WINDOWS KERMIT William S. Hall 3665 Benton Street, #66 Santa Clara, CA 95051 Introduction A version of Kermit for Microsoft Windows 3.0 has been made available for distribution by Columbia University. The complete package contains a Windows program along with documentation, fonts, and complete sources. The basic program, WIN100, contains a substantial emulation of DEC VT100 and VT52 terminals and a version of Kermit with enough features to perform reliable file transfer as well as act as a client to a Kermit server. All files for Windows Kermit have names of the form WKXXXX.XX. WIN100 has evolved from an earlier experimental version which has been available from Columbia for some time. This latest version has several new features: 1. Support for COM1 through COM4. 2. Improved font selection. 3. A wider selection of foreground and background colors. 4. Restricted scroll regions and origin mode. 5. Control representation mode. 6. Memory rollback. Currently, this is limited to five screen pages. 7. Redesigned dialogs. 8. Editing commands to move around the terminal window and through the rollback memory. 9. Substantial font support for the VGA including normal and bold fonts with both the Windows and DEC special graphics character sets, all in wide and narrow formats. Sources for the fonts are also supplied. 10. An optional 8-bit mode with support for some DEC 8-bit controls. 11. A complete set of remote Kermit commands including get, bye, finish, logout, as well as remote file manipulations. 12. Enhanced user interface for working with remote commands. 13. Local commands for listing and changing directories. 14. Dialogs for setting Kermit packet and Protocol parameters. User Notes If you plan to use WIN100, then you need the following files. All are in the Kermit BOO format and MUST be recovered before use with the program MSBPCT.EXE or MSBPCT.BAS. Both programs are available from the Kermit distribution. 1. WKV100.BOO : Contains WIN100.EXE in BOO format. 2. WKEFON.BOO : Contains a Windows font file WIN100E.FON in BOO format. These fonts are most suitable for a VGA display. 3. WKM100.BOO : Contains documentation in BOO format for the terminal emulator portion of WIN100. When recovered, you will have a Windows Write document, WIN100.WRI, which has been formatted for an HP LaserJet printer. Since only Courier fonts are used, you should have no problem in printing this file without further formatting to a variety of Windows supported printers. 4. WKMKRM.BOO : Contains documentation in BOO format for the Kermit portion of WIN100. See the comments on WKM100.BOO about the format. The file, when recovered is called WNKERM.WRI 5. WKSKBD.BOO : An optional Windows 3.0 extended (101/102) keyboard driver in BOO format. This driver differs from the Windows standard keyboard driver only in that the actions of the Control and Caps Lock keys are interchanged. It is NOT necessary for WIN100. To use the driver after recovering it from the BOO file, back up KEYBOARD.DRV in your Windows System directory and copy over the new file. Be sure to carry out these steps from MSDOS and not from inside Windows. Such a program is really useful only if you cannot tolerate the placement of the control and caps lock keys on the left edge of the extended keyboard. It is assumed that you already have access to a similar program for MSDOS. After you have recovered these files with MSBPCT, read the documentation and proceed with the installation. If you simply cannot be bothered with reading about the software first, then do the following from MSDOS: 1. Copy WIN100.EXE to a convenient directory along with WIN100.WRI and WNKERM.WRI. 2. Copy WIN100E.FON to your Windows system directory. 3. Optionally, add KEYBOARD.DRV to the Windows system directory (see above). 4. Run Windows. Using the Control Panel, add the WIN100E.FON font if you are using a VGA. 5. Select an appropriate program group and add WIN100.EXE. 6. Using Windows Write, read through WIN100.WRI while trying out WIN100.EXE. At this time, you can use the Fonts menu command to load WIN100E.FON and make it permanent. 7. Using Windows Write, read through WNKERM.WRI. Please do this BEFORE trying the Kermit features. Source Code Sources for all portions of the code and the fonts are supplied. There are several files of the form WKXXXX.DOC which provide more information. Read these before you try to make or modify any sources. You will also need certain compilers and tools to make the programs. All sources are copyrighted but may be modified for your own use. Fixes and improvements are very welcome. A major contribution would be in the font area. Please see the appropriate DOC file for more information. Future Plans Plans for the future include long packets and server operations for Kermit and the addition of VT220 features and Tektronix graphics to the terminal portion. Although the long packet protocol is clearly defined in Kermit, there are some special considerations needed to make it function unobtrusively in Windows. You may want to see the article referenced in WKT100.DOC for more information along these lines. Most of the VT220 features are already present in WIN100, and the Tektronix stuff is already done. It is simply a matter of adding this code in a sensible way. Over the long run, it would be nice to redesign the program as an MDI application and to convert the emulation modules as well as the Kermit portion into DLL's. You are welcome to join in; it is the Kermit way. Acknowledgments Special thanks to Susan Hafer of Wellesley College for her help in testing WIN100.EXE and offering many useful suggestions.