hard disk contents and ensure they are correct (say to DOS VERIFY ON to help). Then do a low level format of the drive (yow!) and a DOS FORMAT with the correct version of DOS. Put things back on the hard disk and keep your fingers crossed. Double check the settings of the boards too. Unload the likely mountain of favorite TSR's and see if things work. If they do then start adding them back one at a time and retesting. Make sure that CONFIG.SYS has BUFFERS=20 or so and FILES=20 or so. Watch out for Desqview because it has troubles remembering that a communications program needs to service interrupts from the serial port. Don't mix DOS files from different releases/manufacturers. Ensure that parity is the same on both machines, NONE being better than any other flavor (Kermit does it's own checking in a much more secure way). Don't use MODE COM1:....,P with that ",P" (for Printer waiting) on the same port as the communications channel because DOS will grab the port and won't release it. Watch for mice drivers nibbling on the same serial port. In short, take the machine down to bare metal and rebuild it slowly from a consistent set of original DOS floppies (put write-protect tabs on them). Did I forget to mention virii? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 02 May 89 16:54:34 CDT >From: Barry Pederson Subject: MS-Kermit Server and Hayes 2400bps Modems? Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit Server Mode Hi, we've been using MS-Kermit for a while now, and it's been incredibly useful, but we're having a slight problem. We have some IBM model 30-286 machines connected to Hayes 2400bps external modems. They work fine except when we try to have the modems answer the phone while Kermit is in server mode. We have a script set up to set the speed to 2400, parity to none, then we output ATS0=1\13 to the modem, and go into server mode. Sometimes it works, but a lot of the time, when the phone rings the modem will drop down to 1200bps. In a previous Kermit Digest, I thought I saw something about C-Kermit having problems with Hayes modems, does MS-Kermit have a known incompatibility between it's server mode and a Hayes modem? I suspect that Kermit is working fine, but the Hayes is doing something screwy (we've tried MS-Kermit 2.31 and 2.32/a). I'd really appreciate any suggestions on how to keep the Hayes from slowing down. Thanks. Barry Pederson University of North Dakota School of Medicine ud092096@ndsuvm1.bitnet or ud092096@vm1.nodak.edu [Ed. - When MS-Kermit is in server mode, it times out every 30 seconds or so and transmits a negative acknowledgement packet (the familiar "^A# N3"). It is likely that the NAK packet is confusing the modem. The workaround is to give MS-DOS Kermit the SET TIMER OFF command before putting it in server mode, which is safe as long as the other Kermit will do timeouts (some, like IBM mainframe CMS Kermit, cannot). In MS-DOS Kermit 2.32/A or later, you can disable server command wait timeouts without turning the timer off, by using the command SET SERVER TIMEOUT 0.] ------------------------------ Date: 6-Jul-90 22:03:17-GMT >From: Randy Schirmer@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu Subject: IBM Mainframe Kermit and Trailing Blanks Keywords: IBM 370 Kermit, VM/CMS Kermit, Blanks We're running Kermit CMS and MS Kermit to transfer files with a record length of 1500 bytes. What's happening is that the records have trailing blanks. Kermit strips these blanks off. We need them to remain intact for input into a commercial package we are running under DOS. Is there any way to keep the blanks from being stripped? I know that you can specify LRECL and RECFM at the CMS level but that is for files being received in CMS. We need the same capability for MS-DOS Kermit. Randy Schirmer West Chester University, West Chester, PA 215-436-1094, RSCHIRME@WCU [From John Chandler - When the file type is TEXT and the recfm is F, Kermit-370 strips off trailing blanks from each record before sending a file. In order to keep trailing blanks in a downloaded file, you can convert it to RECFM V in CMS before sending it, e.g., by using COPYFILE with the RECFM V option. This is true of versions from 4.1 onward.] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 20 Jun 90 08:33:25 -0500 >From: C Lance Moxley Subject: IBM Kermit 4.2 and tn3270 Keywords: IBM 370 Kermit, tn3270 I just assembled Kermit/370 on an IBM 3081 running VM/SP 5. The program assembled just fine. But, I have no idea how to set things to work through tn3270. I've used MS-DOS Kermit for quite a while now and also am very comfortable with C-Kermit, but this seems to be alot different. I would appreciate any help you can give on this. I also have the ability to use 3708 protocol converters, but I don't think there is any way I can put them in line-by-line mode. I would really prefer to use tn3270. If you are the wrong person to ask this to, please direct me to the right person. Also if there are any examples anywhere, let me know. I couldn't find anything on watsun. Thanks for a very fine product. The other versions that I use are the best of their kind. Especially the new C version. Thanks, Lance [From John Chandler - Actually, no, I haven't used tn3270 myself, but Bob Babcock has -- and from a Unix system only. It should have been essentially the same as your attempt, but it worked. The special considerations are only two: you must SET CONTROLLER SERIES1 by hand, and you cannot (apparently) upload using long packets. The system in question was a CONVEX, as opposed to a SUN, but I think the tn3270 would have been the same.] ------------------------------ End of Info-Kermit Digest *************************