Date: Tue, 13 June 1993 12:00:00 EDT From: Christine M Gianone Subject: Announcing MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 This is to announce the final release of MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 for the IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles with DOS or Windows, and also for "generic DOS", the Victor 9000 (Sirius 1), and the Heath/Zenith 100. The new MS-DOS Kermit release was prepared by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah State University and includes the major new features that were listed in Info Kermit V17 #3, 30 June 1993. To recapitulate, briefly: . A new faster method for transferring binary and precompressed files . Larger packets and windows allowed, up to 9024 x 31. . Switching among multiple simultaneous TCP/IP sessions . Data General DASHER terminal emulation . Graphics-mode support for 132-column operation on EGA and VGA video adapters . Text-mode support for 132-column operation on ET4000 and other VESA adapters . Horizontal scrolling . Expanded-memory option for screen rollback and graphics image retention . Hebrew character-set translation and Hebrew terminal emulation . East European character-set translation . Icelandic CP861 code page support . Separate code page selection for terminal emulation and file transfer . Compose-key sequences for entering accented characters . New KERMIT PATH environment variable . Support for Novell SLIP_PPP ODI driver and other networking improvements . BOOTP improvements . TELNET improvements, including option negotiation display . DIAL-command support for additional modem types The new files are listed below. Be sure to use binary mode when FTP'ing files from kermit/bin. Use text mode for kermit/a files. Internet anonymous ftp EARN/BITNET watsun.cc.columbia.edu KERMSRV@CUVMA Description kermit/bin/msvibm.exe (none) Binary executable for IBM PC kermit/bin/msvibm.pif (none) Program Information File for Windows kermit/bin/msvgen.exe (none) Binary executable, generic DOS kermit/bin/msvv90.exe (none) Binary executable, Victor 9000 kermit/bin/msvz10.exe (none) Binary executable, Heath/Zenith 100 kermit/a/msvibm.boo MSVIBM BOO BOO-encoded executable for IBM PC kermit/a/msvpif.boo MSVPIF BOO BOO-encoded IBM Windows PIF file kermit/a/msvgen.boo MSVGEN BOO BOO-encoded executable, generic DOS kermit/a/msvv90.boo MSVV90 BOO BOO-encoded executable, Victor 9000 kermit/a/msvz10.boo MSVZ10 BOO BOO-encoded executable, H/Z-100 kermit/a/mskermit.ini MSKERMIT INI Standard initialization file kermit/a/mscustom.ini MSCUSTOM INI Customization file kermit/a/msr313.upd MSR313 UPD List of changes since version 3.12 kermit/a/msr313.pch MSR313 PCH Dummy patch file for version 3.13 kermit/a/mskerm.upd MSKERM UPD Supplement to "Using MS-DOS Kermit" kermit/b/mskerm.hlp MSKERM HLP Updated help file kermit/a/mskerm.bwr MSKERM BWR Updated "beware file" kermit/a/msvibm.vt MSVIBM VT Updated terminal emulator summary kermit/a/msmaaa.hlp MSMAAA HLP Documentation for dialing scripts kermit/a/msm*.scr MSM* SCR New modem-dialing scripts kermit/a/msidgk.ini MSIDGK INI Data General DASHER key mappings kermit/bin/msudg.com (none) DG DASHER/286 keyboard helper TSR kermit/a/msudgk.boo MSUDGK BOO BOO-encoded MSUDGK.COM kermit/a/msudgk.doc MSUDGK DOC Documentation for MSUDGK.COM Also, on watsun only: kermit/bin/msvibm.zip is a ZIP file containing the new MS-DOS Kermit (IBM PC version) distribution diskette. Unzip it using "pkunzip -d msvibm.zip". The "-d" switch is to preserve the (new) subdirectory structure. Any version of PKUNZIP since 1990 should work. Once again, please note that all the new features are documented in the MSKERM.UPD file, with additional details of a more technical nature in the MSKERM.BWR file. The ".boo" files are .EXE or other binary files encoded in a printable ASCII format, suitable for BITNET, e-mail, and other nontransparent modes of transmission. You can decode the boo-files back into .EXE files using any of the MSBPCT.* programs available in kermit/a/msbpct.* or MSBPCT * from KERMSRV. See kermit/a/msbaaa.hlp (MSBAAA HLP) for details. All the MS-DOS Kermit-related files have been removed from the test areas (kermit/test on watsun, T: on KERMSRV). Thanks again to Joe on behalf of all MS-DOS Kermit users everywhere. Thanks too to Yossi Gil at the Technion in Israel for lots of last-minute help with MS-DOS Kermit's Hebrew features. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 15 Jun 93 16:00:00 EDT From: Christine M Gianone Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 Available for Beta Testing Keywords: MS-DOS Kermit 3.13, Hebrew, Data General Terminal Emulation Keywords: East European Languages, Latin-2 Character-Set Keywords: 132-Column Mode, Horizontal Scrolling Keywords: Sliding Windows, Dynamic Packet Length, Icelandic Keywords: IBM Mainframe File Transfer Keywords: "TCP/IP, Multiple Sessions" This is to announce a brief beta testing period for MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 for the IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles with DOS or Windows, and also for "generic DOS", the Victor 9000, and the Heath/Zenith 100. The new MS-DOS Kermit release was prepared, as always, by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah State University and includes the following major new features (most of which apply to the IBM PC version only): 1. Up to six simultaneous TCP/IP sessions, with instantaneous switching among them, using Kermit's own built-in TCP/IP protocol stack. 2. Emulation of Data General DASHER D463 and D470 terminals in both text and graphics mode, and including support for up to 207 columns of compressed text, and for the mouse when in graphics mode (e.g. when using CEO Draw). 3. Support for compressed text for VT 132-column emulation on EGA and VGA. If you don't have a video adapter that supports 132 columns in text mode, MS-DOS Kermit can now put your EGA or VGA into graphics mode to produce the same effect. Also, addition of Tseng ET4000 (and all VESA) graphics chips to those that can be commanded in to 132-column text mode. 4. Horizontal scrolling in DG and VT terminal emulation. 5. Support for the Icelandic code page CP861 in terminal emulation and file transfer. 6. Support for East European languages (Czech, Polish, Hungarian, Romanian, etc) via translation between PC Code Page 852 and ISO 8859-2 Latin Alphabet 2 during both terminal emulation and file transfer. 7. Support for Hebrew and Yiddish via translation between PC Code Page 862 and the ISO 8859-8 Latin/Hebrew Alphabet in both terminal emulation and file transfer. In terminal emulation, the 7-bit Hebrew alphabet is also supported, as are DEC VT420 Hebrew terminal features including host-controlled screen writing direction, character-set selection, and keyboard mode. 8. Implementation of "Doomsday Kermit" (DDK) techniques for transferring files with IBM mainframes through 3270 protocol converters that do NOT support transparent mode, to be used in conjunction with IBM Mainframe Kermit's SET CONTROLLER FULLSCREEN command on VM/CMS, MVS/TSO, or CICS. IBM Mainframe Kermit 4.2.4 or later required. 9. Greater control over terminal emulation rollback screens. Now you can elect to keep them in expanded memory (EMS), if available, and if so, you can have lots more of them -- thousands, even. You can also change the rollback buffer size at runtime. Also, graphics screens can also be kept in EMS rather than in the video adapter's on-board memory, to allow restoration of graphics screens when switching back to them from text mode, even under Windows or when your memory manager has "stealth-mapped" your graphics memory away. 10. Network connections are now supported over Novell's SLIP_PPP ODI driver and Beame & Whiteside's TCP/IP product. The Beame & Whiteside protocol stack must, of course, already be loaded. 11. Faster transfer of all types of files, particularly binary files and precompressed (e.g. ZIP) files, by allowing the user to specify the set of control characters that will not be prefixed. 12. Many other file transfer performance improvements, including allowance for longer packets (up to 9K) and more window slots (up to 31). In other words, the 2K packet-buffer limitation has been increased to about 280K (or available memory, whichever is less). Packet lengths now adapt dynamically to the noise conditions on the communication channel. Sliding windows operation is smoother, error recovery is quicker. The file transfer display screen shows more information, including a "thermometer" and transfer statistics. The SET DEBUG PACKETS display no longer scrolls the file transfer window when long packets are used. 13. Serial-port handling code improved in many ways to allow for buggy and substandard internal modems, buggy PC-clone BIOS's, noisy PC busses, and spurious interrupts. Improved operation with COM3 and COM4 devices using shared or nonstandard interrupts. 14. New support of Application Program Command (APC) escape sequences from the host during emulation of VT220 or 320, which may contain any MS-DOS Kermit commands at all. APC sequences can be used to configure MS-DOS Kermit automatically for use with a particular host, to initiate file transfers automatically, or any other purpose you can imagine. The old TERMINALR / TERMINALS macro mechanism has been discontinued because DEC took over the associated escape sequence for use with Hebrew VT terminals (see Item 6 above and the next message, plus more about this below). 15. New command, SET TERMINAL VIDEO-WRITING { BIOS, DIRECT }. DIRECT is the default, BIOS forces all text-mode screen writing during CONNECT mode to be through the (slower) BIOS, to enable TSRs (e.g. for speech devices) to sense what is being written to the screen. 16. Improved TCP/IP BOOTP support. New RFC1395 support for downloading of PC's domain name from BOOTP server (requires upgraded BOOTP server); new ability to make BOOTP requests over SLIP and PPP connections; display of IP address of BOOTP server in SHOW COMMUNICATIONS display. An updated BOOTP server for UNIX is available in the bootp directory on watsun.cc.columbia.edu, via anonymous ftp. 17. TCP/IP TELNET options negotiation display now available. 18. Compose-key sequences for entering accented letters in the Latin-1, DEC MCS, and DG International West European character sets during VT and DG terminal emulation. 19. DIALing scripts for additional modem types: Hayes Ultra 144 Penril Alliance V.32 Practical Peripherals 14400 Rolm CBX DCM SupraFAXmodem V.32bis Telebit QBlazer V.32 Telebit T3000 V.32bis Vadic VA2400PA 20. Many smaller changes and bug fixes were also made and all patches to version 3.12 are incorporated into version 3.13. Special thanks to Data General Corporation for a grant to support development of the Data General terminal emulation (and for detailed validation thereof) and TCP/IP multisession support; to Novell for assistance with SLIP_PPP and LWP/DOS, and particularly to Brian Meek of Novell for assistance with SLIP_PPP debugging work; to Microsoft for donating a Windows Software Developers Kit; to Beame and Whiteside, Inc, for contributions permitting Kermit to operate over their TCP/IP suite; to Interconnections, Inc, for contributions permitting Kermit to operate over all release levels of TES; to Moshe Solow and Shalom Mitz at the Hebrew University in Israel for help with the Hebrew features; to Gudmundur Bjarni Josepsson at the University of Iceland for help with Icelandic; to Hirofumi Fujii of the Japan National Laboratory for High Energy Physics for help with adaption to DOS/V; to John Klensin of MIT for some of the new modem scripts and much help in other areas; to John Chandler of the Harvard/Smithsonian Astronomical Observatory for much help with DDK; to Lawrence Kirby and William Glass for encouragement with, and testing of, the new unprefixing option; to James Sturdevant for contributions in many areas; and to many others who sent in bug reports, suggestions, etc, based on earlier releases. THE APC COMMAND As noted previously, there is a major incompatibility between MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 and earlier releases, namely the handling of the CSI ? 34 h / l escape sequences by the VT220 and VT320 terminal emulators. This change is forced by a change in DEC terminal design and DEC software such as DECforms (see next message). Old way: CSI ? 34 h / l invoked the TERMINALR and TERMINALS macros, if you had them defined. This required each Kermit user to define them, for example in their MSCUSTOM.INI files, a big management problem for large user communities. New way: CSI ? 34 h / l controls screen-writing direction, left-to-right or right-to-left (for Hebrew and Arabic). To replace the TERMINALR/TERMINALS function, MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 now supports the Application Program Command (APC) escape sequence: APC string ST In the 7-bit environment, APC is ESC _ and ST (string terminator) is ESC \. In the 8-bit environment, APC is decimal 159 and and ST is 156 decimal. The "string" can be any MS-DOS Kermit command or list of commands, separated by commas, and can be up to 1024 bytes in length. Upon receipt of this escape sequence, MS-DOS Kermit executes the command(s) in the string and automatically resumes CONNECT mode. For safetly, the APC mechanism cannot be used to invoke certain MS-DOS Kermit commands that might do damage. For example, your enemies can't take advantage of this feature to delete all your files or format your disk. Included in this category is the RUN command, which provides access to DOS and to other applications. The following new MS-DOS Kermit command regulates the APC mechanism: SET TERMINAL APC { ON, OFF, UNCHECKED } ON (the default) means that Kermit will execute only safe commands. OFF means Kermit will not execute any commands and will ignore APCs. UNCHECKED means Kermit will execute ANY commands sent via APC. Use UNCHECKED at your own risk! APC is much more flexible than the old TERMINALS/TERMINALR mechanism, and can be used for any purpose at all. For example, it can be used to configure MS-DOS Kermit for use with a particular host or application by sending the appropriate list of SET commands: communication parameters like parity, protocol parameters like packet-length and window size, key mappings, etc. It can also be used to initiate file transfers automatically from the host without having to escape back to MS-DOS Kermit. Here's an example you can use with C-Kermit 5A(189), which has a new APC command for sending commands to MS-DOS Kermit. In your C-Kermit 5A customization file (.mykermrc or CKERMOD.INI), add commands like this: define autosend set delay 0, apc receive, send \%1 \%2, statistics define autoreceive apc {send \%1 \%2}, statistics Try it! Nothing special is required on the PC side. You can expand these commands to handle text and binary mode if you want to: ; Text transfers define tsend set del 0, set file type text, apc receive, send \%1, stat define treceive apc {set fil typ text, send \%1 \%2}, stat ; ; Binary transfers define bsend set del 0, set file type binary, apc receive, send \%1, stat define breceive apc {set fil typ binary, send \%1 \%2}, stat Use your imagination, the possibilities are endless! NEW FILES MS-DOS Kermit 3.13 Beta is being released only in binary form. Sources will be made available after the testing period is over. Internet anonymous ftp EARN/BITNET watsun.cc.columbia.edu KERMSRV@CUVMA Description kermit/bin/mstibm.exe (none) Binary executable for IBM PC kermit/bin/mstibm.pif (none) Windows Program Information File kermit/bin/mstgen.exe (none) Binary executable, generic DOS kermit/bin/mstv90.exe (none) Binary executable, Victor 9000 kermit/bin/mstz10.exe (none) Binary executable, Heath/Zenith 100 kermit/test/mstibm.boo MSTIBM BOO BOO-encoded executable for IBM PC kermit/test/mstgen.boo MSTGEN BOO BOO-encoded executable, generic DOS kermit/test/mstv90.boo MSTV90 BOO BOO-encoded executable, Victor 9000 kermit/test/mstz10.boo MSTZ10 BOO BOO-encoded executable, H/Z-100 kermit/test/msr313.upd MSR313 UPD List of changes since version 3.12 kermit/test/mskerm.upd MSKERM UPD Supplement to "Using MS-DOS Kermit" kermit/test/mskerm.hlp MSKERM HLP Updated help file kermit/test/mskerm.bwr MSKERM BWR Updated "beware file" kermit/test/mstibm.vt MSTIBM VT Updated terminal emulator summary kermit/test/msm*.scr MSM* SCR New modem-dialing scripts kermit/test/msm*.doc MSM* DOC Docs for new modem-dialing scripts The ".boo" files are .EXE files encoded in a printable ASCII format, suitable for BITNET, e-mail, and other nontransparent modes of transmission. You can decode the boo-files back into .EXE files using any of the MSBPCT.* programs available in kermit/a/msbpct.* or MSBPCT * from KERMSRV. See kermit/a/msbaaa.hlp (MSBAAA HLP) for details. The usual thanks to Joe from all MS-DOS Kermit users everywhere. Please give this beta release a good workout and send questions, bug reports, and comments to kermit@columbia.edu on the Internet or to KERMIT@CUVMA on BITNET/EARN/CREN. Final release is scheduled for July 8, 1993. ------------------------------