Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1995 17:45:00 EST
From: Christine M Gianone <cmg@columbia.edu>
Subject: MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 Released

This is to announce MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 for the IBM PC, PS/2, and compatibles with DOS or Windows. The new MS-DOS Kermit release was prepared, as always, by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah State University.

Quick Start

MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 ZIP file.
Click to retrieve the disk-image ZIP file. Unzip with "pkunzip -d msvibm.zip" as it has many subdirectories. Read the top-level READ.ME file for installation instructions.

Highlights

File transfer recovery allows interrupted binary-mode transfers to be continued from the point of failure. Can be used with C-Kermit 5A(190) on UNIX, VMS, OS/2, AOS/VS, Stratus VOS, and the Commodore Amiga, and with the forthcoming IBM Mainframe 4.3.1.

ANSI and Wyse terminal emulation add two popular terminal types to Kermit's repertoire. ANSI emulation, not quite the same as VT100 emulation, is used to access most BBSs, and Wyse emulation is required by certain applications and services.

Workarounds for buggy UART simulators on Pentium motherboards and other new processors allows MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 to work on these systems, where earlier versions might not have. Also: support for the Hayes ESP serial communications board in 16550A mode; support for Fossil drivers; dialing scripts for more and more new kinds of modems (many of them with X and/or Z in their names -- all the popular brands!).

Numerous additions to the script programming language, including a full selection of built-in functions compatible with C-Kermit's: \fsubstring(), etc.

Complete Hebrew and Cyrillic support packages are now included, and Kanji terminal emulation is now available for DOS/V on IBM and compatible PCs.

Network, printer, keyboard, font, and other support support utilities are now included in the basic package.

New smaller versions are available for those who don't need (or can't fit) all the features of the full version.

Here is a more detailed list of the changes in version 3.14:

The organization of the files and the manner in which we are distributing them as been improved. We are now distributing Kermit on a high-density 1.44MB 3.5-inch diskette, which is pretty universally accepted these days, and on the network in a ZIP file that mirrors this diskette. This allows us to organize and name the files more sensibly and to include material that previously would not fit. Here is a brief synopsis:

READ.ME
Brief overview of what's on the disk (in the ZIP file)
KERMIT.EXE
Full-function MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 (about 230K)
KERMITE.EXE
A smaller version (about 160K - no networks, no graphics)
KERLITE.EXE
A very small version (105K - scripting and file transfer only)
MSR*314.PCH
Patch files (currently empty)
MSKERMIT.INI
Standard initialization file
MSCUSTOM.INI
Sample (note: -> SAMPLE <-) customization file
DIALUPS.TXT
Sample dialing directory
KERMIT.UPD
Documentation for new features
KERMIT.HLP
Brief synopsis of commands
KERMIT.BWR
"Beware" file - hints and tips, etc
COLS80.BAT
Too hard to explain in one line, see READ.ME...
COLS132.BAT
Ditto

KERMITE.EXE can be used on PCs with small memories, e.g. on old XTs, where the full-featured version might not fit. It can also be used if you simply do not need Kermit's networking or graphics terminal emulation capabilities, in which case you can run bigger programs "under" Kermit in the extra free memory.

Of particular interest to BBS proprietors, KERLITE.EXE is an "extra-lite" version which is like the "lite" version, but also eliminates the terminal emulator (and the CONNECT command) entirely, but still includes the full script programming language, weighing in at only 105K - perfect for use as an external protocol and script execution engine.

With Kermit Lite plus Fossil and ESP support, there is every reason to upgrade the Kermit support in BBSs to the most advanced and fastest Kermit protocol implementation available for DOS. For further information, see the new BBS OPERATORS GUIDE section in the KERMIT.UPD file. (Vendors of BBS software who want to include Kermit with their product should contact us for further information.)

Now come the subdirectories. Each one has a READ.ME file that explains its contents.

PERFORM
An article on Kermit file transfer protocol performance.
MODEMS
Dialing scripts for 19 different modems, including most popular high-speed, error-correcting, data-compressing models.
NETWORKS
Everything you need for MS-DOS Kermit TCP/IP networking except the specific driver for your network board, including all the famous "shims" that convert between one "standard" and another, such as the latest version of Dan Lanciani's ODIPKT, plus Joe Doupnik's DIS_PKT9, plus the WINPKT shim to be used when Windows is involved, and a SLIP driver in case you don't have a network board, all of which have been verified to work with this version of Kermit and other popular software. Plus a new overview document to help you make sense of this ever-more-confusing tangle.
KEYBOARD
Complete key mappings for DEC VT220/320 and DG DASHER emulation. The "Gold key" TSR, for making Num Lock work like the F1 key. LK250 drivers (for DEC keyboards that plug into IBM PCs). A little TSR for swapping the Caps Lock and Ctrl keys and Esc and tilde.
UTILS
General utilities, like the famous XSEND program for transferring entire directory trees, plus various printer items. (Did you know Kermit could transfer directory trees intact?)
WINDOWS
Windows Program Information File for Kermit.
PCFONTS
This is something new -- public domain fonts (code pages) for your PC that are easy to load dynamically -- no more endless and fruitless wandering through the corridors of IBM or Microsoft to track down a Hebrew or Cyrillic code page; no more editing AUTOEXEC.BAT (DISPLAY.SYS, NLSFUNC blah blah, MODE CON CP PREPARE blah blah, MODE CON CP SELECT blah blah) and then rebooting to install a new code page, no more limit to four "prepared" code pages. Now you can just "loadfont" whatever code page you want, any time you want. This directory includes code pages for Western and Eastern European languages (CP437, 850, and 852), Icelandic (861), Hebrew (862) and Cyrillic (863), plus utilities to load and display them. Our thanks to Joseph (Yossi) Gil at The Technion in Haifa, Isreal, for this wonderful collection (and this is only a small part of it -- look in kermit.columbia.edu:pcfonts for more, and maybe find even more (and newer) at the Technion).
CYRILLIC
Also new. Key mapping and screen translation setups to be used with the Cyrillic font, plus Cyrillic character-set tables. Use MS-DOS Kermit for Russian terminal emulation (and Ukranian, Bielorussian, etc), using any of the popular host encodings: ISO, KOI-8, or Short KOI. Now you can read those Russian newsgroups! Thanks to Konstantin Vinogradov of ICSTI in Moscow, Russia, for the .INI files.
HEBREW
Also new. The files in this directory give MS-DOS Kermit full Hebrew terminal emulation capability, including the standard (i.e. WordPerfect :-) key map for entering Hebrew letters on the PC keyboard, complete with automatic English/Hebrew switching directed by the host, everything you get on a real Hebrew-model VT420 terminal. Thus the standard MS-DOS Kermit distribution now replaces the various "Hebrewized" offshoots of MS-DOS Kermit that have been in circulation for some years, e.g. for use with the ALEPH bibliographic software. You even get a PostScript picture of the key map.
ROMAN
Character-set tables for Roman-based character sets used by MS-DOS Kermit.

How to Get It

The ZIP file is available via anonymous ftp from Columbia University as kermit/archives/msvibm.zip. Transfer it in binary mode, unzip it using the "-d" switch to preserve the directory structure, read the top-level READ.ME file, and go from there.

By the way, do not unzip the ZIP file over your old Kermit directory, or you will lose your old MSCUSTOM.INI file and your old dialing directory! Either make a new directory for MS-DOS Kermit 3.14, or copy your MSCUSTOM.INI and DIALUPS.TXT files to a safe place before wiping out your old one, for example: 

  cd \kermit
  copy mscustom.ini mscustom.old
  copy dialups.txt dialups.old
  pkunzip -d msvibm.zip
  copy mscustom.old mscustom.ini
  copy dialups.old dialups.txt

Our deepest thanks, as always, to Joe Doupnik for bringing another new version of MS-DOS Kermit to us.

MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu