From fdc Thu Oct 29 19:09:02 1992 Return-Path: Received: by watsun.cc.columbia.edu (5.59/FCB/jba) id AA21873; Thu, 29 Oct 92 19:09:02 EST Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 19:09:00 EST From: Frank da Cruz To: Info-Kermit 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 Subject: Info-Kermit Digest V16 #4 Message-Id: Info-Kermit Digest Thu, 29 Oct 1992 Volume 16 : Number 4 Today's Topics: New CMS Kermit Installation Procedure and Other Matters Announcing Kermit for TurboDos Macintosh Kermit Status and Q & A Digest submissions may be sent to Info-Kermit@WATSUN.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU or KERMIT@CUVMA.BITNET. Requests for addition to or deletion from the Info-Kermit subscriber list should be sent to LISTSERV@CUVMA.BITNET or LISTSERV@CUVMA.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU. These messages must be of the form: SUBSCRIBE I$KERMIT (To start a subscription) UNSUBSCRIBE I$KERMIT (To cancel a subscription) REGISTER I$KERMIT (To correct your name) 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. All files in these directories should be transferred in text (ASCII) mode. Binaries are in kermit/bin (use ftp in binary mode). All files on watsun have lowercase names, and case is significant. 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, 1992 Oct 28 22:51 EST >From: "John F. Chandler" Subject: New CMS Kermit Installation Procedure and Other Matters Keywords: VM/CMS Kermit After receiving suggestions over the years of devising an install EXEC for CMS Kermit, I have finally done so. I resisted as long as I did because CMS offers seven different ways of doing anything, and I didn't want to impose a single way of installing Kermit in conflict with the ingrained habits of others. However, I have come to realize that most people will be glad to do things a particular way if it's made easy, and I have tried to do that. The EXEC is now part of the new version of IKCKER INS. There are still instructions for do-it-yourselfers, but they are briefer than before and always refer to the EXEC as the way to do things. The snippets of CMS command sequences have been moved into the EXEC, which, in turn, has comments referring to the various steps described in IKCKER INS and IKCKER BWR. Basically, the new EXEC does everything other than (a) fetching the Kermit distribution files, (b) collecting optional updates to supplement the standard set, and (c) setting aside disk space to hold all the files. Because there are quite a few options even now, it asks a series of questions, but each one has a default answer, so that most installers can simply bang on the RETURN key to get the job done. Incidentally, there is a new item in IKCKER BWR referring to an IBM APAR for fixing a bug in CMS 7 and 8, one which impacts the issuing of the CMS ERASE command from within Kermit. There are also new copies of IKMKER.BWR and IKXKER.UPD with minor cosmetic fixes. John [Ed. - Thanks, John! The new files have been installed with the other IBM mainframe Kermit files, and they will definitely make CMS Kermit installation much easier for most people.] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 12:46:38 -0400 >From: eichin@ATHENA.MIT.EDU ("Mark W. Eichin") Subject: Announcing Kermit for TurboDos Keywords: TurboDos Kermit I've uploaded the TurboDos Kermit executable in binary form (TurboDos doesn't have an equivalent of CP/M's SAVE, and I don't have a reverse MLOAD among my VAX CP/M tools.) I'm sure I've got the source code somewhere, though I suspect I haven't looked at it in a long time. I recall it was a port of a CP/M version in assembler (remember the TACTRAP code? it's in here... I've even used it over a MILNET TAC. You should probably remind people to turn it off when trying to talk to a "modern" kermit, but it fails pretty completely if you forget.) Storing it in straight HEX is probably fine, since you can tell people to use a little MBASIC program to convert it (ahh the memories :-) Even without MBASIC, it shouldn't be hard to do something with the MONITOR program to put it back together. _Mark_ MIT Student Information Processing Board Cygnus Support [Ed. - Thanks, Mark. We'll leave the bootstrapping to whoever needs to do it. Your uuencoded executable has been installed in kermit/c/tdkerm.uue, and a straight hex version (not Intel hex!) is in kermit/c/tdkerm.hex. Also on CUVMA: TDKERM UUE and TDKERM HEX. Hope you can find and send in the source code too.] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1992 15:47:00 EST >From: Frank da Cruz Subject: Macintosh Kermit Status and Q & A Keywords: Macintosh Kermit Hundreds of messages arrive here every day asking or complaining about Mac Kermit. Here is a brief status report, followed by some typical questions and their answers. Mac Kermit is part of the C-Kermit family of programs. C-Kermit 5A for UNIX, VMS, OS/2, AOS/VS, and several other operating systems is in its last stages of its 3-year-plus development. The final beta test version will be announced soon. Each new edit of C-Kermit is built on the Macintosh too, and so a new Mac Kermit test edit is issued with every test edit of C-Kermit. Each new Mac Kermit edit has improvements in system-independent areas, such as file transfer performance and features, modem dialing, script language programming, etc. However, there has been very little work on the Macintosh-specific parts of Mac Kermit in the past year, except that recently Paul Placeway made some impressive improvements in the speed of the terminal emulator. We have big plans for "Macintosh Kermit 1.0", and have had them for a long time. You can read about them, and also about the many bugs and problems we know about, in the file kermit/sw/ckmker.bwr on watsun.cc.columbia.edu. You can also read, in great detail, about the problems with Mac Kermit's VT100 font, and the proposed solution, in kermit/sw/ckmker.fon. You can pick up the latest test version of Mac Kermit from kermit/sw/ckmker.hqx. FTP all of these files in text mode. So when will Mac Kermit 1.0 be available? It depends on the schedules of the volunteer programmers. As you know, nobody is being paid to work on Mac Kermit, so volunteers must find time outside of their real jobs or schoolwork to take on these tasks that we all want accomplished, and decide to do this instead of, say, making buckets of money writing commercial Macintosh applications. It is much harder to find a public-spirited Macintosh programmer with spare time than practically any other kind of programmer. So please be patient. When we have a Macintosh Kermit version that we feel is comparable in quality to the other popular Kermit programs, we will announce it far and wide. In the meanwhile, if you are a skilled Macintosh programmer capable of working in the MPW C 3.2 programming environment, and you want to pitch in, let me know. If you are not, feel free to use the test versions, with their current limitations. Here is where to find the latest files, all on watsun.cc.columbia.edu, via anonymous ftp, text mode: kermit/sw/ckmker.hqx -- Latest Mac Kermit kermit/sw/ckmker.bwr -- "Beware file" for latest Mac Kermit kermit/sw/ckmker.fon -- Writeup of font situation kermit/b/ckmker.doc -- User manual for last real release, 0.9(40), ASCII kermit/b/ckmker.ps -- User manual for last real release, PostScript kermit/charsets/mac* -- The new Macintosh Kermit font, tables, docs, etc ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1992 23:19:55 -0700 (PDT) >From: Les Ferch Subject: MacKermit on Mac Plus I noticed a couple of minor problems with MacKermit on a Mac Plus. 1. Using "Set modifiers..." I set Option to act as Ctrl. However, it does not work. To get a Ctrl key, I have to set Command to act as Ctrl and turn off Menu Keys. It would be nice to be able to keep Menu Keys and use Option as Ctrl. [Ed. - To use the Option key as a Ctrl key, you have to check the Opt box on the left side of the Set Modifiers dialog, and you also have to check both Unmodify and Ctrl on the right side, in the same row. See ckmker.bwr.] 2. The File menu is longer than the 9" screen. This confuses beginners looking for Quit. If Load Settings and Save Settings were moved to the Settings menu, the problem would be solved. [Ed. - A well-known problem. The menus need a lot of work.] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 10:29:40 EST >From: Howie Richburg Organization: State University of New York - Central Administration Subject: Re: MacKermit? Maybe I am doing something wrong. Under settings I choose key settings. The scan codes I define such as {27}3, when executed are passed through to the terminal screen as #27'3 for example and not transmitted. Any ideas? [Ed. - Presently, the backslash notation in Mac Kermit's key definitions only accepts octal (base 8) numbers, and no provision is made for grouping. Suppose you want to define a key to send ESC followed by the letter A. In MS-DOS Kermit or C-Kermit, you would express this as \27A, \o33A, or \x1BA. In Mac Kermit, it must be \33A. Now suppose you want to send ESC followed by the digit 3. You can't write \273, because there would be no way to tell where the backslash code ended and the literal text began. In MS-DOS or C-Kermit, you can write \{27}3, to separate the 27 from the 3. Mac Kermit doesn't support this type of notation, so you have to write \33\63 (where 63 is the octal value of the ASCII code for the character "3"), and so on until you reach the first non-numeric character or the end of the definition. Hopefully, a future release of Mac Kermit will support the same types of notation as MS-DOS Kermit and C-Kermit.] Do you think MacKermit is stable enough to use for a Mac Powerbook running System 7? [Ed. - We have received mixed reviews. The main difficulty with Mac Kermit under System 7 actually has nothing to do with System 7 per se, but rather with the fact that Macs that have System 7 also tend to be loaded with lots of INITs. Macs with all their INITs are becoming even more dangerous for communication software than PCs loaded with TSRs! We have discovered that most INITs that have anything to do with font management -- Adobe Type Manager, SuitCase, TrueType, etc -- can interfere with Mac Kermit to various degrees, ranging from fractured screens to Mac Kermit or even system bombs. This probably happens because Mac Kermit uses its own internal font for terminal emulation. We know the solution to this problem -- remove the internal font and make an external font suitable for VT320 emulation -- but it is taking a long time to accomplish it.] [Ed again - About the Powerbook. Mac Kermit works as well on the Powerbook as it works on any other Mac, except for one obvious limitation (bug). The Powerbook does not normally come with a modem port, only a printer port. Thus you have to choose the printer port in the Communications Settings menu, which works. So far so good. But the port selection is not saved when you Save Settings. So you always have to open the communications menu and select the printer port every time you run Kermit on the Powerbook. This should be fixed soon.] In addition the Powerbook will be used to dial into a 3270 protocol converter to access our IBM host. It will therefore require that certain key combinations submit specific codes to emulate PF keys. The reason I ask is because I have no luck transmitting codes to emulate the PF keys. [Ed. - This is an extremely common question, but it does not have a general answer. Here's the story: an IBM mainframe 3270 terminal has row upon row of "PF" keys that ordinary terminals don't have. The operation of these keys is internal to the IBM 3270 protocol -- they don't send characters, they send signals or messages, or perform certain local functions, etc. A 3270 protocol converter -- such as an IBM 7171 -- lets ordinary ASCII terminals (or programs, like Kermit, that emulate them) interact with mainframe 3270 applications. Data sent from the mainframe to the terminal is converted into (for example) ASCII text intermixed with VT100 escape sequences, so your screen looks right. So far so good. In the other direction, certain control characters or escape sequences coming from your keyboard are interpreted as PF keys. The problem is, no two protocol converters, no two protocol-converter terminal-type configurations, no two sites, have the same idea of exactly which control characters or escape sequences should correspond to which PF keys. WE CAN'T ANSWER THAT QUESTION. You have to go to your IBM mainframe or IBM networking administrator and find out: for a particular terminal type (say VT100), what characters or sequences must the terminal or emulator send to simulate EACH of: the PF1 through PF24 keys; the PA1 through PA3 keys; the newline key, the cursor keys, backtab, the editing keys, the Attention key, etc etc. Once you have the table of 30 keys and their values, you can decide which keys on your Mac should correspond to which 3270 terminal keys, and then assign the corresponding character or escape sequence to each one in a Set Key Macros dialog -- a long and tedious exercise, which is best done once at each site centrally. A Mac Kermit 3270 settings file is created, put on a file server, or copied onto diskette or and passed around. In a future release, we hope to support plain-text key settings files like MS-DOS Kermit or C-Kermit.] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 16:57:53 +0100 >From: johnen@GEI-Aachen.de (Uwe Johnen) Subject: Kermit on Mac I was very amused that I can use my Apple Powerbook as a terminal (vt100) over the V24 modem port. But using Word Perfect on our VAX I was searching for the function keys, which I have to use while working with WP. If you have any idea where they are please let me know. I thing I tried everything. Which one tried I not ? [Ed. - Here is another case where you must go through the long and laborious process of making many, many key assignments. VAX WordPerfect assignments have already been done for MS-DOS Kermit in the file kermit/a/msiwp3.ini, which contains 126 SET KEY commands! Unfortunately: (a) the keyboard scan codes of the Macintosh are different from those of the PC, and (b) there is not yet a way to import textual SET KEY commands into Mac Kermit. As noted above, hopefully there will be a textual SET KEY command in a forthcoming release.] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1992 12:58:24 -0700 (PDT) >From: VFOAO07H@VAX.CSUN.EDU (George Mansoor) Subject: Printing from Kermit for Mac I have a question concerning Kermit for the Mac. Is there a way to send output to a printer much the way that the PC version can send the emulation output to a printer? Not screen dumps, but print sessions. Does this make any sense? If it can, what version of Kermit for the MAC. [Ed. - Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Here is how printing currently works in Mac Kermit. Everybody knows there is a Print item in the File menu, but it is dimmed so you can't use it. These items become active when Mac Kermit's terminal emulator receives certain escape sequences: ESC [ 5 i (or) ESC [ ? 5 i -- Start capturing text for printer ESC [ 4 i (or) ESC [ ? 4 i -- Stop capturing text for printer After receiving the "printer off" sequence, the print items can be used. Future releases of Mac Kermit will have additional printing capabilities: print screen, print selection, log session to printer, etc.] ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 08:47:23 PST >From: John Holland Subject: Re: 0.99(97) Bug Report I reported some problems with Mac Kermit 0.99(97). Since then I have obtained 183, and later 184, from watsun.cc.columbia.edu. I now use Mac Kermit as my terminal emulator of choice in my daily work, connected to a mainframe at 9600 baud, using a Mac Plus. Commercial products, like Microphone and White Knight, seem to be assuming a slower connection and do not refresh the screen as quickly as I would like. Kermit refreshes the screen quickly, and allows me to copy and paste and to move the cursor around with the mouse (and type without having to wait for the cursor to arrive at its destination). One of the problems I noted before is no longer a problem. I couldn't save settings without a system bomb. No problem now. However, if I set Mouse -> Arrow Keys in Terminal... under Settings, I still can't turn it off. [Ed. - Sure enough, it's a bug. The X disappears from the check box, but the feature is not turned off. If you bring back the Terminal Settings screen, the box is checked again.] A new problem is related to fonts. I use Courier 10 point. When the text I am working on is bolded and I delete characters from the middle of the line, pulling the rest of the line in, a trail of dots is sometimes left. I demonstrated this to myself by typing a row of bold WWWWWWs, then deleting the leftmost one a few times. The rightmost pixel in the righmost character remains on the screen. This is a cosmetic bug which I am happily living with, given the other benefits of Kermit. [Ed. - Coexistence with fonts and font managers, and other font related problems (of which the one you list is a very minor example), are perhaps Mac Kermit's biggest problem at present. It is described -- and a solution proposed -- in the files kermit/sw/ckmker.bwr and kermit/sw/ckmker.fon.] ------------------------------ End of Info-Kermit Digest *************************