Date: Wed, 22 Jun 94 23:20:27 EDT From: Frank da Cruz To: C-Kermit Developers and Testers Subject: Announcing C-Kermit 5A(190) Beta.01 Message-Id: This is to announce a brief Beta testing period for C-Kermit 5A(190), a new release of C-Kermit for UNIX, VMS, OS/2, AOS/VS, Aegis, OS-9, the Commodore Amiga, the Atari ST, the Apple Macintosh, and now also Stratus VOS. The major new feature of version 5A(190) is the ability to continue file transfers that failed. This feature is available in the UNIX and OS/2 versions, and works only for binary-mode transfers. For example, suppose you were uploading or downloading one or more ZIP files in binary mode between UNIX C-Kermit and OS/2 C-Kermit over a dialup modem connection, and the phone call was suddenly disconnected. The new "resend" feature lets you reestablish the connection and "resend" the same files; the ones that were already transferred are not transferred again, the ones that were partially transferred are continued where the transfer left off, and the ones that were not transferred are sent. All the commands are the same, except you tell C-Kermit to RESEND instead of to SEND. This feature will also be available in the next release of MS-DOS Kermit, 3.14, coming soon. Other highlights of version 5A(190) are: . Automatic directory creation for incoming files (UNIX, VMS, OS/2) . Command retry and recall, typeahead. . Major improvements in OS/2 C-Kermit. . A new C-Kermit implementation for Stratus VOS. . Numerous bug fixes and speedups in all departments, especially script programming. And here is more detailed list of the changes: NEW COMMANDS IF DIRECTORY Execute the if is a directory. IF NEWER Execute the if is newer than MINPUT Like INPUT, but looks for multiple strings simultaneously PSEND [ ] Send a file starting at the given byte position REDIRECT command (OS/2, SunOS, AIX, NeXT, ULTRIX, OSF/1, Linux, ...) For running external protocols RESEND [ ] Continue a binary-mode transfer from where it was interrupted SET EXIT WARNING { ON, OFF } Require confirmation before EXIT when a connection is active SET { FILE, TERMINAL } CHARACTER-SET HP-ROMAN8 New support for the Hewlett-Packard Roman8 character set WRITE-LINE A system-independent way to write a line of text to a file GENERAL CHANGES File transfer protocol fixes, speedups, and improvements: . Recovery of failed (incomplete) binary-mode transfers. . A bug that made windowed transfers sometimes act like stop & wait, fixed. . A bug that (very infrequently) resulted in corrupted files, fixed. . Faster recovery from errors in non-windowed transfers. . SET SEND PAUSE to overcome problems with HP-48s, etc. RECEIVE command can be given a disk/directory name for incoming files. Ability to create directories for incoming files on the fly (UNIX, VMS, OS/2) Repainting of fullscreen file-transfer display (UNIX, VMS) New command-line options: -D n Delay n seconds before sending -R "remote-only" for faster startup with standard init file BSEND and TSEND macros in CKERMIT.INI fixed to accept wildcards PCGET macro recovers from errors Services directory now allows specification of nonstandard host prompts Many annoying pauses between commands removed TRANSLATE command fixed for Latin-2 based character sets CD commands in "application files" were broken, now fixed KERMIT READY TO blah ... messages now issued consistently Default cancellation sequence changed from 2 to 3 Ctrl-C's ... Command retry, command history buffer, command recall Typeahead is now permitted in interactive command mode DIAL now uses no parity during dialing, selected parity after connection Crashes during DIAL command fixed END and RETURN commands now work from within FOR, WHILE, and EXIF NEW VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS \v(cols) - number of columns on (characters across) screen \v(connection) - connection type (serial, tcp/ip, etc) \v(cps) - speed in characters-per-second of last file transfer \v(dialstatus) - completion code from DIAL command \v(keyboard) - keyboard type (OS/2 only) \v(newline) - the system's line terminator \v(parity) - current parity setting \v(rows) - number of rows (lines) on screen \v(terminal) - terminal type \fdate(filename) - returns modification date/time of given file \fsize(filename) - returns size of the given file UNIX-SPECIFIC IMPROVEMENTS CONNECT-mode speedups, important when C-Kermit is "in the middle". New makefile entries and/or systems supported: Amdahl UTS + TCP/IP Bull DPX/2 BOS/X CONSENSYS System V R4 + TCP + curses DECstation 5000 MIPS3 CPU FreeBSD Lynx OSF/1 2.0 Solaris 2.x UnixWare 1.1 + curses + TCP/IP System-wide initialization file is now an option. TELNET window (i.e. screen) size negotiation, SIGWINCH trapping. RTS/CTS flow control added for Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OSF/1, etc. Higher serial speeds added for Linux, HP-UX, etc. IMPROVEMENTS FOR VMS AND OPENVMS, VAX AND ALPHA AXP Problems running from DCL procedures, SPAWN'd, in batch, etc - fixed New support for CMU/Tektronix TCP/IP Append-to-file operations now available SET SPEED problems fixed Console terminal flow-control fixed Automatic compensation for systems SYSGEN'd with small MAXFUFs, etc GNU CC compatibility TRANSMIT COMMAND fixed to handle VMS-specific file types sensibly Session-log record formatting fixed TELNET window (i.e. screen) size negotiation MACINTOSH KERMIT 0.99(190) Mac-specific modules can now be compiled with Think C as well as MPW C. No other Mac-specific improvements. OS/2 C-KERMIT IMPROVEMENTS Numerous terminal-emulation improvements: . VT100, VT220, and ANSI emulations added (to VT102 and VT52); . Mouse support added: mouse-directed cursor movement, copy-and-paste. . Complete support for all VT220 PF, F, keypad, arrow, and editing keys. . A big selection of keyboard verbs ("\Kverbs"), as in MS-DOS Kermit, including a complete set of VT220 keyboard verbs and a new keymap file, CKOVTK2.INI, to set them up for you, and allowing the Num Lock key to be used as DEC PF1 (or anything else); . Hebrew terminal emulation for use with ALEPH library software; . Ability to assign user-defined macros to hot keys via \Kverbs; . Execution of APC escape sequences, just like MS-DOS Kermit, for "auto-download", "auto-upload", and auto-anything-else; . Improved colors, color control, new border color; . Numerous fixes to VT emulation; . Improved, context-sensitive popup help screens and status lines; . Print/Dump screen; . Many new host-controlled printer actions; . Redirection of printer to file; . New screen rollback options and features; . TELNET bugs fixed, TELNET screen-size negotiation added; . Session debugging display, including graphic display of TELNET options, control characters, and escape sequences; . Compose Key for composing accented characters; . New unique scan codes added for keypad period, Shift-Esc, Tab; . Answerback string now includes C-Kermit version number and terminal type; . Code page control. OS/2 C-Kermit file transfer improvements: . Recovery (see below); . ".LONGNAME" attribute supported on FAT file systems. . Automatic directory creation for incoming files. . SET FILE TYPE LABELED, a file-transfer mode that transfers OS/2 files along with all their attributes (read-only, hidden, system, and extended), similar to the same facility in VMS C-Kermit. . Automatic parity detection during file transfer; . Ability to transfer files with IBM mainframes thru non-transparent 3270 protocol converters; . SET FILE COLLISION UPDATE really works now; . Server's execution of REMOTE DIRECTORY, REMOTE TYPE, etc, fixed; . Problems transferring with HP-48, CP/M, etc, fixed. Other OS/2 C-Kermit improvements: . Support for the LAN Manager Named Pipe communication method. . Support for NETBIOS connections. . NetBIOS and Named Pipe Connections can be either established or received. . A Rexx programming interface, so C-Kermit scripts can contain Rexx commands, and Rexx programs executed from within C-Kermit may contain C-Kermit commands. This also works, to a limited extent, with VX-REXX. . Task list adjusted to show current serial port or TELNET host. . Improved, more-flexible install procedure. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Grateful acknowledgements for help with developing and testing edit 190 to: Jeffrey Altman, Ric Anderson, Ronald Antony, Steven Asher, William Bader, Mark Berryman, John Chandler, Albert Crosby, Joe Doupnik, Alex Dupuy, Vincent Fatica, Mike Freeman, Christine Gianone, Madhusudan Giyyarpuram, Bill Glass, Chuck Goodhart, Eugenia Harris, Russ Herman, Tarjei Jensen, Hugo Jimenez, Terry Kennedy, "Carlo Kid", Tom Kloos, John Kohl, Bo Kullmar, David Lane, Mike Long, Scott Mace, Montserrat Mane, Mike O'Malley, Marc Pawliger, Paul Placeway, Jim Reisert, Kai Uwe Rommel, Shinichi Sakata, Nick Sayer, Bill Schlesinger, Steven Schultz, Jason Seaman, Olaf Seibert, Rick Sladkey, Marko Teittinen, Steve Walton, Jamie Watson, Rob Weiner, Gerald Werner, and Steven Woolgar. Special thanks to Jeffrey Altman for huge amounts of work on OS/2 C-Kermit (Rexx, Longname, Labeled-File transfer, mouse, Named Pipe, and NETBIOS support, plus the installation script), David Lane (Stratus VOS support -- *all* of it), and Mike O'Malley for not only the CMU/Tek TCP/IP support in C-Kermit, but the the CMU/Tek sockets library itself. TESTING I have successfully compiled and tested edit 190 on the following platforms: Apple Macintosh with System 6.03 and MPW C 3.2 Data General AViiON DG/UX 5.4 Data General MV 2500 with AOS/VS-II 2.20.00.39 and TCP/IP-II DEC Alpha AXP with OSF/1 1.3 and 2.0 DEC Alpha AXP with OpenVMS 1.5 and 6.1 DEC MicroVAX-II with VMS 5.3 and VAX C 3.1 and TGV MultiNet TCP/IP DEC PDP-11/44 with 2.11BSD DEC VAXstation 3100 with VMS 5.5 and VAX C 3.2 and DEC TCP/IP DECstation 5800 with Ultrix 4.2 Dell PC 486/50 with Dell UNIX System V/386 R4 Dell PC 486/50 with Linux 0.99.14 Dell PC 486/50 with UnixWare 1.1.1 HP-9000/300 4.4BSD HP-9000/550 HP-UX 5.21 HP-9000 Model 385 with HP-UX 8.0 HP-9000 Model 715 with HP-UX 9.03 IBM PS/2-70 with OS/2 2.00 IBM PS/VP with OS/2 2.01 and IBM TCP/IP 1.20 IBM RS/6000 with AIX 3.2.1 NeXT with NeXTSTEP 3.0 Sun SPARC-10 with SunOS 4.1.3 in BSD and POSIX environments Sun SPARC-10 with Solaris 2.3 I'd like to find out every machine and operating system where this new version can be built and used successully. Please report testing results, positive or negative, or just questions, to kermit@columbia.edu. In your reports, please include: . the make and model of computer . the operating system name and version . the build procedure if any, e.g. which UNIX makefile entry you used . the size of the resulting (stripped) executable. For example: MACHINE OS NAME OS VERSION MAKE ENTRY DATE SIZE DEC Alpha AXP 3000-800 MultiNet3.3/VMS 6.1FT4 ckvker.mak 940622 819200 Dell 433 DE SCO UNIX 3.2v4.0 sco32v4 940623 344872 IBM RS/6000 320 AIX 3.2.3E rs6aix32c 940623 491445 Harris Night Hawk CX/UX 6.1 cx_ux 940623 626560 Silicon Graphics Indigo IRIX 4.0.5F irix40ypc 940623 606208 Tandy Model 6000 Xenix 3.2 trs16 940623 435842 (You can see a list like this in the ckc190.upd -- let's see how long we can make it!) HOW TO GET IT During the testing period, C-Kermit 5A(190) will be available via anonymous ftp from kermit.columbia.edu [128.59.39.2] in the following directories: kermit/test/text - Text files, ftp in text (ASCII) mode kermit/test/bin - Binary files, ftp in binary (I) mode In particular: kermit/test/bin/cku190.tar.Z (or cku190.tar.gz) Compressed (or gzip'd) tar archive for the complete set of files needed for UNIX C-Kermit. C-Kermit must be built from the included source code using the included makefile. Read the comments at the top of the makefile for further information. kermit/test/bin/cko190.zip ZIP archive of the complete OS/2 C-Kermit distribution (no source code). Includes both the 32- and 16-bit versions, all supporting files, and an automated install script (INSTALL.CMD). kermit/test/text/ckvaaa.hlp A text file explaining exactly which files are needed for the VMS version (also see below.) kermit/test/text/ckm* ckm190.hqx - Mac Kermit 0.99(190) ckmaaa.hlp - Current status of Mac Kermit (not good) ckmker.bwr - Mac Kermit "beware" file NOTE: The Macintosh version is pretty much an orphan, but still gets rebuilt with each new C-Kermit release. New Mac Kermit volunteer programmers are badly needed. kermit/test/text/ckd190.uue uuencoded AOS/VS DUMP_II dumpfile containing the AOS/VS C-Kermit executable and supporting text files. kermit/test/bin/ Also contains selected C-Kermit executables for UNIX, AOS/VS, and others. kermit/test/text/ckcker.upd Documentation for all features new to edits 189 and 190. kermit/test/text/ckc190.upd Detailed edit history. kermit/test/text/ckaaaa.hlp A text file describing all of the C-Kermit files and which ones are needed for each type of system, including the sources files, which are all in the the kermit/test/text directory. Several of the versions still need updating: Atari ST, OS-9, etc. The Amiga version will arrive shortly. VMS BINARIES NEEDED VMS C-Kermit versions can be produced in twelve different varieties, of which I am able to produce only a few. Volunteers are needed to fill in this table: TCP/IP Product VAX AXP ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^ None CKVKER.HEX CKVAXP.HEX TGV MultiNet CKVVTGV.HEX CKVATGV.HEX DEC TCP/IP CKVVUCX.HEX * CMU/Tek CKVVCMU.HEX N/A Wollongong * * Process Software * * The items marked (*) can be built using existing source code and makefile, and are needed for the final release. If you have VAX C or DEC C and a system with one of the *'d configurations, and you are interested in producing (or having) the corresponding KERMIT.EXE, please let me know. UNIX BINARIES NEEDED These are needed for the new breed of UNIX systems in which software development tools (C compiler, etc) are an extra-cost option: UnixWare, Solaris, SCO, etc, and therefore the average user cannot build from source code. I can produce UnixWare 1.1.1 and Solaris 2.3 binaries, but not others. Even those are problematic because of difficulty transporting binaries from one system to another when shared, dynamically-linked libraries are involved. A set of SCO UNIX and Xenix binaries, in particular, would be most welcome. - Frank