00README.TXT (6 Dec 1984) COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY KERMIT DISTRIBUTION *** BULLETIN *** The KERMIT Distribution has now grown so big that it will not fit on a 2400' reel of tape at 1600 bpi. Consequently, some redundant or unnecessary files have been deleted from the distribution. For instance, only the Stevens/Bliss Kermits are included for VAX/VMS and Pro-350 (YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE BLISS TO RUN THESE VERSIONS!), only the Brian Nelson Macro-11 Kermits for the PDP-11 operating systems. (End of Bulletin) *** READ THIS TOO ** If you are reading this from a handout supplied with a Kermit distribution tape, please note that this information might not be quite up to date -- there may be files on the tape that are not listed here. The copy of this file, 00README.TXT, on the tape will be current. The KERMIT distribution area includes all the versions of Kermit which are in our possession. The files have names of the form NAME.TYPE where NAME is the name of file, and TYPE is its type (program source, documentation, executable core image, etc). No NAME is more than 9 characters long (the maximum accepted by VAX/VMS), and every NAME is unique in the first 6 characters (the maximum under TOPS-10, RSTS/E, etc). On TOPS-10 BACKUP Interchange tapes, names longer than 6 will be truncated to 6. No type is longer than 3 characters. NAME and TYPE are separated by a period. * Prefixed Files: The file names for files associated with each implementation of KERMIT are prefixed by a few characters denoting the implementation. The following are presently used: -- "mainframes" -- Prefix Machine(s) Operating System Language 170 Cyber 170 NOS Fortran-77 20 DECSYSTEM-20 TOPS-20 MACRO-20 AOS Data General AOS Ratfor CMS IBM 370 Series VM/CMS IBM Assembler CR Cray-1, Cray-XMP CTSS Fortran-77 H8 Harris 800 VOS Pascal, Assembler HG Honeywell DPS 8, 66 GCOS3 or 8 C HPM Hewlett-Packard 1000 RTE Fortran K10 DECsystem-10 TOPS-10 MACRO-10 K11 PDP-11 RSX11,RSTS/E,RT11,TSX MACRO-11 MP PDP-11 MUMPS (M/11) MUMPS MTS IBM 370 Series MTS Assembler, Pascal MU Honewyell MULTICS PL/I PRI PRIME PRIMOS PL/P (PL/I) RDOS Data General Nova RDOS Fortran *RT PDP-11 RT-11 OMSI Pascal ST HP3000, Univac, etc Software Tools Ratfor TAN Tandem Nonstop TAL TSO IBM 370-series MVS/TSO Assembler UN Sperry/Univac-1100 EXEC Assembler UX VAX, SUN, PDP-11, etc UNIX C *VX VAX VMS Pascal and Fortran VMS VAX VMS Bliss-32 -- "micros" -- 800 Luxor ABC-800 ABCDOS BASIC-II 86 CP/M-86 Kermit sources CP/M-86 ASM86 APC NEC APC binaries CP/M-86 ASM86 APO Apollo Aegis Fortran APP Apple II 6502 Apple DOS DEC-10 CROSS ATA Atari Home Computer DOS Action! CPM 8080, 8085, or Z80 CP/M-80 ASM HL6 Honeywell L6/10 MS-DOS MASM HP1 HP-150 MS0DOS HP-150 HP9 HP-98xx UCSD p-System HP Pascal K11 DEC Pro-350 P/OS, Pro/RT Macro-11 MC1 Apple Macintosh C (SUMACC) MDS Intel Development System ISIS PL/M MS Various MS-DOS or PC-DOS MASM PC IBM PC or Zenith Z100 PC DOS, MS DOS MASM PQ ICL/3 Rivers PERQ PERQ OS Pascal PRO DEC Professional-350 P/OS Bliss RBK Rainbow binaries CP/M-86 ASM86 SIR Sirius-1 MS DOS MASM SEE Seequa Chameleon MS DOS, CP/M-86 MASM TA2 Tandy 2000 MS DOS MASM TRS TRS-80 I and III MS DOS Z80 Assembler TX4 Tektronix 4170 CP/M-86 ASM86 UCI IBM PC UCSD p-System IV.x Pascal UCM Pascal Microengine UCSD p-System Pascal UCT Terak 8510a UCSD p-System II.0 Pascal, Macro-11 VIC Sirius 1/Victor 9000 CP/M-86, MS-DOS ASM86, C *Items marked with asterisk are "extra" (see bulletin above) may be missing from the Kermit tape or the main Kermit directory. (The VAX/VMS Bliss version is also provided in MACRO-32 (.MAR) source form for those sites that do not have a Bliss compiler. YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE BLISS IN ORDER TO RUN THIS VERSION.) (The K11 files include support for RSX, RSTS, RT11, and P/OS -- See K11INS.DOC for details.) (The Victor, Seequa, Tandy, Honeywell, and some other MS DOS versions are based on older versions of IBM PC Kermit; these have yet to be merged with the current MS/PC-DOS version.) Although the "mainframe" and "micro" Kermit implementations have been separated in the lists above, they are all stored together. The primary Kermit distribution area contains only "printable" files -- program source, binaries in "hex" or other printably-encoded format along with conversion programs, documentation, etc. For some implementations, there may also be "true" binary program images. These are kept in a separate place, KB: or , and may appear at the end of the tape if there's room. When working with one of these implementations, you would normally copy them to a separate area and strip the prefix from the file names, and install the programs on the appropriate systems without the prefix. For instance, on the DEC-20 you would copy 20KERMIT.MAC to KERMIT.MAC, then assemble it, and store the result as KERMIT.EXE in SYS:. The VAX/VMS, TOPS-10, PRO-350, TRS-80 and some other versions are exceptions; in these cases you would replace the "VMS", "K10", "PRO", etc, prefixes with "KER". Before doing anything with any particular version, look for an associated file with the suffix ".HLP" (help) or ".BWR" (beware). These files will often tell you special things you should know before starting to put together a working program from the distribution. The following .BOO files are provided for current MS-DOS implementions. BOO files are downloaded and decoded into .EXE files using MSBOOT.FOR on the mainframe and MSPCBOOT.BAS on the MS-DOS system. MSAPC.BOO NEC APC MSGENER.BOO Generic MS-DOS MSHP150.BOO Hewlett-Packard 150 MSIBMPC.BOO IBM PC, XT MSRB100.BOO DEC Rainbow 100, 100+ MSTIPRO.BOO Texas Instruments Professional PC MSWANG.BOO Wang PC MSZ100.BOO Heath/Zenith 100 MS*.ASM Sources MSKERMIT.DOC Manual chapter The following .HEX files for specific CP/M-80 implementations are included: CP4*.ASM The current, working source files for CP/M KERMIT. CP4KER.DOC User documentation (chapter from the manual). CP4APL.HEX Apple II, Z80 Softcard, 6551 ACIA in serial interface CP4APM.HEX Apple II, Z80 Softcard, Micromodem II in slot 2 CP4BB2.HEX BigBoard II (terminal required) CP4BRN.HEX Intertec SuperBrain. CP4CP3.HEX "generic": CP/M 3.0 (CP/M Plus) systems (terminal req'd) CP4CPT.HEX CPT-85xx word processors with CompuPak CP/M CP4DEL.HEX Digicomp Delphi 100 (terminal required) CP4DM2.HEX DECmate II with CP/M option CP4GEN.HEX "generic": CPM 2.2 systems with IOBYTE (terminal req'd) CP4H89.HEX Heath/Zenith H89. CP4KPR.HEX Kaypro-II (and 4; probably supports all Kaypro systems) CP4MDI.HEX Morrow Decision I (terminal required) CP4MIK.HEX MikroMikko CP4UDI.HEX Morrow Micro Decision I (terminal required) CP4OSB.HEX Osborne 1 CP4OSI.HEX Ohio Scientific CP4ROB.HEX DEC VT180 CP4TEL.HEX TELCON Zorba portable CP4TLB.HEX TRS-80 model II with Lifeboat 2.25C CP/M Display CP4TPT.HEX TRS-80 model II with Pickles + Trout CP/M Display CP4VEC.HEX Vector Graphics. CP4Z00.HEX Z-100 under CP/M-85 CPMH8.HEX Heath H8 (based on version 3.5 of CP/M Kermit) CPMPRO.HEX Compupro Interfacer 3/4 (based on version 3.9) "Generic Kermit" can be used on CP/M-80 micros not specifically supported, if the CP/M IOBYTE facility is implemented, and the fields of the IOBYTE point to the right devices. The CP/M-Plus version should be able to run "generically" on any CP/M 3.0 system. See the User Guide and CPMGENERI.DOC for details. The Kermit User Guide contains instructions for installing or bootstrapping the various versions of Kermit. Version 4 of CP/M Kermit is new; version 3 is also included on the distribution tape for backup purposes. The version 3 files begin with the prefix CPM. * Manuals: There are two Kermit manuals: KUSER and KPROTO, a user's guide and a protocol manual, respectively. Four versions of each files are provided: .MSS Scribe (UNILOGIC Ltd text formatter) source. .LPT* Line Printer format (overstriking, underscore, etc). .DOC No special effects, suitable for reading on line. .FOR* Like .LPT, but with Fortran-style carriage control. (* Note, the .FOR and .LPT versions may be omitted for lack of space *) If you have Scribe and the appropriate Scribe device drivers, you can run the .MSS files through it to produce output suitable for printing on any device supported at your site, including the Xerox-9700, Imagen Imprint-10, or other multifont laser printers or photocomposers. As of this writing, Scribe is not entirely bug-free; you may notice some problems with the footnotes in the .DOC and .LPT files. Note that some parts of the user manual rely on underlining to clarify examples; the underlines are missing from the .DOC files, but will be found in the .LPT and .FOR files. The user's guide is intended for users of Kermit (including those who want to install it), the protocol manual is for those who would like to write a new implementation (i.e. a Kermit program for a new machine or operating system). IMPORTANT: The Users Guide is always out of date. New implementations of KERMIT, and new versions of old ones, arrive in a steady stream. It's impossible to keep the manual totally current. The general description of KERMIT operation remains valid, but detailed descriptions of the various versions are better obtained from the accompanying help (.HLP), beware (.BWR), documentation (.DOC), memo (.MEM), or manual (.MAN) files. Look to these files for information missing from the user manual. ASCII.MSS is the ASCII/EBCDIC character table, which is included as an appendix in both manuals. MANUAL.HYP is a hyphenation dictionary for building the manual with Scribe. BYTE.MSS is the manuscript of the KERMIT article that was published in BYTE Magazine in June and July, 1984. BYTE.DOC is suitable for reading at the terminal, BYTE.MSS may be run through Scribe to produce output for various printing devices, BYTE.BIB is the bibliography. KMICRO.DOC is a tutorial by Norman Weatherby on using Kermit for micro- to-micro connections. * Other Files: 00README.TXT is this file, which should appear at the top of any alphabetical directory listing, and is the first file on the tape. FLYER.DOC is a short KERMIT "brochure", explaining the distribution policy. MAIL.* is the archive of the CCNET/BITNET/ARPANET KERMIT discussion group. MAIL.TXT is the current, active mail file. MAIL.yyx (e.g. MAIL.83A) files contain older messages. CURRENT.DOC is a list of the current versions of KERMIT in reverse chronological order, to help you see what has changed since the last time you looked. VERSIONS.DOC is a list of all known versions of KERMIT, even those that aren't being distributed yet, showing their status, who's working on them, etc. FILES.DIR is an alphabetical list of files in the main KERMIT directory, updated once each day. COMMER.DOC is a policy statement concerning commercial use of KERMIT. KERBOO.FOR is a short receive-only version of Kermit written in Fortran, to be used for bootstrapping Kermit onto systems that don't have a real Kermit from a system that does. * Tools: The following tools are specific to DECsystem-10 and DECSYSTEM-20 computers, and might not appear on distribution tapes for other kinds of systems, and will only appear at the end of DEC-10/20 tapes if there is sufficient room. The tools files are stored separately in KT:, . The files MAC80.*, M80UNV, etc, are an 8080/8085/Z80 cross assembler that runs on the DEC-10 or DEC-20; MAC80.DOC is a brief description. TORTUR.M80 is an 8080 instruction set "torture test" for MAC80, which illustrates its features. ZORTUR.M80 is a Z80 instruction set torture test. MAC80 is used to assemble CP/M KERMIT, and is mostly compatible with the standard CP/M 8080 assembler, D.R. ASM. HEXIFY.* is a program for converting a CP/M .COM file resident on the DEC-10 or DEC-20 to a CP/M .HEX file. This is handy when binary file transfers are failing to work for some reason. The .HEX file can be LOADed on the CP/M system in the normal way to reconstruct the original .COM file. HEXCOM.* is the inverse of HEXIFY, and provides .HEX-to-.COM file conversion. LASM and MLOAD are the public-domain CP/M-80 linking assembler and loader, that run on the CP/M system, and may be used to build Kermit-80. The files CROSS.* are a general purpose cross assembler that runs on the DEC-10 and -20; CROSS.DOC is the manual. CROSS is used to assemble Apple DOS KERMIT. WRITEL is a program to write ANSI labeled ASCII tapes on the DEC-20. EZFIX is a utility for converting EasyWriter files sent to the DEC-20 from the IBM PC into ordinary text form. STRIP is a program for stripping away the 8th bit. * Finally... If you make any modifications to Kermit, fix any bugs, or write any new implementations or documentation, please send them back to us on magnetic tape so we can distribute them to other Kermit users: KERMIT Distribution Columbia University Center for Computing Activities 612 West 115th Street 7th Floor New York NY 10025 We'll return your tape to you with the latest Kermit distribution (if you send a full-size reel). * OTHER WAYS TO GET KERMIT * To get Kermit on magnetic tape from Columbia University, follow the directions in the file FLYER.DOC. There are also other ways to get Kermit: . Network Distribution: The Kermit files are also available from Columbia via computer network. To learn how obtain Kermit files via BITNET, type the following command to your BITNET host: SMSG RSCS MSG CUVMA KERMSRV HELP To get Kermit files via Internet, use FTP, connect to host CU20B (Internet Host number [192.5.43.128]), login as user ANONYMOUS, password KERMIT, and use the GET or MULTIPLE GET commands to retrieve the desired files from the area KER:, e.g. "DIRECTORY KER:", "GET KER:00README.TXT". Network users may consult the file KER:CURRENT.DOC from time to time to see what new versions of Kermit have been installed recently. There is a network mailing list for Kermit information; it is available to users of BITNET and Internet and most networks that are connected to them, inclusing CSnet, Usenet, Mailnet, CCnet, and others. To get on the mailing list, send mail to Info-Kermit-Request@CU20B CU20B is a mail host on both Internet and BITNET, and is reachable from CSnet, Mailnet, Usenet, and other networks via explicit host routing, e.g. Info-Kermit-Request%CU20B@CSnet-Relay . UUCP Access: UUCP access to the Kermit sources is provided as a public service by Oklahoma State University Department of Computing and Information Sciences Stillwater, Oklahoma from 10:00pm until 10:00am CST, 7 days per week. A command like: "uucp okstate!/u/kermit/ux* dir" should transfer the UNIX Kermit distribution to the requesting system. The file names are the same as those distributed on the tape, except in lower case. UUCP login information for site: okstate Phone number : (405) 624-6953 (one line only, 300/1200b) Login name : uucpker Password : thefrog Hours : 10:00pm - 10:00am central time (7 day per week) Problem : okstate!uucp-support (UUCP) reports : uucp-support%okstate@csnet-relay (ARPA) . Floppy Disk Distribution: MS-DOS Kermit for the IBM PC may be obtained on IBM PC floppy disk from: PC SIG 1556 Halford Avenue, Suite #130 Santa Clara, CA 95051 (408) 730-9291 on disks number 41 and 42, for a moderate fee. [End of 00README.TXT]