From slogin@optonline.net Sun Dec 21 13:03:53 2003 Flags: 000000000001 Return-Path: Received: from mta11.srv.hcvlny.cv.net (mta11.srv.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.5.86]) by cherimoya.cc.columbia.edu (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id hBLI3qef004379 for ; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 13:03:53 -0500 (EST) Received: from optonline.net (mstr3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.5.14]) by mta11.srv.hcvlny.cv.net (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.16 (built May 14 2003)) with ESMTP id <0HQ9006NTBIG8D@mta11.srv.hcvlny.cv.net> for fdc@columbia.edu; Sun, 21 Dec 2003 13:03:52 -0500 (EST) Received: from [167.206.5.76] by mstr3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net (mshttpd); Sun, 21 Dec 2003 12:57:57 -0500 Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2003 12:57:57 -0500 From: slogin@optonline.net Subject: DEC-20 Kermit version 5.1(182) Available To: Tops-20 Wizards Cc: Frank da Cruz Message-id: <53db0053b2fa.53b2fa53db00@optonline.net> MIME-version: 1.0 X-Mailer: iPlanet Messenger Express 5.2 HotFix 1.16 (built May 14 2003) Content-type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-language: en Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-disposition: inline X-Accept-Language: en Priority: non-urgent X-Priority: 5 (Lowest) X-Spam-Score: 0.339 () NO_REAL_NAME X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.35 Columbia University announces a new version of DECSYSTEM-20 Kermit available for use. The DECSYSTEM-20 was one of the original Kermit programs created in the early 1980's. The source is available at ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/d/k20*.* which can be accessed via anonymous login. Updated release notes for this version can be found in ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/d/k20mit.txt. This is version 5.1(182) and incorporates the following changes/fixes: 1) Automatic TVT-Binary detection/negotiation. Kermit will try to determine if it is running on a Internet TVT line and enable network binary mode if so. If PANDA MTOPR%s exist to do this, then they will be used. Otherwise, the older method of "sending magic characters to the TAC" is used. TVT negotiation can be over-ridden and either forced on or off. This code has been slightly enhanced to make an attempt to flush some TCP buffers. 2) References to the ARPAnet in the online documentation have been changed to Internet. 3) Some minor bugfixes concerning error handling. In particular, Kermit was trying to do a CFIBF% of .FHSLF (400000). This doesn't work and will produce a 602030 error, "Line is not active". It works much better to use the JFN ... Users of older PANDA distributions may be interested in upgrading to this version as the shipped release of Kermit with PANDA was 4.1(174) which dates from 1985. The following changes/enhancements have been entered since then: [180] Buffered packet input instead per-character BIN% + better statistics. [179] Long packets: . Added new symbol MAXBUF (10KB) . Increased packet buffer sizes to MAXBUF . Changed .setpk to allow sizes up to 9000 (near theoretical max) . Added CAPAS, WINDO, MAXLX1, MAXLX2 field support to rpar and spar. . Added long-packet sending/reading to spack/rpack. . Removed hardwired ^d94 packet-length references. . Speed improvements by up to a factor of 20. . Reduce default delay to 1 sec. [178] Allow passwords to come from TAKE files. [177] Condition the line correctly. [176] Allow commands to servers to be issued from TAKE file. Also, pass capabilities down to inferior process correctly. [175] Delete any dot at the end of outbound file names (like 'makefile.'). -In particular, edits 179 and 180 provide substantially improved performance. However, do NOT attempt to use packet sizes of over 94 bytes on a real KL-10 with an RSX20F PDP-11 handling communications: you will crash the front end. Some users an the KLH-10 platform may notice some differences in performance, depending on whether the 20 is uploading or downloading data. An upload (the 20 sends a file) seems to be greatly slower than a download (the 20 receives a file). This is not unique to Kermit, I have also observed it with FTP (see below) on a 100BaseT switched infrastructure. Independent tests by Frank have shown that he had to shorten the packet sie to 500 bytes for sending and 200 for receiving; whereas he could use 9K packets in both directions with the XKL (and no retransmissions). I can offer no explanation for this behavior as I no longer have access to anything but a KLH-10. If anyone else does have access to alternate platforms and is willing to provide an account, I'd be interested in talking with you about possibly doing some more testing. Comments (rants, raves) concerning edits 181 and 182 can be sent to me as I did the work of merging in the PANDA changes with the main line and the bug fixes. In depth questions about Kermit itself or older edits can be referenced to Frank da Cruz. There were a number of reasons for producing this version of Kermit. The PANDA MTOPR%s being the primary ones. I got involved because I needed a reference transfer program to test FTP against. I've been tinkering with the TOPS-20 FTP server on and off for the past few months to make it work with some more 'modern' clients. In this case, these would be Emacs ange-ftp mode (I'm attempting to transmorgrify the VMS mode into a Tops-20 one) and the innovative Windows Interner Explorer. Thus far, I have added support for PWD, SYST, CDUP, SIZE and MDTM to it. --T PS: No systems programmers were harmed or became unemployee during edits 180 and 181. Pps: Happy DEC20+1 Day!