Date: Wed, 17 Jan 90 12:51:45 WET DST From: John Horne, Polytechnic South West Via: Steve Jenkins, The National PD Software Archive, Lancaster University Subject: PRIME Kermit Version 8.00, for PRIMOS revisions 21 and 22. This new version of PRIME Kermit (8.00) replaces the previous version (7.57) of May 1986, which was contributed by The Source Telecomputing, recently gone out of business. Initially I was asked to investigate some problems our users were having with large (>100k) files. However, the code seemed to be getting a bit old and messy. So it seemed somewhat easier to look at all of the code. This version should work exactly as the old version, but there is more functionality in it and the use of packets should be more efficient. The error handling has been much improved, and I think that this will cure most problems that users used to have. All the previous known bugs have been sorted out in the code. Where possible version 6 of the Kermit Protocol Manual has been followed. The new version has been tested at PRIMOS revisions 21.0.5q and 22.0.1a. Here is a brief summary of the changes: - Support for 8-bit no-parity file transfers. - Better error handling and messages. - Full support for pathnames within commands. - Improved logging. - More command line options available (use -HELP to show them). - SET INCOMPLETE command. - Pound sign conversion option (US/UK). - CONVERT command to convert files to PRIME format. - Support for file size and date attributes, user settable. - Support for nested TAKE files. - Local file management commands added including SPACE, RENAME, COPY, PUSH. - Better use of timeouts. - Filename collision detection and avoidance, user settable. - Many internal cleanups. [Ed. - Many thanks to John for this new version, and to Steve for sending it to us! The new files are installed in the Kermit Distribution D area as PRIME8.*. PRIME8.UPD includes a detailed list of changes since version 7.57. PRIME8.SRC includes the build procedure, four insert files, and 39 source files written in PLP, PRIME's version of PL/1. Within PRIME8.SRC, each of these files is separated by a line of -----'s and can be separated using a text editor. Warning, PRIME.SRC contains some rather long lines (some of them up to 144 characters in length), which will no doubt cause problems for BITNET transfers. We are trying to find out if there is a way to legally break these long lines. Meanwhile, the old PRIME Kermit files for version 7.57 will remain available in the D area as PRIME.*. It is not known whether Version 8 will run under older versions of PRIMOS, such as R19, which 7.57 was written for. Reports welcome!] ------------------------------ 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: Tue, 28 Aug 90 17:27:31 EDT From: John M. Crawford Subject: Prime8 help for dividing source Here is a short file which provides the necessary Primos editor (ED) tricks to divide (and then build) Kermit 8.12 for Primos. You might consider appending it to the PRIME8.ANN file (or another) for general distribution to Prime kermit users. /*The following lines below should be extracted to be made into a cominput /*file, and placed with the files prime8.src and prime8.bld to execute in /*an otherwise empty directory. /* /* the following disk objects should not exist at attach point... delete (t s source insert obj) -no_verify -report -no_query /* /* the following files must exist: prime8.src, prime8.bld and this /* cominput file /* create s create insert create obj ed prime8.src /* the next 3 lines exist because source is not symmetrical f(2) * INPUT - Wait;n-2;f ;delete /* delete "non-uniform" blank line f(5) REC_AMLC;c/ // /* slide these to col 4 if col 5 f(5) SEND_AMLC;c/ // /* slide these to col 4 if col 5 top i dummy line l ------ n-1;f -;n1;u t;loa t;n-1;G E3I/U *>s>/c I/ TO -----/;move stra inlin;n;X stra;* qF cname s source cname *>source>^@@plp ==.+plp copy *>source>@.ins.plp *>insert>== -delete -report cpl prime8.bld -comp -como -load -noc -debug /* note: -debug makes it big /* that's all folks! John M. Crawford (614) 292-1741 Computing Services Center College of Business craw4d+@osu.edu 1775 College Road craw4d@prime.cob.ohio-state.edu The Ohio State University crawford-j@osu-20.ircc.ohio-state.edu Columbus, Ohio 43210 ------------------------------ From C20211@UK.AC.PLYMOUTH.PRIME-A Wed Apr 7 14:03 GMT 1993 Via: uk.ac.plymouth; Wed, 7 Apr 93 14:03:29 GMT Date: Wed, 07 Apr 93 15:01:38 From: John Horne Subject: Re: Prime Kermit version 8.15 To: syspds In-Reply-To: Your message of Fri, 19 Mar 1993 16:21:30 +0000 (GMT) Status: RO Jayne, Sorry for the delay in replying to you - been a bit busy! After this message I shall send 3 other email messages to you, which together will comprise Prime Kermit version 8.15. The first message will be all the source files, and a build file, all bundled up together - obviously, it will be a large message. The second one will be the PRIME.BWR file, and the third the PRIME.HLP file. I hope this is acceptable to you, and Frank in the USA! If not then let me know, although I think this is how I sent it to you last time. Many thanks for your help, John Horne, University of Plymouth. --------------------------------- Date: 10-JAN-1986 16:39:18 From: SYSKERMIT%vax1.central.lancaster.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk Subject: Bug fix for Prime Kermit server mode Here's a fix I had sent in for bug in Prime Kermit causing it to NAK an I packet instead of sending an Error. Will get through the backlog of bug reports and such over the next week or so if the link stays going! Alan Date : 10 January 1986 From : Rick Burne, Ealing College of Higher Education, London UK Subject : Bug in Prime KERMIT in server mode In server mode PRIME KERMIT responds to an I packet with a NAK rather than anything sensible such as a qualified ACK or an error packet. This should be fixed in the next release from The Source, but in the meantime here is a quick edit to make it respond with an error packet. File MSG_TYPES.PLP Around line 24, insert a line MSG_INIT by 'I' /* Init-info packet */ after the line MSG_EOF by 'Z' /* End of file (EOF) */ File SERVER.PLP Around line 225, insert a new clause in the main do while loop: when (MSG-INIT) do; snd_msg = 'Unimplemented server command'; call send_packet('E',length(snd_msg),msg_number); end; before the line end; /* select */ File REC_MESSAGE.PLP Around line 72, insert a line msg_init, before the line msg_rcv_init) return ('1'b); --------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 86 18:35:15 GMT From: BROOKS@UK.AC.EXETER.PC Subject: Prime Kermit 7.57 Keywords: Prime Kermit There is a bug in PR1ME Kermit version 7.57. If, when in SERVER mode, the user logs off with a BYE command on the micro-Kermit, the NEXT user to get that PRIMOS usernumber can have problems related to the PRIMOS KILL and ERASE characters. It showed up in the Sheffield Editor for us. The problem arises if other software expects that the PRIMOS routine ERKL$$ returns leading zeros in the words that give the user's KILL and ERASE characters as documented in DOC3621-190 Subroutines Reference Guide page 10-23. What is not documented is that when writing the KILL and ERASE the leading byte of the words should be ZERO. This is the only reason that reading returns leading zeros! Unfortunately, PRIMOS Kermit uses leading spaces when writing these values. This in itself causes no problem as when Kermit exits SERVER mode in all ways EXCEPT when it receives a BYE command, it restores the user's KILL and ERASE characters with words it had read previously. Again this seems no problem as LOGO$$ restores the System default KILL and ERASE characters so everything appears OK to the next user. But logo$$ does not seem to alter the leading byte of the words holding KILL and ERASE, hence the problem. The simplest fix in PRIMOS Kermit is as follows:- In GENERIC_CMD.PLP, before call logo$$(0,0,' ',0,0,code); insert the line call xfer_mode(0,code); /* restore terminal characteristics */ Ideally, the first call to erkl$$ in XFER_MODE.PLP should be fixed so that it has leading zeros in the character strings it passes, but this needs more changes to be made in the source. The fix given is short and it works! There may be a problem with forced logouts which this fix obviously won't cope with. The QUIT handler calls xfer_mode so there is no trouble there. This caused us no end of trouble to track down to Kermit! It seemed an epidemic had struck as more and more users hit this problem. (The PRIMOS command TERM -kill and TERM -erase fixes a user in trouble). It didn't help that we changed from Rev 19.3 to Rev 19.4 at the same time as we released Kermit 7.57. Neil Brooks University of Exeter Computer Unit [Thanks. We will forward this message to the authors of Kermit.] --------------------------------- Date: Fri, 10 Jun 88 17:51:04 PDT From: Bob Larson Subject: Utility Program for Prime Tapes Keywords: Prime, tape utility program Prime now supplies a utility (ux_tape) to read and write UNIX tar and cpio tapes with the latest version of primos (21.0.2 and 21.0.3). The bugs in the 21.0.2 version probably make in unusable, but it looks like tar tapes will be a reasonable alternative to the program to read ANSI tapes that you currently are supplying for Prime systems. (21.0.3 has only been available a couple of weeks, and most sites are still running pre-21 primos.) --------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Sep 87 22:29:42 EDT From: ciaraldi@cs.rochester.edu Subject: Prime Kermit Source Unpacking Keywords: Prime Kermit The source for Prime Kermit is in one big file, PRIME.PLP. CU20B has a program PRIMES.FTN which breaks it into its component files automatically. Unfortunately, this program doesn't work. It looks for lines of colons separating the files. PRIME.PLP has lines of pound signs. The program also messes up finding file names. I'm trying to fix the program, but I am wondering if anyone has already got it working. The alternative way of splitting the file is to use EMACS. We have this, but it truncates the file after 5000 lines, so that doesn't help either. If I get it working soon I'll let you know. Mike Ciaraldi --------------------------------- Date: Thu 22 May 86 16:55:47-EDT From: Frank da Cruz Subject: New Release of Prime Kermit Keywords: Prime, Windows This is to announce version 7.57 of Prime Kermit for the PRIMOS operating system, R19 or later, contributed by John Mulligan and Hugh Matlock of The Source Telecomputing in McLean, VA. This version corrects the bugs that were reported for the last version and also supports the sliding window protocol extension. It is in use at The Source, and has been used successfully over Telenet (with its characteristic delays) with very high efficiency, as reported in previous issues of the Info-Kermit Digest. The new version is in KER:PRIME.* on CU20B, available via anonymous FTP (Internet) or NFT (CCnet), and in PRIME * on CUVMA, available via KERMSRV on BITNET. Thanks to Leslie Spira of The Source for sending it in. The old version, which contains some special functions for dealing with SPSS Portable Files, remains available as KER:PRIMEK.* (PRIMEK * on BITNET). --------------------------------- Date: Wed, 9 Oct 85 08:57:06 cdt From: blake@astro.utexas.edu (R. Blake Farenthold) Kermit: Kermit on The Source The Source (a commercial time sharing service) has just set up their SIGS (Special interest groups) containing discussions & downloads for people with various interests. Aside from straight ASCII up and down loads they offer Kermit transfers. A couple of days ago I sent a 110K file to the Source using Kermit. At 1200 baud this should have taken about 15 minutes. IT TOOK OVER AN HOUR! Is Kermit that inefficent, is it horribly hampered when using a packet switching network (I used Telenet), or has The Source slowed things way down so they can collect more per-minute connect time! In otherwords who do I yell at? Blake Farenthold | CIS: 70070,521 | UUCP: {ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao} P.O. Box 3027 | Source: TCX023 | !utastro!blake Austin, TX 78764-3027 | Delphi: blake | Intr: blake@astro.UTEXAS.EDU BBS: 512-442-1116 | MCI: BFARENTHOLD | ESL: 62806548 [Ed. - The people at The Source are well aware of the problem, which is twofold: (a) TELENET, and the Prime computer itself (which is what you are talking to) provide only 7-bit channels, so you incur the overhead of 8th-bit prefixing for binary files, and (b) any packet-switched wide-area public network like TELENET has its own built-in delays, which, due to the stop-and-wait nature of the Kermit protocol in its present form, will tend to dominate any file transfer over TELENET. To cope with these problems, The Source has proposed (in Info-Kermit v3 #7, with discussion in following issues) a sliding window protocol to allow multiple packets to be sent back to back, which can result in a dramatic performance improvement under these conditions. Prototype programs are running now, and should be announced before the end of the year. By the way, don't complain too much -- most other protocols don't work in this environment at all!] --------------------------------- Date: 26 Jul 85 09:15:06 ADT From: CGP@UNBMVS1 Subject: Bug in Prime Kermit Shows Up with Kermit-MS 2.28 Keywords: Prime Kermit, MS-DOS Kermit Prime Kermit can not be used in server mode with Kermit-MS 2.28. The problem is that Prime kermit NAKs the Init-Info packet, instead of responding with an Error packet as specified in the Protocol Manual. Kermit-MS 2.26 does not seem to use the Init-Info packet, and did work with Prime Kermit. I have not tested it with 2.27. I have modified Prime Kermit to honor the Init-info packet. What is the best way to forward the corrected source? Carl Pottle University of New Brunswick Saint John, N.B. Canada CGP@UNBMVS1 [Ed. - Just send the new code by electronic mail to Info-Kermit@CU20B.] --------------------------------- Date: Wed 3 Jul 85 00:13:21-PDT From: Bob Larson Subject: Bug in Prime Kermit Keywords: Prime Kermit Testing the new os9 kermit, I found another bug in Prime kermit. When in server mode, Prime kermit will Ack an 'R' packet, then send a Send-Init packet. According to the protocol manual, it is not suposed to send the 'Y' (Ack) packet. I had to modify the os9 kermit to ignore the extra Ack. [Ed. - If Prime Kermit really does this, it's a bug. I've forwarded Bob's message to the Prime Kermit authors.] --------------------------------- Date: Sat 22 Jun 85 04:00:45-PDT From: Bob Larson Subject: Kermit Talk at National Prime Users Group To: info-kermit@CU20B A talk was given at the National Prime Users Group (NPUG) in Saint Louis this week entitled "Kermit on the Prime: One shop's experience" by Harvey J. Friedman of the International Pacific Halibut Commission. The bug in Prime Kermit discussed in the talk was configuration dependant, it only affects systems with printing characters for erase and or kill. (It is also documented at Columbia in a .bwr file, but that file is not in the distribution from Pulse (Prime users library...)) Apparently there is a need to cooridante the Pulse distribution with the Columbia distribution. I have heard that there is a new version on Pulse that supports assigned lines. Bob Larson [Ed. - Prime Kermit has always been one of the most difficult to manage. Another problem has been that Prime computers can't read any of the tape formats in which we distribute Kermit, including ANSI labeled ASCII (the standard format for information interchange agreed upon by all major manufacturers). Finally, in desparation, people in Prime's New York office wrote a short Fortran program to read ANSI tapes, and we have to include a copy of it on paper every time we send a tape to a Prime site. Even if Prime refuses to support industry standard tape formats, you'd think the user group (Pulse?) could solve problems like this.] --------------------------------- Date: 9 Apr 1985 1829-EST From: LSM.DUNCAN at DEC-MARLBORO Subject: ANSI Tape Program for Prime Computers Attached is a program written in Fortran-66 which will read variable record length ANSI (Format D) tapes on a Prime computer. Since Fortran-66 is provided with all Prime machines, all Prime customers should be able to compile and run it. I have only briefly tested it, but it appears to work as advertised. Much thanks should go to the Prime New York office. Ron Couch, a senior analyst there wrote it, and Dave Tichane provided me with a copy to send to you. In order to help you out, I am willing to send a (paper) listing of it to anyone who needs it. Please send a request to LSM.DUNCAN at DEC-MARLBORO, Prime X.MAIL DUNCAN -ON EN.C6, or U.S. mail to: Jeff Duncan Prime Computer Inc. 492 Old Connecticut Path MS 21-02 Framingham, Ma. 01701 I hope this new program will help out the many Prime people who have had difficulty with your tapes. Jeff [Ed. - Many, many thanks to Jeff, Ron, and Dave. Prime computer sites have had a terrible time reading the ANSI tapes we sent them up till now. The program is in KER:PRIMET.FTN, available via anonymous FTP from CU20B.] --------------------------------- Date: Sun 24 Mar 85 23:14:41-PST From: Bob Larson Subject: Prime kermit bug To: info-kermit@CU20B.ARPA Prime Kermit is quoting the 8-bit character even when 8-bit quoting is not being done. Using defaults, this causes ampersands ('&') to be received as lower case f's by some versions of kermit, e.g. the old Unix Kermit that is the base of the current os9 kermit effort. --------------------------------- Date: Mon 23 Jul 84 15:05:24-EDT From: Frank da Cruz Subject: New Release of PR1ME Kermit Available To: Info-Kermit@CUCS20 This is to announce a new release of Kermit for PR1ME computers running PRIMOS R18 and R19. It was submitted by Nancy K. Morrison of SPSS, Inc, in Chicago and includes bug fixes and enhancements to the original version contributed by The Source, as well as a special conversion facility for SPSS "portable files". The new files are in KER:PRIMEK.*. Some of the changes are: 1. Break handler fixed so quits are done cleanly. 2. Received files are now renamed when they already exist on disk. 3. The compiling and linking files were modified to ran at PRIMOS rev 18, and a new CPL program was added to copy the tree structure with rev 18 commands. Kermit does run at rev 18, but not with the server command "attach" (CWD). 4. New PORTFILE command for SPSS files. --------------------------------- Date: Wed 20 Jun 84 19:44:13-PDT From: Bob Larson Subject: Re: Control Characters in packets To: info-kermit-request@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA Unquoted control characters should not be allowed in kermit without specific negotiation. The current prime kermit will NOT allow unquoted CR or LF. (It is not feasible on the prime to not quote linefeed... they are eaten by primos before any user program can get them (including EMACS)) I recommend that any control character in a packet be considered an error, and a NAK packet sent immediately. This would catch some errors that are only handled by timeouts now. Bob Larson [Ed. - The whole area of performance, including bare control characters, long packets, sliding windows, full duplex, deserves - and will get - a lot of thought. Contribution welcome!] --------------------------------- Date: Mon 16 Apr 84 18:26:41-PST From: LARSON@USC-ECLB.ARPA Subject: Prime Kermit Installation To: info-kermit@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA When getting Prime kermit from Columbia-20 using ftp make sure that the file does not contain any tabs. (Pip on a 10 or 20 can do this.) Here is a prime emacs macro to split primek.plp into the individual files: ; by Jack Heath ; modified by Robert A. Larson 4/16/84 (defcom splitk (do_n_times (numeric_argument 1) (next_line_command) (forward_char 2) (setq start (copy_cursor current_cursor)) (end_line) (back_char 2) (setq file (point_cursor_to_string start)) (begin_line) (mark) (forward_search_command "::::") (begin_line) (prepend_to_file 2 file) )) Perhaps these suggestions could be added to primek.hlp Bob Larson --------------------------------- Date: 22 Mar 84 08:36:25 PST (Thu) To: info-kermit@Columbia-20 cc: iglesias@Uci-750a Subject: PRIME Kermit From: Mike Iglesias A group on campus has tried to bring up the PRIME Kermit and is having a problem. They built it according to the directions in PRIMEK.HLP. When they run it, they get ERROR: CONDITION "POINTER FAULT" RAISED AT 4001(3)/567. The person who did the building has never used PL/I (or whatever PRIME calls it), so he has no idea how to go about debugging this. I know nothing about Primes. Has anybody else made Kermit work on a Prime? Any Prime experts out there who can tell us how to go about figuring out what is wrong? Thanks for any info. Mike Iglesias --------------------------------- Date: 22 March 1984 14:38 est From: JFisher.Help at RESTON Subject: Re: Prime Kermit error To: info-kermit at COLUMBIA-20 the Error: condition "condition" raised at "address" msg cited says that the pointer_fault$ condition was raised in segment number 4001 , word 567 in ring 3 (the user ring, I think). So you first have to find out what seg 4001 is, and what happens near word 567. Presumably a compliation listing will tell the latter. The general explanation of the pointer_fault$ condition is: "The process has referenced through an indirect pointer (IP) whose fault bit is on, but that pointer did not appear to be a valid unsnapped dynamic link. That is, reference has been made to an argument or instruction not in memory. This error condition is frequently caused by an incomplete load (unsatisfied references), or by making a subroutine or function call with too few arguments. The condition is raised when the called subroutine attempts to access one of its arguments through a faulted pointer." --------------------------------- Date: Fri 10 Feb 84 14:05:40-EST From: Frank da Cruz Subject: Kermit for PR1ME in PL/I available To: Info-Kermit@CUCS20 Contributed by Leslie Spira, The SOURCE Telecomputing (McLean, VA), written in a variant of PL/I which is PR1ME's implementation language. The files are in KER:PRIMEK.* at COLUMBIA-20, via anonymous FTP (or CU20B via NFT). - Frank