Date   : Tue, 08 Nov 1983 10:25:58-EST
From   : Frank da Cruz <cc.fdc@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA>
Subject: KERMIT for CP/M-80

A few months ago, I announced the file transfer protocol KERMIT to the
Info-CPM and Info-Micro lists.  I never got very much feedback about it,
though I have seen it mentioned now and then on both lists.  For those of
you who missed the announcement, the KERMIT distribution area is on host
COLUMBIA-20, in the area KER:, accessible with anonymous FTP.  It's a big
area (but nothing to rival the size of the CPM archives, of course), so
if you're interested, you should look first at the file KER:00README.TXT,
which lists what versions are available and describes the naming conventions.
KERMIT is available for a wide variety of micros and mainframes.

KERMIT for CP/M provides terminal emulation and file transfer.  Versions for
about 15 different systems are built from a common source file, written in
standard DR ASM for the 8080, using conditional compilation, either on the
micro itself or on a DEC-10 or -20 using the cross assembler MAC80 (which is
itself available in the KERMIT area).

A few weeks ago, a new version of CP/M-80 KERMIT, v3.5, was announced to the
Info-Kermit list, with a plea that users of the various systems supported by
KERMIT-80 (as it's called) report back as to whether the new version worked on
their systems.  I had hoped to get the bugs ironed out before announcing it to
the world at large.  Unfortunately, I got very few reports.  Since we lack
examples of most of these systems at Columbia to try the new KERMIT-80 out on,
I'm announcing it now anyway.  If you have any of the systems listed below,
please try to get KERMIT for your machine, try it out, and:

 (a) let me know if it works;
 (b) if it doesn't, describe the symptoms;
 (c) if you can provide a fix, please do so (you'll be given full credit).

Here are the systems:

System:              Filename:            Status:

DEC VT-180           KER:CPMROBIN.HEX     Tested, works up to 4800 baud
DEC Rainbow-100      KER:CPMRAINBO.HEX    Tested, works up to 1800 baud
DEC DECmate II       KER:CPMDMII.HEX      Tested, works up to 9600 baud
Heath/Zenith 89      KER:CPMHEATH.HEX     Not tested
Heath/Zenith 100     KER:CPMZ100.HEX      Not tested
Apple II*            KER:CPMAPPLE.HEX     Not tested
TRS-80 II**          KER:CPMTRS80.HEX     Not tested 
Osborne 1***         KER:CPMOSBORN.HEX    Tested, doesn't seem to work at all
Intertec Superbrain  KER:CPMBRAIN.HEX     Not tested
Kaypro II            KER:CPMKAYPRO.HEX    Tested, mostly works OK.
Telcon Zorba         KER:CPMTELCON.HEX    Not tested
Vector Graphics      KER:CPMVECTOR.HEX    Not tested
Ohio Scientific      KER:CPMOSI.HEX       Not tested
Generic CP/M 2.x     KER:CPMGENERI.HEX    Tested OK on Rainbow, DECmate, VT180
Generic CP/M 3.0     KER:CPMPLUS.HEX      Not tested 

  *With Z80 soft card, Hayes micromodem II
 **With CP/M 2.25
***Can you fix it?

You can download the .HEX file with MODEM, or your old version of KERMIT,
or any other technique that works, and then load it using the CP/M LOAD
command, to produce a runnable .COM file.

The generic versions are supposed to run on any CP/M-80 system, since they
don't use only CP/M calls for device manipulation.  The 2.x generic version
depends on the system having fully implemented the "option" IOBYTE business,
and the user setting the values of the IOBYTE correctly and re-building.  The
3.0 generic version should run as-is on any CP/M 3.0 system; it has been
reported to work (in an earlier version of KERMIT-80) on the Osborne Executive
and the Micro Mate.

The source for all these versions is in KER:CPMBASE.M80.  There's also a file
KER:CPMKERMIT.DOC which explains the situation in greater detail.

- Frank da Cruz, Columbia University