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From: rrd@hpfcso.HP.COM (Ray Depew)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Kermit woes with large graphics objects on 48
Message-ID: <7360022@hpfcso.HP.COM>
Date: 8 Nov 90 20:09:14 GMT
References: <4498@tellab5.tellabs.com>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 63

ram@tellabs.com (Bob Martin) asks:

> I have two large objects on my 48.  One is a GROB of the EARTH's surface, about
> 5K, and the other is an animated (rotating) WoRLD, about 8K.  When using kermit
> to archive them on my Amiga, EARTH stores fine in binary, but simply refuses to
> even attempt to upload in ASCII (9600, no parity, translation code 3, checksum
> type 3 for both transfers).  When I redownload EARTH (binary), I can display it
> without error.  When ASCII is attempted, the Amiga reports "Host error, out
> of memory" which is strange since the Amiga is the host and it has about 2 MB
> of free RAM.

Your problem is that, when uploading grobs in ASCII mode, the 48 has to
translate the grob from binary to ASCII.  The ASCII form takes up about twice
as much memory as the binary form.  ("about"...)  Similarly, when downloading a grob in ASCII mode, the 48 holds the ASCII form in memory while it creates the
binary form.  So in each case, you have two copies of the grob in memory at 
once, and even though you have enough room for one binary copy, the 48 gags
on the second (ASCII) copy.

The "Host error" means that the 48 sent the Amiga a Kermit error message.  In
Kermit grammar, the 48 is always the host.  Don't ask me why; maybe one day
I'll read the book and find out. (then again...)  I've seen the same "Host
error" message using Procomm on an MS-DOS machine and Uniterm on a Brand Ex.

> WRLD, on the other hand, will upload fine either way (no errors), however, when
> I donload it back to the 48, only the ASCII version works.  When I execute
> the binary version, instead of executing, I get a quoted string in level 1
> like "HPHP-E......".

> And yes, when I set the HP to binary or ASCII, I set the Amiga to match it.

Well, despite what you just said, it sounds like you had the 48 set to ASCII
(and the Amiga set to ???) when you downloaded the binary version of WRLD to
the 48.  (Is your head spinning yet?  Mine sure is...)  The "HPHP-E......."
header is the normal header for a binary file, and you ONLY see it when you're
viewing the file on your PC -- or when you have the ST set to ASCII during
download.

> Any information to get this working is GREATLY appreciated.

> One last question:  When I want to display Earth in PICT, I need 11K free mem,
> which is TWICE the size of EARTH.  I can understand needing 5.5K free mem,
> but why 11K?  Is there any way to change this?  Oh, and also, it needs at LEAST
> twice the size in free mem, 1.9 times the size in free mem won't cut it.

Sounds like a LAST STACK or LAST ARGS type of problem.  (It also shows why HP
didn't include a LAST PIC command.  Can you imagine what a memory hog THAT
would be? )  Are you pressing 

	EARTH PICT STO { # 0d # 0d } PVIEW

to see it, or something else that would stuff it into LAST DOODAH?  Maybe if
you disable LAST DOODAH it will band-aid the problem for you while you check
your display algorithm.

> Thanks!

Good luck.


Regards
Ray Depew
IC's by Bill and Dave   
rrd@hpfitst1.hp.com