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From: blarson@skat.usc.edu (Bob Larson)
Newsgroups: comp.dcom.modems
Subject: Re: xyzmodem problems
Message-ID: <17282@usc.edu>
Date: 18 May 89 18:03:22 GMT
References: <24404@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> <1399@bucket.UUCP> <765@omen.UUCP> <24552@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>
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In article <24552@agate.BERKELEY.EDU> ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) writes:
>By the way, am I "wrong" in thinking that the apparent assumption of a
>clear eight-bit path in the [xy]modem protocols represents {naive|
>brain-dead|criminally stupid} programming?

Wrong only in that you assume different design goals for Xmodem
than the author did.

> Was there something
>different about the world when these protocols were written that a
>clear eight-bit path could be assumed?

Since Xmodem was designed to transfer files from the author's CPM
system to other CPM systems, the assumptions were valid.
The problem is the people who started using Xmodem for things it
has never been able to do in a reasonable manner: tranfer files to
non-CPM systems, or use communications devices other than direct
dial 300 baud modems.

Kermit was designed from the begining to be used on a variety of
machines.  It is quite robust and can handle file transfers over
data chanels that support all printing ascii characters and one
control character (normally ^A).

Zmodems main problem is lack of good free versions for most operating
systems, when os9/68k and primos versions are available I may even
consider replacing my use of kermit with Zmodem.

-- 
Bob Larson	Arpa:	blarson@skat.usc.edu
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