From cmg Tue Aug 20 12:17:24 1991 Return-Path: Received: by watsun.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB) id AA19465; Tue, 20 Aug 91 12:17:24 EDT Date: Tue, 20 Aug 91 12:17:23 EDT From: Christine M Gianone To: Info-Kermit Subject: Info-Kermit Digest V14 #2 Reply-To: Info-Kermit@watsun.cc.columbia.edu Queries-To: Info-Kermit-Request@WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU Errors-To: Info-Kermit-Request@watsun.cc.columbia.edu Message-Id: Info-Kermit Digest Tue, 20 Aug 1991 Volume 14 : Number 2 Today's Topics: New Lotus 1-2-3/V Key Mapping File for MS-DOS Kermit Kermit With DOS 5.0 Task Swapper Windows 3.0 and High-Speed Kermit Connections Window Slot Sizes Unique Log File Names for MS-DOS Kermit? Keyboard Bug in MS-DOS Kermit Kermit Archives 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: Mon, 8 Jul 1991 15:20 CST >From: RAVI%SLU.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU Subject: New Lotus 1-2-3/V Key Mapping File for MS-DOS Kermit Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit, Lotus Here at Southeastern Louisiana University, we have Lotus/123 on our VAX/VMS system. Many of our users use PCs with Kermit to access the VAX system and we would like to have some method of maintaining transparency for the user, i.e. we want the user to be able to use Lotus/123 on the Vax from his PC and have it look and feel as though he were using PC Lotus. I have created a Lotus 1-2-3 key mapping file for enhanced keyboards. I am sending that to you separately. Feel free to make any suggestions/comments, etc. and use it in the digest. Ravi BITNET: RAVI@SLU Southeastern Louisiana University [Ed. - Thanks very much, Ravi! The new file is in kermit/a/msi123.ini on watsun, and MSI123.INI on KERMSRV.] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Jul 91 23:47:17 EDT >From: Dick Elnicki Subject: Kermit With DOS 5.0 Task Swapper Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit and DOS 5.0, DOS 5.0 DOS 5.0 and Kermit appear quite compatible. I am currently using Kermit with my EasyK scripts for this e-mail. A program applicaton for Kermit access to our IBM VTAM services is in my DOS Shell. Before starting it, I enabled the Active Task list. Then I clicked on the program name to auto dial into our VTAM services. Once signed on, I can press ALT with ESC to toggle back to the DOS Shell. At the shell, I can start a second application, e.g., PCWrite or Lotus 123. This, of course, depends on the free memory available. The ALT with TAB's also works as described. One can toggle through the active tasks. The name appears at the top of the screen. A choice is make by pressing Enter for a named task. The ALT with ESC choice gives the DOS Shell as noted above. Here you can also double click on the desired active task to return to it. Or, you can click on another program to start it (if you have enough free memory). And, you can click on an active task, then on FILE, and then on DELETE to shut down an application. My mouse works as desired. It is an inexpensive 3-button mouse that is not from IBM, Microsoft, or any other "name" brand. The roller ball runs the cursor, the left button is set to ENTER, the middle button is PF7 (scroll up in the VTAM world), and the right button is PF8 (scroll down). DOS 5.0 is certainly worth the price of admission. It does run a number of my applications that DOS 4.0 could not handle. The DOS Shell run with the mouse is easier to use than my old dozen-or-so AAA.BAT-type application start-up screen. The HELP is great, too. This is not a commercial. I don't have any stock in Microsoft. I do hope you can use the above to pass on to other Kermit users how they might use DOS 5.0. Best regards, Dicke [Ed. - Thanks for the encouraging report, Dicke! It seems that we are going through a period of Microsoft pulling the rug out from under Kermit with new releases of Windows, DOS, etc. Unfortunately, the reports are not all completely positive. One user reports that Kermit cannot keep up with serial port input at high speeds -- 19,200 bps or above, depending on the processor model, under DOS 5.0. Apparently, DOS 5.0 can lose serial port interrupts where previous versions of DOS did not, most likely because of its new memory management features.] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 25 Jul 91 16:06:52 EDT >From: hwp@sisd.sisd.Kodak.COM Subject: Windows 3.0 and High-Speed Kermit Connections Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit and Windows 3.0, Windows 3.0 If you desire to run MS-Kermit at speeds higher than 9600 bps under Windows 3.0 (MS-DOS) you need a third party driver (i.e. TurboComm) because the native Windows 3.0 communication driver maxes out at 9600. You also need to have 16550a UART chips in your serial ports too. H.W.Payne ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jul 91 15:57:35 -0700 >From: cclloyd@leland.stanford.edu (Charles Lloyd) Subject: Window Slot Sizes Keywords: Sliding Windows, Packet Length, Performance How does one determine the best size for a window slot? I have a line which has between 1 to 2 seconds roundtrip delay (variable wrt time of day) and have not improved effective throughput much with choices or 1, 4, or 8. Slot count = 1 : Significant idle time on LEDs of modem. Slot count = 4 : Sporadic idle time, rapid acknowledgements on SD LED. Slot Count = 8 : Alomost continuous flow on the RD light, almost continuous blips on SD light. Yet, the throughput only went from 5Kbps to 7 Kbps in going from 1 to 8. (I didn't check for slots = 4). Is it unadvisable to play with packet size? Is it possible to set the slot count too big so that data overruns cause more errors than with a smaller window? What's the rule of thumb? Many thanks, Charles. [Ed. - There is an article in Kermit News #4 explaining in great detail how to optimize Kermit's performance by varying the window slots and packet length. Kermit News #4 is on watsun as kermit/e/news.n4, NEWS.N4 on CUVMA via KERMSRV. Briefly, you should use the smallest window size that keeps the modem receive or transmit light on continuously (depending on whether you are sending or receiving files), and then increase the packet size to the maximum allowed by the receiving Kermit. Let's say you get continuous transmission with 5 slots. MS-DOS Kermit's total packet buffer size is 2000, so the maximum size for each packet is 2000 / 5 = 400. Tell both Kermits to SET WINDOW 5, and tell the receiving Kermit to SET RECEIVE PACKET-LENGTH 400.] ------------------------------ Date: Sat Jul 20 19:13:04 1991 >From: Ben Olasov Subject: Unique Log File Names for MS-DOS Kermit? Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit and Unique File Names I'm trying to turn on a session log file prior to invoking a Kermit script file. While the command line: kermit take cbd.scr works, the line: kermit log session d:\local\20\250.txt take cbd.scr doesn't. [Ed. - Multiple commands on the command line must be separated by commas: kermit log session d:\local\20\250.txt, take cbd.scr Adding the comma after "250.txt" should fix the problem.] The reason I'm turning on the session log first is so that I can expand a system variable (from Waffle BBS software) into a filename at the time that the kermit command line is executed, thereby logging each session to a unique filename. If anyone knows how to do this, or has an effective alternative approach, I'd really like to hear from them. Thanks, Ben Olasov [Ed. - If you're using MS-DOS Kermit version 3.10 or later (you should be), try this: SET COUNT 999 DEFINE \%F \V(NDATE).\V(COUNT) This makes the \%f variable be something like "19910727.999" (filename = today's date, filetype = 999). Now let's see if the file already exists: IF NOT EXIST \%F GOTO OK If it does, decrement the COUNT variable and try again until you have a name that's unique: SET COUNT 999 :LOOP DEFINE \%F \V(NDATE).\V(COUNT) IF NOT EXIST \%F GOTO OK IF COUNT GOTO LOOP ECHO Sorry, you've already created 1000 log files today! STOP :OK LOG SESSION \%F That should give you a unique filename.] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Jul 91 11:45:24 BST >From: Brian Wood Subject: Keyboard Bug in MS-DOS Kermit Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit and Keyboard Drivers I am surprised that this has not been picked up sooner as it is a bug which appears to have been present in MS-DOS Kermit since version 2.31. On an OPUS PC3, a turbo xt, which I suspect is also sold under different badges, running MS-DOS 3.3 there is a clash between Kermit and the keyboard driver installed using the KEYB.COM program. I have only used the driver for the UK keyboard but logically it should apply to them all. After varying amounts of time the PC will appear to hang and will not respond to the keyboard except that you will get the beep to tell you that the keyboard buffer is full. This may well happen with other machines which use MS-DOS 3.3 and KEYB.COM. The remedy is to use "set key off" to force kermit to use the DOS keyboard routines rather than BIOS. Cheers, Brian Wood, UMIST, Manchester, England. [Ed. - This is not a Kermit bug. Kermit is simply asking the BIOS for keyboard input. Kermit is not hanging the system, the BIOS and/or the keyboard driver are doing it.] ------------------------------ Date: Fri 2 Aug 1991 11:33:26 EDT >From: Christine M Gianone Subject: Kermit Archives Keywords: Kermit Archives We receive a lot of complaints that it's difficult to find things in the Kermit archives, and suggestions about how to reorganize them. Many people would like to see us put the MS-DOS related files into ZIP archives, the UNIX-related files into compressed tar archives, or put each version in its own subdirectory, etc etc. The Kermit archives are designed to be written to industry standard ANSI "D" or IBM OS "VB" labeled tapes that can be read on a wide variety of computers. These tapes can only have text files on them; they consist of "records" that are lines of text, and they can't have any kind of directory structure. Tapes are sent out by mail order, and the income from these orders pays for the Kermit Development and Distribution operation and subsidizes network access. We don't have the disk space or the time to keep multiple copies of the hundreds of different Kermit implementations in the many different formats that network users ask for. If we were better funded and staffed, of course, it would be a different story. Here is a brief road-map to the Kermit files. There are five major Kermit areas, A through E. On watsun.cc.columbia.edu, which offers anonymous FTP access to the Internet, there is a kermit directory. It contains a file called read.me, which explains the organization of the directories and files underneath it: kermit/a through kermit/e, plus several special directories for binary files, test versions, etc. On BITNET/EARN, Kermit file access is handled by a file server called KERMSRV at CUVMA. You can ask KERMSRV for any file by name, as long as it is in one of the A through E areas. Binary files are not available on KERMSRV, but test versions can be requested by prefacing filenames with "T:", for example T:MSTIBM.BOO. Each directory, a through e, contains a group of files whose names start with "aa", for example aavers.hlp. These are text files that list all the Kermit versions, sorted in various ways: by computer, operating system, language, area, release date, etc. Within each directory, files for each version are grouped together by filename. Related files start with the same 2- or 3-letter prefix, for example all the MS-DOS Kermit files start with "ms". When there are many files for a particular Kermit version, there is usually an "aaa" file for that version, for example msaaaa.hlp or ckaaaa.hlp, that explains the file naming conventions. ------------------------------ End of Info-Kermit Digest *************************