28-Sep-84 12:48:57-EDT,1177;000000000001 Mail-From: SY.FDC created at 28-Sep-84 12:48:34 Date: Fri 28 Sep 84 12:48:34-EDT From: Frank da Cruz Subject: Bugs in MS-DOS Kermit Bootstrapping Programs To: Info-Kermit@CU20B.ARPA, Info-IBMPC@USC-ISIB.ARPA The Fortran-Basic program pair that is used for bootstrapping MS-DOS Kermit initially from a mainframe to a PC does not work in certain cases. There were two small problems -- one caused the Fortran program to hang waiting for input (in Fortrans that do not supply default values for missing variables on a READ statement), the other an erroneous GOTO that had the unfortunate quirk of not breaking the program on systems whose Fortran happened to initialize arrays with blanks... Anyway, the fixed versions are available in KER:MSBOOT.FOR and KER:MSPCBOOT.BAS on CU20B and COLUMBIA-20. If you'd rather not get the new files, the changes are simple: In MSBOOT.FOR, after the statement 200 FORMAT(4A1), change GO TO 30 to GO TO 20 In MSPCBOOT.BAS, change line 100 to: 100 print#1,"O ,2" ' Char constants Oh,Space,Comma,Two. Thanks to Jeff Ramsey of DGM&S, Delran NJ, for pointing out these problems. ------------------------------ Date: 13 Dec 1985 1427-EST (Friday) From: Tom Putnam Subject: MSBOOT.FOR The subject FORTRAN program is supposed to be run on a host machine in conjunction with MSPCBOOT.BAS on a target MS-DOS machine to download MSKERMIT.BOO and similar binary files. The program requires several modifications to operate under UNIX. (We are running UNIX 4.2 BSD). In particular: * The variable ACK is declared as a 4-element array, but only the first element is ever used. The initial READ statement: READ (5,200) OK, SPACE, COMMA, ACK 200 FORMAT(4A1) implies that the whole array ACK will be read. Since the format does not allow enough elements, a second "line" or "record" of input is requested, so file transfer never gets off the ground. * The write statements include a blank for carriage control. Although some systems strip this character on output to the terminal, UNIX terminal output includes the blank and thus fouls up the character count check. I corrected these problems, converted the program to FORTRAN-77, and cleaned-up the logic a little so that we could use it on our systems. The modified version of the program is available via anonymous ftp from ASC.PURDUE.EDU in the "kermit" subdirectory, file name "msboot.f". [Ed. - It's also on CU20B as KER:MSBOOT.F.] Tom Putnam, Manager of User Services Purdue University Computing Center ARPANET: ac4@asc.Purdue.EDU or ac4@purdue-asc.ARPA BITNET: PUTNAMT@PURCCVM CSNET: ac4@purdue-asc-tn USENET: ac4@pucc-j.UUCP USMAIL: Mathematical Sciences Bldg. West Lafayette, IN 47907 PHONE: 317/494-1787 ------------------------------