🚀 go-pugleaf

This is to announce a brief Beta testing period for OS/2 C-Kermit 5A(191).

If you have a Web browser, you are encouraged to read this notice in
hypertext format on the Web at the following URL, because there is a lot
more information in it (hypertext links):

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/cko191.html

If you are already familiar with OS/2 C-Kermit, feel free to skip past
the following fifty lines (two 24-line screens).

OS/2 C-Kermit is Columbia University's full-function native communication
software package for OS/2 that works uniformly over:

 . Serial connections, direct or dialed, all speeds.
 . TCP/IP network connections, including SLIP.
 . DECnet PATHWORKS LAT connections.
 . LAN and/or interprocess connections such as NETBIOS and Named Pipes.
 . Asynchronous communication servers.

Offering:

 . Faithful ANSI, VT220, VT102, VT100, and VT52 terminal emulations with
   all the expected add-ons -- rollback, key mapping, color control,
   printer control, Compose key, screen & session capture, etc.
 . A complete implementation of the Kermit file transfer protocol, including
   all the most advanced features for highest performance, the new recovery
   capability, as well as auto-uplodad and -download.
 . A powerful and portable script programming language.
 . A large repertoire of character-set translations.
 . Dialing and services directories.
 . Easy access to external protocols (e.g. P.EXE for X/Y/Zmodem).

And lots of OS/2-specific features, including:

 . Advanced user-customizable mouse operations.
 . Full compatibility with the OS/2 PM Clipboard.
 . Use of OS/2 System Sounds during command and terminal modes.
 . Work Place Shell integration through program objects.
 . Alternative REXX macro programming extensions.
 . Full support for HPFS and Extended Attributes during file transfers.
 . SLIPTERM compatibility.
 . Integration with IBM WebExplorer.
 . The ability to transfer entire directory trees from one OS/2
   system to another, with all file attributes preserved.
 . Multiple threads for efficient task scheduling and low CPU load.
 . Fast semaphores for intraprocess communication.

With its wide range of features and communication methods, OS/2 C-Kermit
is ideally suited to OS/2 users who:

 . Want to communicate with a diverse assortment of hosts and services.
 . Want to use the same application for serial and network connections,
   e.g. for home and office use.
 . Want a better TELNET (with rollback, key mapping, colors, scripting).
 . Want a TELNET that can also transfer files.
 . Want to communicate in languages other than English.
 . Want to write script programs that are portable to many platforms.

Space does not permit listing all the features of previous versions of
OS/2 C-Kermit, but if you want to know more, feel free to visit our Web
site starting at URL:

  http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/os2.html

C-Kermit Version 5A(191) is a brand-new 32-bit release for OS/2 2.00
and later, including Warp.  It adds the following major new features:

 . Dramatic speed improvements
 . Sizeable terminal screens.
 . New and improved mouse functions.
 . Improved TELNET client functions.
 . Incoming TCP/IP connections.
 . SLIP dialing.
 . Cyrillic (Russian) terminal emulation.
 . Soft fonts for Hebrew, Cyrillic, and East European terminal emulation.

And many lesser ones.  In more detail:

SPEED IMPROVEMENTS

CONNECT mode -- terminal emulation -- is now incredibly snappy on both
serial and network connections, in both window and fullscreen sessions.

C-Kermit 5A(191) processes incoming data in parallel with screen updating.
Furthermore, the screen is now updated far more efficiently than before.
To give an idea of the speed improvement, we used a ripple-test benchmark
that scrolls 1000 80-column lines of text, obtaining the following display
timings for various TELNET clients attached to a 10 Mb/sec Ethernet
network running on the same PC in a fullscreen session:

  C-Kermit 5A(190)    24 sec
  IBM Telnet          22 sec  (TCP/IP 1.2.1)
  MS-DOS Kermit       12 sec  (v3.14 under DOS, not under OS/2)
  C-Kermit 5A(191)     5 sec

In an OS/2 window, the same test takes only 7 seconds, compared to 55
seconds in the previous release -- about an 800% improvement.

The new display management model has also been used to accomplish several
other astounding feats:

 . Terminal sessions remain active behind popup help screens.
 . Incoming material is processed even when screen is rolled back.
 . Copy-and-paste can span multiple screens (more about this below).

Meanwhile, serial port handling is now far more efficient, putting less load
on the CPU, allowing serial-port intput/output to take place at high speeds
without seriously impacting the rest of the system.

SIZEABLE TERMINAL SCREENS

You asked for VT100 132-column mode, now you've got it and a lot more too.

In Warp window sessions, C-Kermit now supports any combination of screen
height and width, up to 255 columns and 254 rows with a maximum screen
area of 8192 characters.

In fullscreen sessions the terminal screen can now use 40, 80, or 132
columns and 24, 42, 49, or 59 rows.  Not all combinations are supported by
all video hardware.  Warp is not required.

Host-directed screen-width switching in VT100, VT102, and VT220 emulation
is now implemented for 80-column and 132-column modes when the video
adapter supports it.  Screen dimensions are automatically reported to the
host on TELNET connections if the TELNET server supports (and uses) the
"NAWS" option.

SOFT FONTS

C-Kermit 5A knows a lot of character sets and translates between any
pair of them.  But in OS/2, we have another problem: how to see the right
characters on the screen.  For example, in version 5A(190) we added
support for Hebrew terminal emulation, which works very nicely if you
happen to have a Hebrew version of OS/2 (which you can only get in
Israel), but is useless otherwise -- e.g. to Hebrew and Yiddish scholars
in the USA, because, until now there was no way to get a Hebrew code page
onto a US version of OS/2.

The new version of OS/2 C-Kermit comes with the following soft fonts that
you can load in a fullscreen session, for use in the terminal window:

  CP437 - Original PC code page
  CP850 - "Multilingual" (West Europe) code page
  CP852 - East Europe Roman Alphabet code page (for Czech, Polish, etc)
  CP862 - Hebrew code page
  CP866 - Cyrillic (Russian, Belorussian, and Ukrainian) code page

So now, no matter what OS/2 National Language version you have, you can
use OS/2 C-Kermit to conduct terminal sessions in at least the following
languages:

  Albanian, Belorussian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch,
  English, Faeroese, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian,
  Icelandic, Irish, Italian, Ladino, Latin, Macedonian, Norwegian, Polish,
  Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovene, Spanish,
  Swedish, Swiss, Ukrainian, and Yiddish.

Thanks to Joseph (Yossi (Yogi)) Gil at the Technion in Haifa, Israel, for
furnishing these public-domain fonts.

CYRILLIC TERMINAL EMULATION

OK, we added a Cyrillic font, so now you can read those Russian newsgroups
and Web pages.  But if you don't have a Russian (or Ukrainian, or
Belorussian) keyboard, how do you TYPE Russian characters?  The new
C-Kermit release adds a Russian keyboard mode that includes:

 . The Microsoft Russian DOS keyboard layout.
 . Hot-key switching between Russian and English modes.
 . Automatic translation to the host character-set (KOI, ISO, etc).

This is in addition to the keyboard methods that were already available
in earlier releases:

 . A Compose key for Latin-1-like character sets (for Western European
   languages like Italian, Portuguese, Norwegian, German, French, etc).

 . A Hebrew keyboard mode for Hebrew and Yiddish.

THE MOUSE AND MARK MODE

Copy-and-paste capability, as well as mouse-directed terminal cursor
steering, were introduced in the previous release.  In version 5A(191):

 . Text selection can now span the entire virtual screen,
   scrollback buffer included.
 . You can reassign these functions to different mouse events.
 . You can assign them to keys.
 . You can assign keyboard verbs, macros, or text to mouse events.
 . Copy-and-paste works consistently between C-Kermit and other apps.

To get a quick idea of the power of the new "mark mode": after installing
the new version, starting it up, and accumulating a bunch of screens in
the rollback buffer:

 . Hold down the left mouse button.
 . Drag the mouse towards the top of screen, watch text being selected.
 . Now drag it PAST the top of the screen -- watch what happens.
 . Push the Arrow, Page Up/Down, or Home/End keys while dragging.

Any text that you select this way can be copied to the PM clipboard,
printed on your printer, copied to a file, or pasted directly into your
terminal session.

TCP/IP IMPROVEMENTS

TELNET connections are about 500% faster than before.  Several TELNET
protocol problems were fixed, most notably the ones relating to
"firewalls".  Connections are now attempted to multiple IP addresses when
provided by the name server, until success is achieved.  TELNET NAWS
(Negotiate About Window Size) capability has been added.

Incoming TCP/IP connections are now accepted -- you can TELNET to OS/2
C-Kermit on a pre-arranged socket and have a "chat" session or execute
Kermit server functions.

OS/2 C-Kermit can now dial your Warp IAK SLIP connections for you, using
a special technique to "borrow" the serial port from the SLIP driver.
This gives you a lot more flexibility than you get with SLIPTERM.

OS/2 C-Kermit gives you all the convenience features of a serial
communications program integrated with its own internal TELNET protocol
implementation.  If you do a lot of TELNET'ing to diverse services,
especially on non-TELNET ports, you'll begin to appreciate what this
means.  If you want it spelled out in more detail, see the APPENDIX at
the end of this announcement :-)

OTHER CHANGES

 ...include:

 . Improved context-sensitive help screens, status lines, and messages.
 . More key combinations are recognized for SET KEY.
 . System Sounds can now be used to differentiate "Information",
   "Warning", and "Error" events.
 . REMOTE RENAME and REMOTE COPY (both ends) added.
 . New and improved hypertext Updates documentation.
 . Various other new commands, bug fixes, cleanups, etc.

DOCUMENTATION

OS/2 C-Kermit 5A(191) is comprehensively and professionally documented in
the book, "Using C-Kermit", supplemented by the hypertext CKERMIT.INF
file, which covers recent additions.  Ordering information for the book is
included in the CKERMIT.INF file, which may be accessed from the C-Kermit>
prompt with the UPDATES command.

WHERE TO GET IT

OS/2 C-Kermit 5A(191) Beta may be obtained (and should ONLY be obtained)
From kermit.columbia.edu via anonymous ftp, directory kermit/test/os2test,
file cko191.zip.  Transfer it in binary mode (every step of the way),
unzip it on your OS/2 system into a spare directory, then run the INSTALL
script.  For safety, don't install the Beta version over your previous
OS/2 C-Kermit version -- read the directions on your screen carefully.
After installation, you should copy your CKERMOD.INI, CKERMIT.KDD, and
CKERMIT.KSD files from your regular CKERMIT directory to the new one.

The cko191.zip file should not be copied to other FTP sites.  It is likely
to change frequently during the Beta testing period, and we don't want
outdated copies circulating.  Check the ZIP file every so often to see if
it has been updated, or consult the Web entry at URL:

  http://www.kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/cko191.html

Please report bugs (in the software or the documentation) by email to:

  kermit@columbia.edu

NOTE: 5A(191) is an OS/2-only release of C-Kermit.

Thanks to Jeff Altman for 99% of the work that went into this new release.

APPENDIX: TELNET AND SERIAL COMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE

There is a widespread misconception among PC users that a "virtual modem"
or TELNET redirector such as COMTCP, VMODEM, COMt (for Windows), or
TNGLASS (for DOS) plus your favorite serial communications package creates
the perfect TELNET client.

Your serial communication package MIGHT enable you to connect to your host
this way, but if it works right throughout your session, it's pure luck.
Numerous items -- echoing, screen size, terminal type, and other
parameters -- need to be negotiated and sometimes changed dynamically
throughout the session, depending on the service and the server.

A serial communications program is not designed to handle this type of
work.  So the virtual modem software must handle the TELNET protocol
parameter negotiations on behalf of the communication software.  So far,
so good.  The problem is that when things change, the virtual modem
software has no way of telling the communications software, and similarly,
when the user changes things in the communications software, the virtual
modem doesn't find out about it and can't tell the TELNET server.

To complicate matters further, the TELNET Network Virtual Terminal (NVT)
definition does not work like the ASCII terminal that your serial
communications software is emulating.  Certain characters must be handled
specially, including carriage return, linefeed, and the "all-ones"
character, hex FF.  Furthermore, special items like the BREAK signal must
be handled by special TELNET protocol messages.

So when using serial communications software to accomplish a TELNET
connection over a virtual modem, it is very likely to have all sorts of
problems, including:

 . Terminal-type and/or screen-size mismatch.

 . Faulty echoing: characters can fail to echo when you type them, or
   might echo twice.  "Password silencing" might not work.

 . You might get overprinting or a "stairstep" effect as the host sends
   lines to your terminal screen.

 . Carriage return (Enter) might have no effect at all when you type it.

 . The session might suddenly hang because a special character has not
   been properly escaped during terminal emulation or file transfer.

 . BREAK, required by some hosts and applications, can't be sent.

 . When things go wrong, you have no effective debugging tools at your
   disposal, and even when you can diagnose the problems you often have no
   way to fix them.

THE MORAL:  If you want a fully-functional and dependable TELNET session,
use a real TELNET client.  If you want to use the same software for both
serial and TELNET connections, try C-Kermit.

(End)