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From: jmunkki@kampi.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Downloads of HP-48SX binary files.
Message-ID: <1990Mar21.225133.2561@santra.uucp>
Date: 21 Mar 90 22:51:33 GMT
References: <1990Mar21.142101.28032@cec1.wustl.edu> <3590@sunspot.UUCP> <1461@uc.msc.umn.edu>
Sender: news@santra.uucp (Cnews - USENET news system)
Reply-To: jmunkki@kampi.hut.fi (Juri Munkki)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, FINLAND
Lines: 41

I have so far been unable to correctly download any of the PCLINK files
that are archived at gmuvax2.gmu.edu. Only the APPT program, which by
the way is ASCII, is accepted by my HP.

I switched to using VersaTerm Pro, when I discovered that when I set
both ends to use odd parity and binary kermit, I'm able to make and
restore backups successfully. Being forced to use parity checking is
probably related to the bit-8 prefix problem I discovered earlier.

Has anyone else successfully downloaded the PCLINK programs? When I
got them, the APDIR file was there, so someone must have found it after
all.

I did a lot of hacking trying to salvage my broken backups (ending up
wasting three times more time than it would have taken to key in all
the stuff). I almost got the backup working by stripping the HPHP48
stuff and then changing the object type with the hex debugger. Of course
the restore process crashed and asked if I wanted to try to recover
memory. Doing this found one directory that was previously lost.

I haven't found any new bugs, but I wonder why the quick reference guide
says that you have to OPENIO before using kermit. It looks like this
kermit implementation hasn't been frozen long enough. HP should start
giving ROM revision A owners 128KB RAM cards with preloaded fixes for
all the bugs. This way when new bugs are found we could just use the
file transfer utilities to distribute them from user to user and
everyone would be happy.

Creating a machine with 256KB ROM and trusting that it doesn't have
serious bugs is crazy. Buying such a machine is stupid. I feel stupid
right now after two days of fighting with the kermit.

What kermit is HP going to distribute with the Macintosh Kit? I know
that the latest version of MacKermit doesn't work. Do they have a
version that works around all the problems in the calculator? (like
KGETting 0-sized files and all the bugs I have described.)

   ___________________________________________________________________________
  / Juri Munkki	    /  Helsinki University of Technology   /  Wind  /   HP S /
 / jmunkki@hut.fi  /  Computing Center Macintosh Support  /  Surf  /   48 X /
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