Date: Tue, 30 May 89 11:47:55 WET DST
From: The National PD Software Archive
      <pdsoft%pd-software.lancaster.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk>
Subject: Announcing GEC/OS4000 Kermit Version 3.9

Version 3.9 of GEC Kermit for standard OS4000 consists mainly of bug fixes
and fuller checking of received packets.  Most of the changes were prompted
by a spate of failed transfers some of which resulted in the GEC terminal
getting locked up.  The new version is more careful about whether it is in
Logical or Physical mode and looks for Ctrl-Z more often.  Some of the
packets were arriving with bytes missing.  This caused problems because the
GEC kermit would wait for the number of bytes it was expecting and transfer
would halt until one side timed out.  The new version looks for premature
CRs and immediately NAKs the packet.  There were also problems in binary
mode with files which ended in a null or with 2 or 3 copies of the same
character.

The routine which normalises incoming filenames now checks the new filename
and strips off leading digits.  Should the new name consist only of digits,
the first is replaced with an X, e.g. S12ABC.XYZ becomes .ABCXYZ and
S1234567.123 becomes .X4567123.

If a user types RECEIVE followed by a filename, but then SENDs more than one
file, only the first goes into the given name - the rest into normalised
versions of the sender's names.

I have developed a way of setting things up so that a user Kermitting to a
GEC machine needs only to connect once in a session (to compensate for the
lack of a LOGOUT command).  Details in GECSVR.JCL.

            Gordon Sands,
            Technical Computing Dept.
            Marconi Space Systems Ltd.
            Anchorage Road,
            Portsmouth, ENGLAND PO3 5PU
            0705-664966 x3521