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<p>Since its inception, Kermit-20 (one the first three Kermit
implementations) has had the 'limitation' that it will only talk
to a remote Kermit via a physical terminal line (I.E., something
like <font size="4"><tt>TTY6:</tt></font>). It doesn't do
network terminals in part because it has no code to handle the
out-of-band or meta-data that one finds on TVT's (like IAC's) or
CTERM's.</p>
<p>This doesn't exist for the early NRT terminals which were
implemented for Tops-10 and Tops-20. Once you've read the initial
configuration message and decided what to do, you basically never
have to bother with meta-data. Because I'm trying to look at an
NFT issue between Tops-10 and Tops-20, I needed another transport
mechanism and modifying Kermit-20 to do DECnet 36 NRT's seemed
like an easy hack. Since Tops-10 Kermit isn't making an outgoing
connection, it is none the wiser.<br>
</p>
<p>Thus far, it has been fairly straightforward. Right now I'm just
catching the few cases where certain operations don't make sense
or otherwise wouldn't work (like setting the terminal speed).
Another thing I'd like to prevent is Kermit-20 bothering non-36
bit systems. This is easily enough done by checking some 'magic'
bits in the initial configuration message and restricting by OS
type. This raises two questions:</p>
<p>First, is the list below complete? What about Ultrix and ...
what else?<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<pre><font size="4"> 1 RSTS
2 RT-11
3 RSTS/E
4 RSX-11S
5 RSX-11M
6 RSX-11D
7 IAS
8 VMS
9 TOPS-20
10 TOPS-10
11 RTS-8
12 OS-8
13 RSX-11M+
14 MCB</font>
</pre>
</blockquote>
Second, the configuration isn't well documented. Actually, I'm not
sure if it's documented, period. All I have is are some notes that
Johnny wrote up in the process of reverse-engineering it and very
kindly gave me. They are certainly fine for this particular
implementation, but I was just wondering what else there might be.
Plenty for LAT and CTERM, but I don't think I've stumbled over NRT.<br>
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