MS-DOS Kermit for DOS and Windows 3.x
In the News:
MS-DOS Kermit In Orbit
MS-DOS Kermit is not designed or intended for use in Windows 95,
98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, or IBM OS/2. The recommended,
supported, native, and current Kermit software for these operating systems
is Kermit 95. CLICK HERE for details.
MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 is a compact and efficient communications software
package for IBM PCs and compatibles with MS-DOS or PC-DOS offering a wide
range of faithful text and graphics terminal
emulations, an astonishing variety of serial and network communication
methods, a vast array of international character-set conversions,
exceptionally flexible and powerful key mapping, a powerful, easy-to-use
script programming language, and advanced Kermit file transfer.
MS-DOS Kermit supports communication through serial ports, a wide variety of
local networking methods (like NetBIOS, BAPI, DECnet, NASI, SuperLAT,
TELAPI, and TES, plus it has its own built-in TCP/IP stack and Telnet
client. Modem dialing is accomplished with modem-specific dialing scripts
It includes faithful emulation of the DEC VT52,100,102,220,320 terminals;
ANSI, Heath-19, Wyse50, various Data General DASHER models, and the
Tektronix 4010 Graphics terminal, as well as DG terminals in graphics mode.
MS-DOS Kermit runs directly under DOS 2.0 and later and under Microsoft
Windows 3.11 or earlier. MS-DOS Kermit is not supported in
Windows 95 and later.
 
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MS-DOS Kermit 3.14 is packaged on diskette with the book
Using MS-DOS Kermit
by Christine M. Gianone, Digital Press (1992)
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If you will be downloading
MS-DOS Kermit, please also order the book – it will enable you to get the
most out of the software. Also be sure to check the KERMIT.UPD file on
your MS-DOS Kermit diskette or
in the archive
for the latest information on MS-DOS Kermit.
MS-DOS Kermit Version 3.14
MS-DOS Kermit
3.14, 21 May 1995, is the most recent complete
distribution. If you don't have MS-DOS Kermit at all, begin by downloading
version 3.14:
MS-DOS Kermit Version 3.15
MS-DOS Kermit
3.15, 15 September 1997, issued as an update
to version 3.14 (you can install this on top of version 3.14):
The
source code for MS-DOS Kermit is in the
ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/a/
directory. The filenames all start with "ms" and end with ".asm", ".h" and
".c". For convenience, the source code for the IBM PC version of MS-DOS
Kermit is also available in a ZIP file:
MS-DOS Kermit Version 3.16
MS-DOS Kermit
3.16 is an even later release with a lot of
improvements in the script language to make it almost the same as that of
C-Kermit and Kermit 95. You can install this one on top of 3.14 or 3.15):
Also see:
- ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/a/msbaaa.txt
- A guide to "bootstrapping" MS-Kermit when you don't have it on a
diskette and your PC is not on a network.
- ftp://kermit.columbia.edu/kermit/a/tcomtxt.asm
- TCOMTXT, a tiny bootstrapping program that can be used to load
programs onto a DOS PC through the serial port starting with only a diskette
with the minimum system files.
History
MS-DOS Kermit was one of the original Kermit programs, written in 1982,
shortly after the IBM PC was announced, following just behind the Kermit
programs for the
DECSYSTEM-20, CP/M-80, and the IBM
mainframe. It was written in response to overwhelming demand to make this
PC, which was very soon to dominate the universe, communicate with other
kinds of computers, including IBM's own (a service that not even IBM could
offer at the time).
The prototype was done by Bill Catchings of the Kermit project in a single
EMACS session using macros to convert his CP/M-80 Kermit from 8080 assembly
language to Intel 8088 assembler (in this respect it was a first cousin of
the now long-forgotten but once significant CP/M-86 Kermit). "PC Kermit",
as it was called at first, was turned over to Daphne Tzoar who polished it
sufficiently for general use and maintained for some time, and later to
Jeff Damens who produced several major new releases through version 2.28.
There were separate releases for the IBM PC, the DEC Rainbow,
the HP-150,
the Heath-Zenith 100, the Victor 9000, the NEC APC, and many other of the
DOS machines of mid-1980s that were not code- or disk-compatible with each
other.
In 1985 MS-DOS Kermit was taken over by Professor Joe R. Doupnik of Utah
State University, who added more improvements than can be listed in a short
web page, but most notable among them:
- A script programming language compatible with that of C-Kermit.
- VT100, 220, and 320 terminal emulation; "ANSI" emulation for
BBSs, Wyse50, Data General DASHER (under contract with DG), and Tektronix
graphics terminal emulation, making MS-DOS Kermit the only Kermit program
ever to emulate any graphics terminal, and in fact it emulated two since
the DASHER was also a graphics terminal.
- Sliding Windows transport protocol for file transfers, which in
itself required hardware-specific memory management support for acquiring
the necessary buffer space on the earlier PC generations.
- Conversion of international character sets in both terminal
emulation and file transfer, including Russian and Hebrew.
- Most notably of all, a full TCP/IP network stack built in
to MS-DOS Kermit itself, supporting DNS, BOOTP, and DHCP connections via
Ethernet, SLIP, or PPP, and over that the ARPANET TELNET protocol. Plus
support for many other long-forgotten PC networking methods: 3COM, Novell,
NetBIOS, LAT, etc. Among these were IBM's LANACS, a product that included
MS-DOS Kermit under license to the Kermit Project, and AT&STARLAN, which
also included a licensed copy of MS-DOS Kermit.
All this in a program that
fit on a floppy disk, together with its
documentation and supporting files (dialing scripts, keymaps, fonts for
Hebrew and Cyrillic, utilities, packet drivers, and so on). For about 15
years, MS-DOS Kermit was mass-market software, found on practically every
desktop PC on earth. New releases were big news in the trade press. It was
even licensed by IBM itself for bundling with certain of its products so
customers could communicate with IBM's other computers, as well as by HP for
communication with its HP-48 programmable calculator (which has serial
communications capability and Kermit protocol built in). The manual,
Using MS-DOS Kermit, by Christine M. Gianone of the Kermit
Project, is a
masterpiece of
user-friendly technical writing, and went through two best-selling
editions, was also published in German and French, and was also the basis
for a Japanese edition. MS-DOS Kermit was so popular in the USSR and
Eastern Europe (because of its ability to do Cyrillic terminal emulation)
that an
International Kermit Conference in
Moscow in 1988 was attended by representatives of 35 countries.
MS-DOS Kermit's popularity waned as DOS was phased out in favor of
Window 95 and its successors, where MS-DOS Kermit could not be fully
functional for the reasons described here. But to
this day, MS-DOS Kermit remains one of Kermit's Greatest Hits.
More information:
MS-DOS Kermit / Columbia University / kermit@columbia.edu / 8 February 1999 /
Updated May 2011
