Thu, 13 Oct 1994 09:59:51 EST From: Christine M Gianone Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 Available for Beta Testing Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, Hebrew, Data General Terminal Emulation Keywords: Wyse Terminal Emulation, "Recovery, File Transfer", Cyrillic This is to announce a beta testing period for MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 for the IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles with DOS or Windows. The new MS-DOS Kermit release was prepared, as always, by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah State University. HIGHLIGHTS FILE TRANSFER RECOVERY allows interrupted binary-mode transfers to be continued from the point of failure. Can be used with C-Kermit 5A(190), which is still in Beta test, on UNIX, AOS/VS, Stratus VOS, and the Commodore Amiga. Maybe also with VMS, no promises. And in the near future, probably also with other major operating systems (stay tuned). ANSI AND WYSE TERMINAL EMULATION add two popular terminal types to Kermit's repertoire. ANSI emulation, not quite the same as VT100 emulation, is used to access most BBSs, and Wyse emulation is required by certain applications and services. Workarounds for buggy UART simulator on Pentium motherboards and other new processors allows MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 to work on these systems, where earlier versions might not have. Also: support for the Hayes ESP serial communications board in 16550A mode; support for Fossil drivers; dialing scripts for more and more new kinds of modems (many of them with X and/or Z in their names -- all the popular brands!). Numerous additions to the script programming language, including a full selection built-in functions compatible with C-Kermit's: \fsubstring(), etc. Complete Hebrew and Cyrillic support packages are now included, and Kanji terminal emulation is now available for DOS/V on IBM and compatible PCs. Network, printer, keyboard, font, and other support support utilities are now included in the basic package. New smaller versions are available for those who don't need (or can't fit) all the features of the full version. Here is a more detailed list of the changes in version 3.14: . ANSI terminal emulation . Wyse-50 terminal emulation . Data General DASHER and DEC VT terminal emulation improvements . Kanji character-set translation during terminal emulation . HP-Roman8 terminal character-set . Control over timeslicing method in Windows, DesqView, OS/2, NT . Control over automatic video-mode switching . Selectable fore- and background colors for underline simulation . Additional scan codes for Alt/Ctrl/Shift - SpaceBar/EscKey combinations . DEC User Definable Keys (UDKs) now supported . Revised printer support for better interoperation with Novell CAPTURE . Additional control over TCP/IP and TELNET protocol features . Debugging display of TELNET options negotiation . Networking support for Telebit PPP . TCP/IP fixes, speedups, and refinements . Multiple TCP/IP sessions to the same host now allowed . Support for Artisoft Int14 redirector . Support for Meridian Technology SuperLAT network connections . Workarounds for buggy SMC FDC37C665 UART simulator on Pentium motherboards . Support for Hayes ESP serial communications board in 16550A mode . Support for Fossil Drivers . SET SPEED 28800 . User control over treatment of carrier signal on serial connections . Binary-mode file transfer recovery . Ability to send partial files manually . Control of run-length encoding . Improved client/server operation . Prompt string value now evaluated each time prompt is issued . ASK/ASKQ responses now taken literally . New APC command sends APC strings . Incoming APC strings ignored by default for safety . Revised CONNECT-mode status line for additional information . Separate CONNECT-mode help and one-character command menus . New script programming commands . Improved consistency of backslash-quoting in commands . New built-in string, file, and numeric functions . Additional built-in variables . Revised command line handling of substitution variables . Transaction log of file transfers now records detailed rejection reason if based on file attributes . Available also in special reduced forms for limited memory, e.g. for use on 256K systems, or as an external protocol on BBSs, etc. The organization of the files and the manner in which we are distributing them as been improved. We are now distributing Kermit on a high-density 1.44MB 3.5-inch diskette, which is pretty universally accepted these days, and on the network in a ZIP file that mirrors this diskette. This allows us to organize and name the files more sensibly and to include material that previously would not fit. Here is a brief synopsis: READ.ME Brief overview of what's on the disk (in the ZIP file) KERMIT.EXE Full-function MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 (about 260K) KERMITE.EXE A smaller version (about 180K - no networks, no graphics) KERLITE.EXE A very small version (120K - scripting and file transfer only) MSR*314.PCH Patch files (currently empty) MSKERMIT.INI Standard initialization file MSCUSTOM.INI Sample (note: -> SAMPLE <-) customization file DIALUPS.TXT Sample dialing directory KERMIT.UPD Documentation for new features KERMIT.HLP Brief synopsis of commands KERMIT.BWR "Beware" file - hints and tips, etc COLS80.BAT Too hard to explain in one line, see READ.ME... COLS132.BAT Ditto KERMITE.EXE can be used on PCs with small memories, e.g. on old XTs, where the full-featured version might not fit. It can also be used if you simply do not need Kermit's networking or graphics terminal emulation capabilities, in which case you can run bigger programs "under" Kermit in the extra free memory. Of particular interest to BBS proprietors, KERLITE.EXE is an "extra-lite" version which is like the "lite" version, but also eliminates the terminal emulator (and the CONNECT command) entirely, but still includes the full script programming language, weighing in at only 120K - perfect for use as an external protocol and script execution engine. With Kermit Lite plus Fossil and ESP support, there is every reason to upgrade the Kermit support in BBSs to the most advanced and fastest Kermit protocol implementation available for DOS. For further information, see the new BBS OPERATORS GUIDE section in the KERMIT.UPD file. (Vendors of BBS software who want to include Kermit with their product should contact us for further information.) Now come the subdirectories. Each one has a READ.ME file that explains its contents. PERFORM An article on Kermit file transfer protocol performance. MODEMS Dialing scripts for 19 different modems, including most popular high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing models. NETWORKS Everything you need for MS-DOS Kermit TCP/IP networking except the specific driver for your network board, including all the famous "shims" that convert between one "standard" and another, such as the latest version of Dan Lanciani's ODIPKT, plus Joe Doupnik's DIS_PKT9, plus the WINPKT shim to be used when Windows is involved, and a SLIP driver in case you don't have a network board, all of which have been verified to work with this version of Kermit and other popular software. Plus a new overview document to help you make sense of this ever-more-confusing tangle. KEYBOARD Complete key mappings for DEC VT220/320 and DG DASHER emulation. The "Gold key" TSR, for making Num Lock work like the F1 key. LK250 drivers (for DEC keyboards that plug into IBM PCs). A little TSR for swapping the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys and Esc and tilde. UTILS General utilities, like the famous XSEND program for transferring entire directory trees, plus various printer items. (Did you know Kermit could transfer directory trees intact?) WINDOWS Windows Program Information File for Kermit. PCFONTS This is something new -- public domain fonts (code pages) for your PC that are easy to load dynamically -- no more endless and fruitless wandering through the corridors of IBM or Microsoft to track down a Hebrew or Cyrillic code page; no more editing AUTOEXEC.BAT (DISPLAY.SYS, NLSFUNC blah blah, MODE CON CP PREPARE blah blah, MODE CON CP SELECT blah blah) and then rebooting to install a new code page, no more limit to four "prepared" code pages. Now you can just "loadfont" whatever code page you want, any time you want. This directory includes code pages for Western and Eastern European languages (CP437, 850, and 852), Icelandic (861), Hebrew (862) and Cyrillic (863), plus utilities to load and display them. Our thanks to Joseph (Yossi) Gil at The Technion in Haifa, Isreal, for this wonderful collection (and this is only a small part of it -- look in kermit.columbia.edu:pcfonts for more, and maybe find even more at the Technion - ftp.technion.ac.il). CYRILLIC Also new. Key mapping and screen translation setups to be used with the Cyrillic font, plus Cyrillic character-set tables. Use MS-DOS Kermit for Russian terminal emulation (and Ukranian, Bielorussian, etc), using any of the popular host encodings: ISO, KOI-8, or Short KOI. Now you can read those Russian newsgroups! Thanks to Konstantin Vinogradov of ICSTI in Moscow, Russia, for the .INI files. HEBREW Also new. The files in this directory give MS-DOS Kermit full Hebrew terminal emulation capability, including the standard (i.e. WordPerfect :-) key map for entering Hebrew letters on the PC keyboard, complete with automatic English/Hebrew switching directed by the host, everything you get on a real Hebrew-model VT420 terminal. Thus the standard MS-DOS Kermit distribution now replaces the various "Hebrewized" offshoots of MS-DOS Kermit that have been in circulation for some years, e.g. for use with the ALEPH bibliographic software. You even get a PostScript picture of the key map. ROMAN Character-set tables for Roman-based character sets used by MS-DOS Kermit. HOW TO GET IT... The ZIP file is available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu in the directory kermit/test/bin, filename msv314.zip. Transfer it in binary mode, and then unzip it, read the top-level READ.ME file, and go from there. By the way, do not unzip the ZIP file over your old Kermit directory, or you will lose your old MSCUSTOM.INI file and your old dialing directory! Either make a new directory for MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, or copy your MSCUSTOM.INI and DIALUPS.TXT files to a safe place before wiping out your old one, for example: cd \kermit copy mscustom.ini mscustom.old copy dialups.txt dialups.old pkunzip mstibm.zip copy mscustom.old mscustom.ini copy dialups.old dialups.txt Also in the kermit/test/bin directory: mstz10.exe, MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 for the Heath/Zenith 100. Other versions (Victor 9000, etc) will be added as time goes on. There are also textual encodings of the ZIP file in BOO and UUENCODE format. These are available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu, directory kermit/test/text, text mode, files mstibm.boo and mstibm.uue. These two files are also available on CUVMA for retrieval via BITNET KERMSRV. Our deepest thanks, as always, to Joe Doupnik for bringing another new version of MS-DOS Kermit to us. Please send comments on MS-DOS 3.14 Beta via email to kermit@columbia.edu. In particular, we are interested in the new layout of the disk, and that all internal cross references among files (text, command, and program) are consistent and working. ------------------------------ (Formal release announcement to be added here...) ------------------------------