This is to announce version 1.45 of Acorn BBC Kermit from Alan Phillips (SYSKERMIT%vax1.central.lancaster.ac.uk@Cs.Ucl.AC.UK) of Lancaster University, which replaces version 1.30 of April 1986. The program runs on Acorn models B, B+, B+128, Master 128 and Master Compact, with Acorn DFS, 1770 DFS, ADFS, Econet, or any other Acorn-compatible filing system. Version 1.45 comes with numerous big fixes and improvements, new documentation (including a 124-page manual), and a new version (1.50) of Alan's free 65c02 assembler (which can be used to assemble the program by those who don't have the ADE assembler). The new version is in KER:BBC*.* (really K3:, or Tape C), for anonymous FTP from CU20B, and as BBC* * on BITNET/EARN from KERMSRV at CUVMA. The file BBC145.ANN lists in detail the changes to BBC Kermit since version 1.30. The source is in BBCKER.ASM, which is actually the concatenation of many smaller files (explained in comments at the top). Version 2.0 of BBC Kermit (which will appear in "many months") will support sliding windows. Thanks to Alan for producing this new version and sending it to us over BITNET. This distribution from JGH-PD is version 1.46, a bug-fix of 1.45, and contains the following files: A/AssemA 6502 Assembler A/Manual Manual for 6502 Assembler A/ReadMe Notes on 6502 Assembler DeHex Creates binary files from Intel Hex MakeHex Creates Intel Hex files from binary Kermit/Asm Assembly listing for Kermit Ram146 Ram version of Kermit Rom146 Rom version of Kermit SetParam Program to set default parameters T/Kermit0..9 Kermit manual T/ReadMe Notes on Kermit There is also Scroll and support file disp which can be used to read the text files. BBC KERMIT 1.46 =============== BBC Kermit 1.46 is a minor bug-fix of 1.45 in setting filename lengths, by J.G.Harston. Instead of allowing ten-character filenames on non-DFS file systems, it was erroneously forcing 7-character filenames on non-ADFS file systems. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC KERMIT 1.45 =============== BBC Kermit 1.45 is now available. This corrects a serious bug that appeared in 1.44, which prevented it talking to Kermit servers if 8th-bit-prefixing was not in use. Any server command would immediately fail with a message "Too many retries", with only the I packet interchange being done. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC KERMIT 1.44 =============== BBC Kermit 1.44 is a minor bug-fix release that contains no new user facilities The changes from version 1.43 are as follows: - Quoting and 8th-bit-prefixing are done correctly in G packets (i.e. those containing the command strings generated by the REMOTE command.) In previous versions, for example, any REMOTE command such as REMOTE DIR ABCDEF, which generated a 6-character sub-field, would fail to pass the field length byte correctly. - REM CWD now sends the password correctly. - Bit 7 (the parity bit) is now stripped from all bytes received from the remote system in terminal mode, before they are output to the screen. - Wildcard file send will now not attempt to send any files that are in fact sub-directories (on ADFS for example). Sub-directories can still be sent as files if they are named explicitely. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC KERMIT VERSION 1.43 ======================= This is a minor bug fix release. Version 1.42 and earlier all suffered from a bug in handling the receive-quote character (with B7 set) sent from the remote side if 8th- bit prefixing was not in use. The symptoms were that the character would be stored in the file with B6 inverted. As the default mode of operation of BBC Kermit is to select space parity and hence always try to negotiate the use of 8th-bit prefixing, it took a long time for this bug to come to light. Thanks to Arjen Raateland of Helsinki, Finland for pointing the bug out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC KERMIT 1.42 =============== BBC Kermit version 1.42 for models B, B+, B+128 and Master 128 is now available. The features and changes in the new release are as follows: - The Master 128 is now fully supported, the minor incompatibilities which existed in version 1.33 being cleared. - ADFS is now fully supported. BBC Kermit will generate local file names of length appropriate to the selected filing system. - The character used when modifying non-unique names has been changed to be a "+" as "&" is not legal under ADFS or some Econet file server systems. - The disc based version will utilise the shadow screen on the B+, B+128 and Master 128 and will provide a VT52 terminal emulation. - The SET VT52 and SET VDU-WIDTH commands are removed, and a new command SET TERMINAL introduced. This takes a parameter describing the emulation needed, which can be one of TT40 or TT80 for teletype emulations, or VT52. For future use, additional types of VT100, TEK, A and B are also selectable but will not, of course, be usable (see below). - The default terminal type will be set automatically from the machine type. The ROM version will default to VT52 always; the RAM version will default to VT52 on the B+, B+128 and Master 128, and to TT40 on the B. - Files are no longer closed on entry, so that the system can be started from auto-boot with set up commands in the !BOOT file. A new command CLOSE alllows all open files to be closed if this is necessary. Since there are now two commands beginning with "C", a new command "C" has been provided as a synonym for CONNECT, so that the commonly-used abbreviation will still work. - The RAM version now sets OSHWM to lie above the program image, so that commands such as *COPY will not destroy the program. The mode to be selected on reset is changed to 7 to avoid corruption when BREAK is pressed. Note that the change to OSHWM is not undone if, for example, a *BASIC command is issued to leave KERMIT: the EXIT command should always be used. - CONTROL-BREAK now exits the RAM version. - The code for sending break levels on the comms line has been changed and should reduce or eliminate the garbling that occurred in earlier releases. - A new command SET FILE NAME controls how file names sent by a remote Kermit are handled. NORMAL, the default, treats them as "name.type" as before; UNTRANSLATED uses the name exactly as sent, so it must be a legal BBC file name. - User vectors have been removed (no-one responded to a newsletter question on whether this feature was used). The JSR command had been removed on the pre-release 1.40n versions, but has been re-instated. - A file being received from a remote Kermit is now correctly deleted if the remote sends an EOF(D) packet. - An ACK(X) or an ACK(Z) in response to a data packet sent by BBC Kermit is now handled correctly. - The system no longer forces selection of the parallel printer, so debug or file transfer to network printer should now work. It's up to the user to make sure he doesn't have the serial printer selected! - OSBYTE calls with A=70 (decimal) are now used by BBC Kermit, so there may be interactions if run in a machine with another ROM that responds to this call. - The problems that occur when using the OSFIND call to close all files has been avoided by correctly closing files explicitly. - The source is now compatible with both the ADE assembler and the free 65C02 assembler distributed with it. A question is output at the start of an assembly to determine which is being used. - A new command, TRANSFER, allows raw uploading of files with full flow control to systems without Kermit. - The Master 128 keypad is used in VT52 mode to emulate a real VT52 pad. Version 1.42 also contains code to make use of terminal emulation in other ROMs. The main program (both ROM and RAM versions) will make a service call with OSBYTE 70 if the currently-selected terminal type is not one they support: the Terminal Extension ROM may take the call and provide terminal emulation if it wishes. From this version on, the source can be assembled with the Lancaster 65C02 Sideways-RAM/ROM based assembler, supplied free with BBC Kermit. The commercially available ADE assembler can still be used, but the Lancaster Assembler is the preferred tool to use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BBC KERMIT 1.33 =============== BBC Kermit 1.33 is now online. This is a bug fix release with no new facilities over the previous release 1.30. Problems cured are: - Reverse screen scrolling in VT52 mode now works correctly. This was a bug in OS1.20 which has been circumvented. I am not particularly happy with the appearance of the result, and as time permits I shall try to improve the way this and similar operations are handled. - Function keys are reset to their correct power-on defaults on EXIT or OS command. This cures a problem whereby WordWise users found that SHIFT-Cursor did not work after using Kermit - A lost ACK to an S packet sent by BBC Kermit is now handled correctly. - BBC Kermit will now talk to systems that send pad characters between the block-check and the end-of-packet marker. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- BBC KERMIT 1.30 =============== Version 1.30 of BBC KERMIT continues the development of the implementation produced by the Communications Group of the Computing Department at Lancaster University. Several new facilities have been added, known bugs in version 1.02 have been cleared, and the code has been extensively tidied and rationalised. The User Guide has also been extensively rewritten, giving greater emphasis to the use of BBC KERMIT by inexperienced users. The changes and new facilities in this release are as follows: - The version now exists in both sideways ROM and disc based forms, selected by compilation switches. The disc based version offers all the file transfer facilities of the sideways ROM version, but supports only a 40 character terminal emulation. Future releases for the BBC B+ will provide VT52 emulation in the disc based version. - The REMOTE command has been implemented, allowing advanced functions to be invoked on remote servers. Options provided are DELETE, COPY, RENAME, DIRECTORY, CWD, SPACE, WHO, HOST, TYPE, STATUS and HELP. - Init-info (I) packets are now sent to servers before the dialogue commences. - BBC KERMIT can now work with IBM mainframe systems that require a handshake byte. A new command SET HANDSHAKE controls this option. - The command mode screen can now be switched into 80 character MODE 3 operation with the new WIDTH command, allowing better display of the output from *TYPE or from the REMOTE commands. - A status line is now displayed on the screen in terminal emulation mode. This provides help on the use of control keys, and indicates what options are currently in operation. - A "pause" facility is now provided in terminal mode, allowing output to be suspended cleanly without possible interaction with the underlying flow control mechanisms. - VT52 keypad key emulation has been extensively reworked to remove some serious bugs and anomalies. The user guide now describes use of the VT52 keypad keys in detail, and covers use of the VAX/VMS EDT screen editor. - The VT52 graphics character set is now supported. - Cursor keys in 40 character or 80 character teletype now act as local edit keys. In VT52 mode the cursor keys by default produce VT52 ESCAPE sequences, but can be switched into local edit mode. - Function key strings can be generated in both command and terminal modes. - Bugs in timeout code have been cleared. - A new command SET RETRIES allows the maximum number of retries permitted for a packet to be changed. - A new command, SET DESTINATION PRINTER, allows files to be transferred using the full KERMIT file transfer mechanisms from the remote system directly to a parallel printer. - The user guide has been altered to use Wordwise's underline and bold print control sequences. These can be configured to suit the user's own printer. - Message texts have been tokenised and changed to be more friendly to inexperienced users. - BBC filenames given explicitely as parameters to the RECEIVE or GET command are no longer translated into upper case, but are taken as supplied. - Wildcard name matching in the SEND command allows lower case characters to be matched, and is no longer case sensitive. A new wildcard character "#" is provided, matching to exactly one character. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------