12/15/83 - Revised to reflect operation with initial packet timeout.
 
 
			  KERMIT ON MTS
 
		     Written in Pascal/VS by
 
			 William S. Hall
		      Mathematical Reviews
			611 Church Street
			  Ann Arbor, MI
			  313-763-6831
 
 
     Kermit is a file transfer program allowing movement of files
among a variety of computer systems including micro-mainframe and
mainframe-mainframe.  The following note describes how to use the
program SJ1K:Kermit.exe on the Michigan Terminal System (MTS).
It is assumed that the user already has a version of Kermit
running on his or her computer and is familiar with its operation.
To obtain copies of Kermit for various micros, UNIX, TOPS-10,
and TOPS-20 operating systems as well as detailed documentation,
contact the author or
 
		       Kermit Distribution
       Columbia University Center for Computing Activities
		  7th Floor, Watson Laboratory
		      612 West 115th Street
		       New York, NY 10025
 
     The source code for Kermit on MTS is in the file
SJ1K:Kermit.pas.  It is permitted to all to read.  It is known to
work against DEC-20's running TOPS-20 (the definitive test),
Zenith Z100's running CP/M-85, and Heath H8/89's running CP/M.	At
present it will not work the Z100 under ZDOS and thus its
performance with the IBM PC is doubtful.  It is most likely due
to a bug in PCKERMIT, which should be fixed soon.
 
Running Kermit
 
     To transfer text files between MTS and your system proceed as
follows:
 
	(1)  Run Kermit on your controlling micro or mainframe.
 
	(2)  Set the IBM flag ON and then set local-echo OFF.
 
	(3)  Log onto MTS as usual.
 
	(4)  To initiate a file transfer run SJ1K:KERMIT.EXE.
 
	(5)  Respond to command prompts by entering 'R' (or 'r') to
	     have MTS receive a file.  Answer 'Y' if you want
	     MTS to reserve the first character in each line of
	     your file for carriage control (see below).  Exit to
	     controlling system and send file.
 
	(6)  Respond with 'S' (or 's') to send a list of files.
	     Answer 'Y' if ALL files to be sent from MTS use
	     column 1 for carriage control (see below).  Enter
	     file names one at a time when prompted.  Terminate
	     list with a carriage return.  Exit to controlling
	     system and prepare to receive a file.  In about 5
	     seconds, MTS Kermit will attempt to handshake with
	     your machine.  If you miss the first packet and
	     your version of Kermit does not have time-outs
	     (most micro versions do not), trigger MTS with two
	     carriage returns from your machine.
 
Current Limitations:
 
	(1)  Only text files can be transferred.
 
	(2)  File names should be less than 40 characters and
	     have no device names when sent from MTS.  TEST.PAS
	     is OK, but SJ1K:TEST.PAS is not.
 
	(3)  MTS Kermit has no timeout, hence deadlocks can
	     occur.  If the process seems to stop, try a carriage
	     return or two to break the deadlock.  Use several of
	     them to exit the file transfer mode, and connect
	     back to MTS.  If the MTS Kermit is still running, you
	     will have to kill the program with "ATTN" (control-E).
	     To restore normal terminal operation enter the command
	     "%reset".
 
	(4)  Pascal/VS does not at present allow a run-time error
	     to be intercepted by the program.	Such errors can
	     occur if files to be sent are not present or if disk
	     space is exceeded.  Hence the transfer will stop,
	     and the resulting deadlock must be broken as
	     described above.
 
	(5)  If a horizontal tab is encountered when a file is
	     being received, it is expanded to spaces for the
	     usual tab stops of 1, 9, 17, 25, 33, etc. before
	     being written to an MTS file.  Spaces are not
	     compressed to tabs during transmission from MTS.
 
	(6)  The carriage control option allows the user to
	     reserve column 1 in an MTS file for printer carriage
	     control.  Otherwise, column 1 in the file is regarded
	     as data.  See also the next item.
 
	(7)  If an ASCII form feed is encountered in a file begin
	     received, the Pascal/VS "page" call is made.  This
	     has the effect of placing a '1' in column 1 of the
	     MTS file.	Thus, files with form feeds should choose
	     the carriage control option 'Y' described above.
	     Conversely, if the MTS file has a '1' in column 1 it
	     is converted to a form feed when being sent if a 'Y'
	     is given to the carriage control prompt.  Best
	     results are obtained if the form feed is on its own
	     line in the file to be sent to MTS.
 
	(8)  Other control characters are handled by simply
	     substituting the corresponding EBCDIC control
	     character.