Date: Fri 18 Jul 86 16:00:46-EDT From: Ben Bishop Subject: MUMPS-11 version of Kermit I work for The MUMPS Collaborative, Inc., a MUMPS-specific consulting and application software company in Newton, Massachusetts. Recently my company requested my acquiring a copy of Kermit for MUMPS so that a 'reasonable' communication system between our micros and our 11/44 (running MUMPS) could be established. I have had a great deal of experience working with Kermit systems, and acquired a copy of Kermit-M from CU20B via FTP. Please note the following: The copy of Kermit-M on CU20B is missing all '\' (backslash) characters. These are used throughout the Kermit-M routines, and as such those routines will not run properly. In addition, the version of MUMPS my company uses is DSM-11 (Digital Standard MUMPS). Modifying the M/11 routines to work on this operating system has exposed many unmarked sections of M/11-specific code in the distribution version. I have made extensive revisions and corrections to the Kermit-M system -- correcting errors as well as making it more portable. I am now wondering what the procedure should be for sending an update of these programs, both to Columbia and to the original authors (whose name escapes me at present). Before doing this I would prefer to find out if there had been any other improvements/functionality which has been added to any other MUMPS implementation. In addition I was also wondering if there was a net address for the original author of these routines at the NY College of Veterinary Medicine. Thank you for your time, Ben Bishop Senior Programmer/Analyst The MUMPS Collaborative, Inc. Newton, Mass 02160 (617) 964-7880 p.s. I would like to commend you on the fine system you have sponsored. Kermit has been invaluable to me on many occaisions. ------------------------------ Date: Tue 28 Oct 86 21:14:20-EST From: Ben Bishop Subject: MUMPS Kermit, and making tapes. Some history: MUMPS is an interpreted language (like BASIC), with some very powerful database features. Practically all distributions of MUMPS programs are in ASCII. The version of MUMPS-Kermit which is currently being distributed is VERY specific to Intersystems Standard MUMPS (one of the *main* MUMPS operating system vendors) and an old version at that. There were also a number of transmission errors (in the original) which rendered the programs inoperable. Some more history: most MUMPS systems run *only* MUMPS. This allows those 'very powerful database features' to work very well. The MUMPS Collaborative (my employer) obviously specializes in MUMPS and has recently been getting into doing things with micros. I have been trying to convince them to use kermit (or at least provide FOR kermit) in their projects -- the jury is still out on the decision. Regardless. I have a version of Kermit which is now running on a PDP-11 with DSM v3.2 (and worked with 3.1). I am reasonably confident that the same routines will also work with the version on VMS. I am quite willing to spend some time making MUMPS Kermit tapes for people if they want me to. I suspect that there would have to be a charge to cover the media (1 tape), postage and handling. I have no experience in pricing such work (I suspect postage would vary considerably between mailing to Germany and mailing to New York) and would appreciate any suggestion on how much we should charge -- I have made it clear to the Collaborative that Kermit can't be 'sold', it can however, be provided at cost in the above manner. The version works. I have been trying to make the user-interface a little more 'friendly', but as of now it is quite usable (and I have transferred things to/from mit-deep-thought, a DEC-20). If there is any information available for programmers who intend on implementing kermit (other than the massive kermit manual) I would greatly appreciate it. I would like to get this version up to par with others that I have seen. I hope this reply is what you wanted. I can be reached at: The MUMPS Collaborative, Inc. 797 Washington Street Newtonville, MA 02160 (617) 984-7880 During business hours. As I said above, the best net-address for me is: bishop@athena.mit.edu Thank you, Ben Bishop t.sailor@deep-thought.mit.edu bishop@athena.mit.edu p.s. At some point I hope to down load this version of MUMPS kermit to the DEC-20 and then send it to you at columbia. I do not know when I may have the time to do this, but I expect that it will be possible by December. ------------------------------