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MACINTOSH KERMIT USER GUIDE
FOR THE APPLE MACINTOSH 512, PLUS, II, AND SE
Christine Gianone, Frank da Cruz
Columbia University Center for Computing Activities
New York, New York 10027
Paul Placeway
Department of Computer and Information Science
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210-1277
May 26, 1988
Copyright (C) 1985, 1988
Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
Permission is granted to any individual or institution to use, copy,
or redistribute this document so long as it is not sold for profit, and
provided this copyright notice is retained.
1. MACINTOSH KERMIT
--------
This document is formatted as an ordinary, plain text ASCII disk file, from
SCRIBE text formatter source. Typeset copies are available from Columbia
University.
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Program: Bill Catchings, Bill Schilit, Frank da Cruz (Columbia
University),
Davide Cervone (University of Rochester),
Matthias Aebi (ECOFIN Research and Consulting, Ltd., Zuerich),
Paul Placeway (Ohio State University).
Language: C (MPW)
Documentation: Christine Gianone, Frank da Cruz, Paul Placeway
Version: 0.9(40)
Date: May 26, 1988
MacKermit Capabilities At A Glance:
Local operation: Yes
Remote operation: Yes (server mode only)
Login scripts: No
Transfer text files: Yes
Transfer binary files: Yes
MacBinary transfers: No
Wildcard send: Yes (whole HFS folders)
File transfer interruption: Yes
Filename collision avoidance: Yes
Can time out: Yes
8th-bit prefixing: Yes
Repeat count prefixing: Yes
Alternate block checks: Yes
Terminal emulation: Yes (VT100,VT102)
Communication settings: Yes (Speed, Parity, Echo)
XON/XOFF: Yes
Transmit BREAK: Yes
IBM mainframe communication: Yes
Transaction logging: Yes
Session logging: Yes
Debug logging: No
Packet logging: No
Act as server: Yes
Talk to server: Yes
Advanced server functions: Yes
Local file management: Yes
Command/Init files: No
Key redefinition/macros: Yes
File attributes packets: No
Command macros: No
Raw file transmit: No
Long packets: Yes
Sliding windows: No
1.1. Introduction
Macintosh Kermit, or "MacKermit", is an implementation of the Kermit file
transfer protocol for the Apple Macintosh family of computers. It was developed
at Columbia University, based on C-Kermit (which also forms the nucleus of Unix
Kermit and many other Kermit programs). Version 0.9 of MacKermit runs on the
Macintosh 512, XL (Apple Lisa running MacWorks), 512e, Plus, SE, and II, under
the regular Finder and the Multifinder, with which it can transfer files in the
background. MacKermit 0.9 probably does not run on a 128k (original, classic)
Macintosh, due to lack of sufficient memory, but should run OK on a "fat Mac"
(a 128K Mac upgraded to 512K). Version 0.8 should be retained for 128K Macs.
This manual assumes you are acquainted with your Macintosh, and that you are
familiar with the general ideas of data communication and Kermit file transfer.
A very brief overview is given here, but for details consult the early chapters
of the Kermit User Guide (of which this document is a chapter), or the book
Kermit, A File Transfer Protocol, by Frank da Cruz, Digital Press (1987). For
further information about Kermit documentation, updates, lists of current
available versions, and ordering information, write to:
Kermit Distribution
Columbia University Center for Computing Activities
612 West 115th Street
New York, NY 10025 (USA)
1.2. Installation
Before you can use Macintosh Kermit or any other communication program on your
Mac, you must have a way to connect it to the other computers you wish to com-
municate with. This means either a direct cable connection (usually using a
"null modem" cable), or a modem connected to your Mac and to a telephone. The
Macintosh poses two special problems at this level. First, its connectors are
not the standard 25-pin RS-232 style, but either 9-pin or 8-pin special connec-
tors which you need special adapters for. Second, the Macintosh does not
supply a Data Terminal Ready (DTR) signal, which is required by most modems be-
fore they will operate. To use your Mac with a modem that is not designed
specifically for the Mac, you have to either (a) configure the modem to ignore
the DTR signal, or (b) feed some other active signal into the modem's DTR in-
put. The former is usually done with DIP switches on the modem, the latter can
be done in the connector that plugs into the modem by installing a jumper wire
between DTR (pin 20) and DSR (pin 6), or by connecting the Mac's +12V output
(pin 6 on the Mac's 9-pin connector) to DTR (pin 20) on the modem end.
If you have received a Macintosh Kermit diskette from Columbia University,
there's no special software installation procedure -- just insert the diskette,
double-click on the appropriate start-up file, or on MacKermit itself, and go.
If all the communication and other settings agree with your requirements,
there's nothing else you need to do. This process is illustrated in the next
section, just below.
MacKermit is not copy-protected, and nothing out of the ordinary is required to
make copies onto other diskettes, or onto your hard disk if you have one. Just
use the ordinary Macintosh methods of copying files, folders, etc.
Later, you may wish to create settings files tailored to your communication en-
vironment, and you might also want to customize the keyboard configuration.
Use the various Settings options for this, and then select Save Settings from
the File menu. Settings and settings files are explained in Sections 1.10 and
1.11.
1.3. Getting Started
Kermit programs perform two major functions, terminal emulation and file trans-
fer. Before transferring files between two systems you must establish a ter-
minal connection from your system to the other one, either direct or else
dialed up using a modem. Then to transfer files, login to the remote system if
necessary, start up a Kermit program there, and then tell the two Kermit
programs which files to transfer, and in what direction.
Most Kermit programs present you with a prompt, in response to which you type a
command, repeating the process until you exit from the program. If you want to
establish a terminal connection to another system, you must give the CONNECT
command. Unlike these programs, MacKermit is always connected, and whatever
keystrokes you type are sent to the other system. To give commands to MacK-
ermit itself, you must use the mouse to pull down menus from the menu bar that
overlays your terminal session, or type special Command-key equivalents.
The following example shows how to transfer a file with MacKermit. The remote
computer is a Unix system, but the method is the same with most others.
- First insert the MacKermit diskette. It should appear on the screen
as a diskette icon titled Kermit 0.9(40). Click on it twice to open
if it did not open automatically when you inserted it in the drive.
- Once the disk is opened, you will see three MacKermit icons across
the top of the screen. For the Unix system and most others you can
use the "Normal Settings" icon -- to start the Kermit program click
twice on it. For linemode connections to IBM mainframes, you would
click twice on the "IBM Mainframe Linemode Settings" icon.
- You will see a white backround with menus stored under the headings
File, Edit, Settings, Remote, and Log.
- Move the mouse pointer to the Settings menu and select
Communications... by clicking on it once.
- MacKermit normally sets the communication speed to 9600 bits per
second. Click on the circle in front of 1200 (or whatever speed you
need to match the baud rate of your modem and/or remote system).
Check to see that the other communication settings like parity are as
required, and make any necessary changes.
- Click on the "OK" box to accept the settings.
- If you have a Hayes-like dialout modem, follow the next two steps:
1. Type AT (uppercase) and then press the Enter key. The modem
should respond with "OK" or the digit "0" (zero). If it
doesn't, check the cable, the modem, etc (consult your modem
manual for details).
2. Now type ATDT 7654321 followed by Enter (replace 7654321 by the
actual phone number). If the connection succeeds, you'll get a
message like CONNECT (or the digit "1"), otherwise you'll see
an error message like NO CARRIER, ERROR, etc, or a digit like 3
or 4 (see your modem manual).
For non-Hayes-compatible modems, follow the instructions in your
modem manual. For direct connections, skip this step altogether.
Now you should be talking to the Unix system. Type a carriage return to get
its attention, and it will issue its login prompt. In the examples below, un-
derlining is used to show the parts that you would type.
Login: christin Login to the host.
password: (Passwords normally don't echo.)
% kermit Run Kermit on the host.
C-Kermit>receive Tell it to receive a file.
Now tell MacKermit what file to send:
- Use the mouse to point to the File menu and select the Send File...
option. You can either type in the name of the file (if you know the
name) or select the alternate drive to see what files are on the
disk. Once you see the file you want to send, click on the filename
and then click on the SEND option (or you can just click twice on the
filename).
- A "File Transfer Status" box will appear to report the progress of
the transer. NOTE: If the number of retries is increasing but not
the number of packets, you should check your Communications... set-
tings under the Settings menu.
- When the file transfer is completed, the "File Transfer Status" box
should disappear and the C-Kermit prompt should reappear.
You have just transferred a file from the Macintosh to the Unix system. To
transfer a file in the other direction, use the "send filename" command on Unix
instead of "receive", and click on "Receive File..." from the Mac's File menu,
instead of "Send File...".
After the file is transferred, your terminal connection is automatically
resumed. Once your Unix session is complete, you can log out, and then exit
from MacKermit:
C-Kermit>exit
% ^D Logout from Unix by typing Ctrl-D.
1. Select the Quit option in the File menu by clicking on it.
2. Select the Close option in the File menu by clicking on it (assuming
you want to close the current folder).
3. Select the Eject option in the File menu by clicking on it (assuming
you ran Kermit from a diskette that you want to eject).
That's the easiest and quickest way to use Kermit. If this simple scenario
does not work for you, look for any obvious incorrect settings (speed, parity),
fix them, and try again. Otherwise, read on.
1.4. The Macintosh File System
The Macintosh file system consists of one or more disks, each disk containing
files. There are actually two Macintosh file systems, which work slightly dif-
ferently.
Disks formatted for the older Macintosh File System (MFS) are essentially
"flat". All files on one of these disks must have a unique name. Files may be
collected together into "folders", but folders are not analogous to directories
on other file systems, and no two folders on the same disk may contain files of
the same name; the folders exist only to make things look nicer in the Finder.
All Macintoshes have support for MFS.
Disks formatted with the newer Hierarchical File System (HFS) are not "flat";
each folder is a directory. There may not be more than one file with the same
name in a single folder, but there may be identically named files in different
folders.
Macintosh file names may contain practically any printable characters, includ-
ing space and punctuation -- but colon (":") may not be used; it is used in
device names and as the HFS path element separator.
1.5. Menus
The major menus are Apple, File, Edit, Settings, Remote, and Log. The Apple
menu gives some information about the program, including the MacKermit version
number and the C-Kermit protocol mudule version number (useful in reporting
bugs). It also shows statistics about the most recent file transfer.
The File menu invokes Kermit's file transfer functions, Send, Get, and Receive.
It also allows settings to be saved and restored, and like most Macintosh ap-
plications, includes a "quit" entry for leaving the program, and a "transfer"
entry for transferring to another program without going through the Finder.
The Edit menu provides support for Macintosh desk accessories that need to have
this menu to do cut and paste. This menu does not currently do anything in
MacKermit.
The Settings menu provides dialog boxes for file, communications, and protocol
settings; these will be discussed below.
The Remote menu has the commands that can be sent to Kermit servers, as well as
an option to turn Macintosh Kermit itself into a server (also discussed below).
The Log menu contains commands to start and stop session and transaction log-
ging. It also has an entry to dump the current screen image to the session
log, which is only enabled when the session log is open.
1.6. Terminal Emulation
Before you can transfer files, you have to establish a terminal connection with
the other computer. You don't have to give MacKermit any special command to do
this, just start the program. Assuming you have a physical connection, then
the software will use it. If you think you have a physical connection, but
don't see any results, click on the Settings menu and select Communications to
make sure you have the right speed and parity. If you have to dial out to make
the connection, you must do this yourself -- Mac Kermit won't do it for you.
Depending on the type of modem, you must either type dialing commands to it
directly (like the Hayes ATDT command in the example in section 1.3), or else
dial the phone manually, wait for an answer and a carrier tone, and then put
the modem in data mode.
Once you've made the connection, you can use MacKermit's terminal emulator,
which conforms to ANSI standard X3.64, providing a subset of the features of
the DEC VT102 terminal (a VT100 with line and character insert and delete func-
tions added). The functions provided are sufficient to allow MacKermit to act
as a terminal for the EMACS full-screen editor as it exists on most timesharing
systems, and for most host-resident display-oriented applications that expect
to do cursor positioning and editing on the VT100 or VT102 screen, such as VAX
TPU. MacKermit does not currently support the following VT100/102 functions:
- Double height or double width lines
- Blinking
- 132 columns
- DEC-style line wrapping
- Control characters embedded in escape sequences
- VT52 mode
(this is not an exhaustive list)
The keyboard is set up by default as follows: If your Macintosh has a Control
key (ie. an SE or II), Kermit uses it, and the Command (Fan, Cloverleaf) key
can be used for keyboard equivalents for menus. If your Mac does not have a
Control key, then the Command key is used as the Control key. The CAPS LOCK
key forces all alphabetic characters to upper case. The terminal emulator
sends ESC (escape) when the "`" (accent grave) key is pressed unshifted (even
if your keyboard has an ESC key). The character "`" can be sent by typing Con-
trol (or Command) and the same key. The Backspace key sends a Delete (Rubout)
and Control-Backspace sends a Backspace. On the original Mac keyboards, the
main keypad Enter key sends a "short" (250ms) BREAK signal. The Mac+, Mac SE,
and Mac II do not have a main keypad Enter key, so the BREAK function must be
reassigned to another key.
You can modify the keyboard layout any way you like, defining keyboard macros,
defining or moving the Control and Escape keys, etc., using MacKermit's
built-in key configuration features. Older MacKermits (version 0.8 and
earlier) came with a separate key configuration program called CKMKEY. This
should not be used, because it does not understand the format of the 0.9 and
later keyboard configuration software.
MacKermit includes a mouse-controlled cursor positioning feature for use during
terminal emulation. If the "Mouse -> Arrow Keys" feature is turned on (via the
Terminal entry of the Settings menu), then when the mouse button is pressed,
the program acts as if you typed the VT100 keypad arrow keys to move the ter-
minal cursor to where the mouse cursor is. MacKermit does this by sending the
absolute strings for arrow keys, independant of what is bound to the actual ar-
row keys of the keyboard.
MacKermit sets the Mac hardware to do 8-bit data communication with no parity,
and then correctly sets the parity bit of each character itself in software, as
requested in the Communication settings menu. This has the benefit of avoiding
the problem of a machine which requires a different input parity than it sends
back. MacKermit will correctly receive all of the characters sent to it, no
matter which parity they are.
To allow useful coexistence of desk accessories and Kermit, the terminal emula-
tion window may be dragged using the drag bar. If a desk accessory overlays
the emulation window, the emulation window can be clicked upon to move it in
front of the DA, and later dragged to reveal the hidden desk accessory so that
it can be restored to the foreground. The same thing can be done with Kermit's
own remote response window as well. Note that Kermit's terminal emulation win-
dow does not accept input when any other window is in the foreground.
MacKermit uses XON/XOFF (control-Q and control-S) flow control during terminal
emulation and file transfer. If the other system does not understand XON/XOFF,
problems may result at high speeds. The terminal emulator can normally keep up
at 9600 baud, and has a very large input buffer, but after several continuous
scrolling screens at this speed, some characters may be lost. When running at
high baud rates on a system that does not understand XON/XOFF flow control, ei-
ther keep your terminal in page mode, use a text paging program such as Unix
"more", or view text with a non-scrolling screen editor. Also, don't drag the
terminal emulation window while characters are arriving; if you do, the charac-
ters may be lost and the display may become confused.
During terminal emulation, the characters displayed on the screen may also be
saved on the disk. This allows you to record interactions with the remote sys-
tem, or to "capture" files that you can't transfer with Kermit protocol, for
example when the remote system does not have a Kermit program. Use the Log
menu, and choose session logging to activate this feature. The result goes
into a file called "Kermit Session" in the current folder, which is always ap-
pended to, rather than overwritten. To create a new session log, delete or
rename the old one first.
The following features are missing from the MacKermit terminal emulator, and
may be added in subsequent releases:
- Restoration of character attributes such as underlining or highlight-
ing.
- Cutting text from screen to clipboard.
- Transmission of raw text to host (e.g. pasting to screen).
- Screen rollback.
- Screen resizing.
- Explicit modem or dialer control.
- Login scripts.
- Printer support.
- Ability to use the printer port for terminal emulation.
- A way to disable XON/XOFF flow control, or select other flow con-
trols.
1.7. File Transfer
Like most Kermit programs, MacKermit allows you to send and receive text or bi-
nary files singly or in groups. It will interact with a remote Kermit server,
and it can act as a server itself. However, due to the unique nature of the
Macintosh file system, there are some special considerations:
- Mode - Text or Binary. Binary means the data is sent or stored with-
out modification. Text means that every carriage return character
(CR) in a Macintosh file is translated to a carriage-return-linefeed
(CRLF) sequence when sending, and every CRLF in an incoming file is
turned into a CR when stored on the Mac disk. A text file is
produced when you save a file from MacWrite or other applications
using the "text only" option; text files are not associated with any
particular Macintosh application and can be sent in a useful fashion
to other kinds of computers.
A word of caution about Macintosh text files: The Macintosh supports
an extended version of ASCII, with characters like accented and um-
lauted vowels in the 128-255 range. These characters allow represen-
tation of Roman-based languages other than English, but they do not
follow any of the ISO standards for extended character sets, and thus
are only useful on a Mac. When transferring text files, you should
ensure that either there are no extended characters in the file, or
that the other system can understand the Mac's 8-bit characters.
- Fork - Data or Resource. Macintosh files may have two "forks". The
data fork contains data for an application; the resource fork con-
tains icons, strings, dialog boxes, and so forth. For instance, a
MacWrite document contains text and formatting information in the
data fork, and fonts in the resource fork. For applications, the ex-
ecutable code is stored in the resource fork.
File transfer is initiated when you select Send file..., Receive File..., or
Get file from server... from MacKermit's File menu.
File transfers can be canceled by clicking on the Cancel File or Cancel Group
buttons. These will always work when sending. When receiving, they will work
if the opposite Kermit honors this (optional) feature of the protocol. There
is also an "emergency exit" from any protocol operation, which can be taken at
any time by typing "Command-." -- that is, hold down the Command (Fan,
Cloverleaf) key and type period.
The progress of file transfer operations can be logged into a Macintosh file
called a "transaction log". This log will show the names of the files trans-
ferred, the date and time, and the completion status. This feature is useful
with long unattended transfers -- you can come back later and read the trans-
action log to find out what happened. The transaction log is called "Kermit
Log".
The current version of Mac Kermit can only send one fork of a file at a time.
When a file has two forks, there is no provision for sending both forks
together. This restriction may be lifted in future releases of MacKermit, for
example by converting applications to MacBinary format during transmission.
1.7.1. Sending Files
To send files, first put the remote Kermit in server mode, or else give it the
RECEIVE command. Then use the mouse to select Send file... from the File menu.
This will give you a MacKermit file-open box, which includes the standard
Macintosh dialog items -- a file list, Disk and Eject buttons, etc. You can
either send one file at a time, by clicking on its name in the file list, or
send the entire contents of the current HFS folder (for HFS disks only, of
course). Clicking the Disk button will switch the file list to another physi-
cal disk. If desired, you can type an alternate name to send the file under.
When you select a file, MacKermit examines its type; if the type is APPL, then
MacKermit expects to send the resource fork in binary mode, otherwise the data
fork in text mode. The Mode and Fork radio buttons will display these choices;
you may change them before clicking the Send button.
1.7.2. Receiving Files
You can receive or get multiple files, providing the opposite Kermit is capable
of sending multiple files in a single transaction (most are). To receive
files, first give the remote Kermit a SEND command and then select Receive
file... from the File menu. To get files from a server, first put the remote
Kermit into server mode, then select the Get file from server... option from
the File menu, and type in the name of the file you want to get, or a wildcard
designator for multiple files, in the remote system's filename syntax.
As each file arrives at the Mac, it will be decoded according to the current
mode (text or binary), and stored in the default fork (data or resource). The
file names will be either the names the files arrive with (overwriting existing
files of the same names) or new unique names (when name conflicts occur), ac-
cording to the current default for name collisions. You may also elect to per-
form an "attended" receive, in which you have an opportunity to override file
defaults on a per-file basis (do this in the Protocol section of the Settings
menu). But attended operation must be used with caution -- if you take too
long (more than about a minute) to execute an incoming file's dialog box, the
opposite Kermit could time out and terminate the transaction. If this happens,
tell the opposite Kermit to send again and try again with the receive dialog.
The folder for new files is the same as the location of the settings file, or
if no settings file was used then the new files appear on the desktop. If you
are transferring a lot of files and want to keep them together, create a
folder, drag the settings file into it, and double click on the settings file;
all created files will appear in that folder.
1.8. Remote Commands
When connected to a Kermit server, MacKermit is capable of issuing special file
management and other commands to it. The Remote menu contains these commands.
You may request directory listings, you can delete files, change directories,
etc, on server's machine. The response from these commands (if any) is dis-
played in a special pop-up window. Responses to multiple Remote commands are
separated by a dashed line. The response window can be scrolled, sized, and
positioned, and can be hidden by clicking the menu item "Hide Response" or the
window's go-away box; all text remains intact and will be appended to the next
time you do a Remote command; it can also be brought to the foreground by
clicking the Show Response menu item. Note that typein to the terminal
emulator will not take effect when the response window -- or any other window
(such as a desk accessory) -- is up front. This is not a bug, but a feature of
the Macintosh user interface guidelines.
If the response buffer gets too full (greater than 30,000 characters), MacK-
ermit will remove enough text from the beginning of the buffer, in 512 byte
chunks, to make it less than 30,000 characters again.
A Remote command can be canceled by taking the Emergency Exit (Command-.). To
disengage from the remote Kermit server, click on Bye or Finish in the Remote
menu.
1.9. Server Operation
MacKermit may itself act as a Kermit server. Just set the desired parameters
in the Settings menu, then click on Be a Server in the Remote menu. The MacK-
ermit server can respond to SEND, GET, REMOTE DIRECTORY, FINISH, and BYE com-
mands. You can send single or multiple files to a MacKermit server, and you
can get a single file from it by name. You can also get all the files in the
current folder by using a colon (":") as the file specification in the GET com-
mand:
GET :
If you give the FINISH command, MacKermit will return to terminal mode. If you
give the BYE command, the Macintosh will reboot itself.
You can take MacKermit out of server mode from the Mac keyboard by typing the
emergency exit sequence, Command-dot.
1.10. Settings
You can change File, Communications, Protocol, Terminal, Keyboard macros, and
Keyboard modifier settings by using the Settings pull-down menu. You can save
and load these settings by invoking the appropriate selection in the File menu.
If the "bundle bit" has been correctly set on your version of MacKermit (it
should be), then you can double-click on the resulting document to start MacK-
ermit with those settings.
The File settings establish the defaults for file transfer:
- Attended versus Unattended operation for incoming files.
- Naming: When doing unattended file reception, whether incoming files
should supersede existing files of the same name, or a new unique
name should be assigned to them. If the latter, the new name is
formed by adding a dot and a number to the end. For instance, if a
file called FOO exists and a file called FOO arrives, MacKermit will
store the arriving file as FOO.1; if FOO.1 exists, then FOO.2, etc.
- Mode: text or binary. Used for received files only. When sending,
MacKermit tries to figure out an appropriate mode for the file being
sent (but then lets you override it the Send File dialog).
- Fork: which fork -- data or resource -- to send, or to store an in-
coming file into.
The Communications settings allow you to set the baud rate (anywhere between
300 baud and 57.6K baud, except 38.4K baud), and parity (odd, even, mark,
space, or none). When the parity is set to none the Macintosh uses an
8-bit-wide connection. All other parity settings tell the Macintosh to use a
7-bit-wide connection, and to request 8th-bit prefixing when transferring 8-bit
data. If the remote host or the communication path uses any kind of parity,
then you won't be able to transfer files successfully unless you tell MacKermit
(and in most cases also the Kermit on the other end) about it. Duplex is
selected in the Terminal settings.
The Protocol settings allow you to set packet parameters for both incoming and
outbound packets. These include the block check type (1 or 2 character check-
sum, 3-character 16-bit CRC-CCITT), line turnaround handshake character (for
file transfer with half duplex systems), packet start and end characters, pad-
ding, packet length, timeout interval, and packet length. Characters are
specified by entering their ASCII value in decimal, e.g. 1 for Control-A, 13
for Control-M (Carriage Return), etc. The RECEIVE parameters are conveyed by
MacKermit to the other Kermit. For instance, if you set the
receive-packet-length to 500, MacKermit will tell the other Kermit to send
500-character packets. The SEND parameters are used to override negotiated
values, and need rarely be used.
Long packets are selected by setting the RECEIVING packet length between 95 and
1000. Normally, you should not change the sending length because MacKermit,
and most other Kermits, will configure themselves correctly. Note also that
the fastest file transfers will happen with long packets in the range of
300-500. Very long packets actually end up being much slower, because the
operating systems in both the Mac and the other machine have to do more work to
cope with such long inputs, and, under noisy conditions, the probability is
higher that a longer packet will be struck by noise, and will take longer to
retransmit.
The Terminal settings let you modify the characteristics of the VT102 emulator,
such as auto-linefeed, autowrap, autorepeat keys, block vs underline cursor,
blinking vs steady cursor, inverted screen (reverse video), and smooth scroll-
ing. There is also a "visible bell" for those who can't hear the audible bell
produced upon receipt of a Control-G, and an option to display control charac-
ters visibly by showing their numeric ASCII values (in decimal) in a single
character cell. If local echo is needed, as in half-duplex connections, that
must be specified here also.
1.11. Settings Files
You can start MacKermit with all its "factory settings" by double clicking on
the MacKermit icon. Factory settings are designed for direct communication
with most other microcomputers, DEC minis and mainframes, etc: 9600 bps, no
parity, XON/XOFF, remote echo, etc. You can change the communication,
protocol, file, keyboard, and terminal settings by going through the options in
the Settings menu. Once you have set all parameters as desired, you can save
your settings in a "MacKermit settings file" by selected "Save Settings..."
from the File menu. A settings file is, in Macintosh terminology, a "MacKermit
document". You'll recognize it because it looks like a dog-eared piece of
paper with the MacKermit icon superimposed. You can have more than one set-
tings file.
There are two ways to use a settings file. First, you can double-click on it,
just as you can double-click on a MacWrite document to start up MacWrite to
edit a particular file. This method starts up MacKermit with all the saved
settings. The other method is to click on the "Load Settings..." option in the
File menu from inside MacKermit. This lets you change settings without leaving
and restarting the program. Load Settings... shows all MacKermit settings
files in the selected folder. Opening one of them loads all its settings,
removing all current settings.
You can "edit" a MacKermit settings file by loading it, going through the Set-
tings menu, and then saving the settings either in a new file, or overwriting
the same file.
As distributed by Columbia, Mac Kermit comes with two settings files. One is
called "Normal Settings", and is pretty much identical to Mac Kermit's factory
settings. The other is "IBM Mainframe Linemode Settings". It selects mark
parity, local echo, XON half-duplex line turnaround handshake. You can use
these files as-is, customize them for your own environment, or create new set-
tings files for all the different kinds of systems that you use.
1.12. Reconfiguring the Keyboard
Beginning with version 0.9, MacKermit has keyboard configuration functions
built in. These are accessed through the Set Key Macros and the Set Modifiers
entries in the Settings menu.
The Macintosh keyboard is composed of normal keys and modifier keys. Modifier
keys are those keys that, when held down, change the meaning of other keys. On
the Mac these are: SHIFT, CAPS LOCK, OPTION, CONTROL (only on the Mac II and
SE), and COMMAND (also known as APPLE, CLOVER, or FAN). Normal keys are the
letters, numbers, special symbols, arrow keys, space bar, and function keys.
Only one normal key can be typed at a time, but one or more modifier keys can
be pressed down along with it.
When you type a key, Kermit reads both the ASCII value, and the
keyboard-independent scan code for that key. Kermit looks in its table of key
macros to see if there is a macro for this combination of key and modifiers,
and if so sends the macro. If there is no macro, Kermit then looks in its
modifier table to see if any of the modifiers do special things to the charac-
ter; if so, it does these to the character. Finally, Kermit sends the charac-
ter. In the normal case when there is no macro and no modifiers apply, the
character sent is simply the ASCII value for that character.
It is important to keep in mind that if the parity setting is something other
than none, the high (8th) bit will be stripped off of the characters when they
are transmitted. Since most systems do not understand characters in the range
128 -- 255 (decimal), you should avoid using the Apple extended characters
(accented vowels, for example) during terminal connection.
1.12.1. Defining Key Macros
To define a new key macro, select the Key Macros entry. A dialog window will
appear, asking you to press the key to define. Type the key (including any of
the modifiers). A new dialog will appear, with an editable text field in it.
Enter the definition for the key here. Your definition may be up to 255
characters long, and can include all of the control characters (including NUL).
Special characters can be included in the macro by entering a "\" (backslash),
followed by up to 3 octal (base 8) digits for the value (just like in the C
programming language). For example, an ASCII NUL (value 0) would be written as
"\000", carriage return (ASCII 13) would be written "\015" (1 x 8 + 5 = 13).
Also, control characters may be entered with a backslash, followed by a caret
(or circumflex, "^"), followed by the corresponding letter. Thus a Control-G
(value 7) could be entered as "\007", "\^G", or "\^g". To include a literal
backslash in a definition, type in two of them: "\\".
BREAK conditions are also programmable as macros. If the entire macro the
string is "\break", then typing the defined key will send a short (1/4 second)
break. A long (3.5 second) BREAK is defined with "\longbreak". Note that a
macro can define either a BREAK, or a string of normal characters, but not
both.
1.12.2. Defining Key Modifiers
Skip ahead to the next section if you already know about things like SHIFT,
CAPS LOCK, CONTROL, and META.
On a typewriter the only modifier key is SHIFT. Typing a character with no
modifier key depressed selects a lowercase letter or the character printed on
the lower face of the keytop (say, the digit "4"). Typing a character with
SHIFT depressed selects an uppercase letter or the character printed on the up-
per face of the keytop (say, a dollar sign). Some keyboards also have a SHIFT
LOCK key, which stays down once pressed and pops up the next time it's pressed;
its operation is equivalent to holding down SHIFT. And some keyboards have a
CAPS LOCK key which operates like SHIFT LOCK, but only upon letters.
Computer terminals also have a modifier key called CONTROL (or CTRL). Its
function is a little less obvious: it is intended to produce one of the 33
characters in the "control range" of the ASCII alphabet. Control characters
are not graphic -- they are intended for use as format effectors (like carriage
return, formfeed, tab, backspace), for transmission control, or for device con-
trol. The remaining 95 characters -- letters, digits, punctuation, and space
-- are the graphic characters. When a character is typed with the CONTROL
modifier pressed, its "control equivalent" (if any) is transmitted. By conven-
tion, the control equivalent of A is Control-A, B is Control-B, etc, and there
are also seven special control characters generally associated with punctuation
characters or special keys. For the "alphabetic" control characters Control-A
through Control-Z, SHIFT or CAPS LOCK modifiers are ignored; for the others,
operation varies from terminal to terminal.
The SHIFT and CONTROL modifiers allow all 128 ASCII characters to be sent from
a normal typewriter-like keyboard that has about 50 keys. However, certain
host-resident computer applications -- notably the full screen text editor
EMACS and its descendents -- can be used to greater advantage with a 256
character 8-bit alphabet (EMACS responds to single-character commands, and the
more characters a terminal can send, the more commands are directly available).
For this purpose, some terminals also provide a META modifier key. This key
simply causes the high-order ("8th") bit of the selected 7-bit ASCII value to
be set to 1 upon transmission. This can only work when the connection is
8-data-bits-no-parity. When parity is in use, EMACS allows a sequence of two
7-bit ASCII characters to represent a single meta character. The advantage of
having a real META modifier key is that it can be held down while the actual
key is struck repeatedly or even autorepeats, whereas a use of a "meta prefix"
such as <escape> requires much more typing. To illustrate, suppose META-F is
the command to go forward one word. If you want to execute this operation
repeatedly, just hold down META and F and let it autorepeat. If you don't have
a META key, then you'd have to type <escape>F<escape>F<escape>F..., etc.
A common problem faced by computer users who switch from one terminal or PC to
another is the placement of the modifiers and other special keys. DEC, IBM,
Apple, and other manufacturers consistently move these keys around on new
models of their keyboards. MacKermit allows you to assign any of various func-
tions to any of the Mac's modifier keys, and to assign any desired character or
character sequence to the regular keys, so that you can tailor the layout of
your Mac's keyboard to suit your taste.
1.12.3. Modifiers Dialog
To change the action of any of the modifier keys, select Modifiers from the
Settings menu. A dialog will appear that looks roughly like the one in Figure
1-1 (the "%" represents the Apple or Clover key).
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modifier Pattern: --> Modification:
Ctrl Opt Lock Shift % Unmodify Caps Ctrl Meta Prefix string:
____________
[X] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] | [ ] [ ] [X] [ ] [____________]
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [X] | [ ] [ ] [X] [ ] [____________]
[ ] [X] [ ] [ ] [ ] | [x] [ ] [ ] [ ] [\033 ]
[ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] | [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [____________]
(Cancel) (Help) ( OK )
Figure 1-1: MacKermit Key Modifier Dialog
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The check boxes are divided into rows, each one describing a modification. The
left half of each row describes the modifier combination to look for; a checked
box means that this key is down, and an unchecked box means "don't care". Note
that there is no way to specify a key being up, and lines with nothing checked
on the left side will be ignored; the character will be modified in the normal
Macintosh way.
The right half describes what modification to do to the characters. The Un-
modify modification says "make this the character that would be sent from the
same key with no modifer keys pressed". In other words, un-Option, un-Caps,
un-Control, and un-Shift this character. The Caps modification translates all
letters to upper case, Ctrl makes the letter a contol character, Meta sets the
high (8th) bit on the character, and if a Prefix string is present, it is sent
before the character is.
Hints about modifiers:
- Beware of the Option key. It changes the value of any characters you
use with it. If you type Option-F, the Mac will send a D, if you
type Option-B, the Mac will send a ":", etc. If you want to use the
option key as a modifier, be sure to check the "Unmodify" box.
- To use MacKermit with a version of EMACS that does not accept 8-bit
Meta characters, define a key, like Option, to be unmodified, with a
prefix string of \033 (ASCII Escape), as in Figure 1-1. Then you can
hold down Option and type F (or any other key) repeatedly, or let it
autorepeat, and MacKermit will send the correct prefix-Meta sequence.
- When interpreting a keystoke, MacKermit checks the list of modifiers
from top to bottom, applying the first one that matches. This means
that if you want a different modifier for Command-Option and just
plain Command, you must put the definition for Command-Option first
in the list.
1.13. Bootstrapping
This section applies if you do not have a MacKermit diskette, but MacKermit is
available for downloading from some other computer.
MacKermit is distributed in source form for building on a Macintosh, running
Apple's Macintosh Programmers Workbench (in MPW C), in .HQX "BinHex 4" form,
and sometimes also as a binary resource file. Those who want to work from the
source are referred to the file CKMKER.BLD for instructions.
If you're downloading, it's best to work with CKMKER.HQX, a textual encoding of
the MacKermit application. Download this using any technique available to you
-- an old release of Kermit, an Xmodem implementation, even raw screen capture.
Then run BinHex (version 4) to convert it into a working application (select
Upload -> Application from the File menu). Eveything will be set up correctly
-- icons, forks, etc.
If you don't have the .HQX file available, but you do have access to the binary
resource file (its name will be CKMKER.RSRC, ckmker.rsrc, CKMKER.RSR,
ckmker.rsr, %ckmker or some variation on these, depending on what system it's
stored on and how it got there), AND if you have "MacPut" on your system and
MacTerminal on your Mac, AND if you have an 8-bit-wide (no parity) data path
between your Mac and your system, then you can use MacPut to download the bi-
nary resource file to your Mac using MacTerminal's "MacBinary" format (a
variant of XMODEM). After doing this you must use a program such as SetFile
or ResEdit on the Mac to set the author to KR09, the type to APPL, and turn on
the bundle bit. Do not bother with the CKMKEY program, as it is not used with
newer MacKermits. If you have an earlier release of MacKermit, you may use it
in place of MacTerminal and MacPut.
1.14. Differences Between Versions 0.8 and 0.9
MacKermit 0.8(34) runs on the 128K Mac, the 512K Mac, and the Mac Plus, but not
on the Macintosh II or SE. MacKermit 0.9(40) runs on all Macs except the 128K
original. You should use version 0.9 unless you have a 128K Mac.
The second major difference is that the program is has been translated into Ap-
ple MPW C, so that it can be edited, compiled, and built on the Macintosh it-
self. This was done originally by Jim Noble of Planning Research Corporation,
who converted MacKermit from SUMACC C (which had to be cross compiled on a UNIX
system) to Megamax C. Jim's version was converted to MPW C by Matthias Aebi,
who also added most of the new features listed below. Paul Placeway integrated
the program with the current (long packet) version of C-Kermit and added ad-
ditional new features.
Besides these important differences, there were many other changes from version
0.8 to version 0.9, including:
- The Cursor with open desk accessories now works correctly
- Long packet support
- New program icon
- New settings files are no longer TEXT
- Settings can now be written back to an already existing settings file
- Key redefinition function built in to Kermit, no more CKMKEY
- Server mode directory listing feature
- Multifile (folder) send
- Server "Delete" file command
- Server "Space" command
- Get whole folder content from the server with filename ":"
- Recognition of all the different Mac keyboards
- Support of menu command keys (key macros)
- Terminal settings dialog separated from communication settings
- Non-transparent terminal mode
- Display of statistics and protocol version to "About Kermit" dialog.
- Parity problems fixed
- Session logging
- Transaction logging
- Multifinder support
- Additions to the VT102 emulator (smooth scrolling, etc)
- Rearrangement of menus and displays
- Program no longer hangs if remote response window gets too full
- Program now works correctly on 64K ROM machines
- A new manual
This manual applies in large part to version 0.8(34), except that the older
version is missing the new features listed above, and it comes in two pieces:
CKMKER and CKMKEY. The CKMKEY program is used to program the keys, like the
Set Key Macros... and Set Modifiers described in this manual, and creates a
settings file which Kermit itself uses. The old version only works well with
early Macintosh keyboards.
List of Figures
Figure 1-1: MacKermit Key Modifier Dialog 4