To: wermit-l@wkuvx1.wku.edu
Subject: C-Kermit 6.0.193 Alpha.02

OK, here we go with Alpha.02 of C-Kermit 6.0.193.  I'm addressing this only
to a short list of people who had open issues, mostly but not all in VMS,
to see what kind of progress we seem to be making towards an open Beta.

C-Kermit 6.0.193 has numerous functional improvements, I hope, described in
the ckermit2.upd file (see below).  These include switches for the
file-transfer commands, file-transfer pipes and filters (UNIX only because I
don't know how to do this in VMS, or even if it would be useful there), plus
support for "10-digit" and other dialing oddities, new modems, modem speaker
control, blind dialing, new Telnet options, CD command improvements
(including CDPATH support, even for VMS), Greek character sets, and lots of
script programming stuff.  And numerous bug fixes (including all the ones in
the PATCHES file for 6.0.192).

General changes since Alpha.01:

Program exit status codes should now be accurate.  Some of you complained
that failures were not being reflected, and you were right.  I hope I found
all the places where this could happen and fixed them.

The new GET command syntax prevented a file list from being given.  Now
there are two separate commands: GET and MGET.  GET and friends use the new
syntax (GET [switches] remote-name [ local-name ]); MGET lets you give an
arbitrary file list.  Also there was some problem when giving an as-name in
GET commands, resulting in spurious "not writable" errors, hopefully fixed
now.  And worst of all, GET, SEND, and friends had a 1-word memory leak that
could result in crashes, core dumps, etc, also fixed.

SET EXIT WARNING { ON, AUTO } now treats failure to obtain modem signals
(when CARRIER-WATCH is ON or AUTO) as an indication that the connection is
closed, rather than overconservatively assuming it is still open.

SET ALARM / IF ALARM didn't work when used in the wee hours, now fixed.

UNIX:

IRIX 6.2 supports speeds higher than 38400 using the POSIX interface.  But
you can't just put -DPOSIX into the makefile entry because that screws up
all sorts of other things.  I'd fix them if I had access to IRIX 6.2 but I
don't, so my next crude attempt at this is to add an irix62 makefile entry,
which is like irix60 but defines IRIX62, which selects the POSIX-style
speed-setting and -getting, but nothing else POSIX, so everything else is as
in "make irix60", which does work in IRIX 6.2.  So: uncompress, untar, then
"make irix62" and see what happens.  Am I getting close?

There were some #ifdef foulups preventing C-Kermit from compiling in HP-UX
7.x, now fixed I hope.

In all versions of UNIX, incoming mail and printer material are now piped
directly to the relevant programs (Mail, mail, mailx; lpr, lp, etc) rather
than being saved to temporary files and then printed.  This has the
advantages of (a) not requiring a temp file, and (b) allowing a normal
subject in place of the filename.  Temp files were bad not only because they
required (a) space, and (b) writeability of the current directory, but also
because using them could result in wiping out an existing file.  So now:

  send /mail:whoever@xyz.com /subject:{Hi there} oofa.txt

(the new /SUBJECT switch is just a synonym for /AS-NAME).

In UNIX, "cd ~" and "cd ~name" were broken in Alpha.01, now fixed.

The ckuins.doc (C-Kermit for UNIX installation instructions) was reorganized
and augmented for clarity.

VMS

Alpha.01 always sent files in Labeled mode, mea culpa.  Now it should be
back to normal.

CD (i.e. SET DEFAULT) in 6.0.192 was totally broken for OpenVMS/Alpha 6.2
and above.  CD didn't work in 6.0.193 Alpha.01 if your home directory was a
searchlist.  Should be fixed.  In fact, CD now has loads of new features and
options and possibilities, documented in CKERMIT2.UPD section 4.5.2.1.
(Those of you on the WERMIT-L list saw the discussion of these last week,
so now see what you think -- bearing in mind that I since I do all the work,
I get the last word on how it behaves :-)  (But obviously if it's broken I
will fix it.)

The INPUT command was broken in Alpha.01 -- should work now.

VMS C-Kermit would malloc a big array every time you made a filename
reference, and it would never free them.  This goes back to the beginning of
time.  Fixed now.

One user reported that VMS C-Kermit 6.0 would become stuck when the other
side hung up a serial connection (it would print "Communications disconnet"
and just sit there forever without returning to the prompt).  I seem to have
fixed that somehow, don't ask me how (all I did was add a lot of debugging
statements).  But now he says that when this happens, it loses the NO
CARRIER message from the modem (which his scripts depend on), whereas in
5A(190), these messages were visible.

I think the answer here must be that if you SET CARRIER-WATCH ON or AUTO,
then you have to expect this kind of behavior.  If the modem drops CD before
if prints NO CARRIER, then C-Kermit won't be able to see the message.  But
if everything is scripted, and you are looking for "NO CARRIER" as the way
to tell that the other side hung up, then your scripts should work as they
did in 5A(190) if you SET CARRIER-WATCH OFF.

The problem with closing a DECwindow that has C-Kermit running in it (i.e.
that it takes over the system trying forever to print a message it can't
print because its controlling terminal went offline) appears to be fixed.
Ditto, I hope, for the similar problem involving X.25 connections (can the
complainent pls verify?).

WHERE TO FIND IT

C-Kermit 6.0.193 Alpha.02 is in the usual places for C-Kermit test versions,
along with early drafts of all the update documentation, etc.  By the way,
the Alpha VMS 6.2 binary from last time was indeed from VMS 7.1; I hadn't
noticed that the system where I have that account was upgraded.  Sorry, I
don't seem to have access to a VMS 6.2 system any more.  If you have one
I can Telnet/FTP to, please let me know.

  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/test/bin
    ckvaker-vms71-nonet.exe:  For Alpha CPU, VMS 7.1,   no TCP/IP
    ckvvker-vms55-nonet.exe:  For VAX CPU,   VMS 5.5-1, no TCP/IP
    ckvvker-vms71-nonet.exe:  For VAX CPU,   VMS 5.5-1, no TCP/IP

  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/test/tar
    cku193src.tar.Z   Source code (UNIX and VMS), tar, UNIX compress
    cku193src.tar.gz  Source code (UNIX and VMS), tar, gzipped
    cku193txt.tar.Z   Other text files, tar, UNIX compress
    cku193txt.tar.gz  Other text files, tar, gzipped

  ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/test/text
    Source and text files separately.

Among the interesting text files:
  ckermit2.upd -- Docs for new features since 6.0.192.
  ckc193.upd   -- Program edit history since 6.0.192.

Thanks to all of you for your help with & comments on this version so far!

By the way, the aforementioned WERMIT-L list is for VMS C-Kermit developers
and testers, so if any of you who are not on it would like to join, just
send a "subscribe wermit-l" message to LISTSERV@WKUVX1.WKU.EDU.  The level
or traffic is *usually* low. 

- Frank