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.