[VTKERMIT.DOC] -- Overview documentation for VTKermit -- 9 Feb 86

VTKermit is an enhanced version of Columbia University's MS-Kermit program.
VTKermit is based on version 2.26 of MS-Kermit and contains all features from
that version with the exception of the Heath-19 emulation mode and the ability
to run under versions of MS-DOS prior to 2.0.

This version of VTKermit supports IBM PCs (and /XTs, Portables, ATs, maybe jr)
and most compatibles.  Also, the EXE file will run on the DEC Rainbow, though
some features (some VT100 extensions, menu mode) are not supported on the
Rainbow.  Limited testing of scripts on the Rainbow suggests that they don't
work either:  perhaps usage on the Rainbow should be restricted to the vanilla
terminal emulation and file transfer functions until a future version
addresses these problems.

VTKermit adds the following features to MS-Kermit:

  1)  VT100 emulation
  2)  Script files
  3)  Command menus
  4)  Many other features too numerous to mention here

For a longer list of VTKermit features, see FEATURES.DOC.

The documentation distributed with VTKermit makes no effort to replace
Columbia University's fine documentation for Kermit.  Instead, the more
important differences between vanilla Kermit and VTKermit are identified, and
some usage instructions are provided.  The major documentation effort went
into documenting scripts and menus, which are completely new features.

Also, since VTKermit emulates very closely a DEC VT100 terminal, no effort to
document the available VT100 escape sequences was made.  See a VT100 manual
for help with VT100 features.  Instead, VT100.DOC talks about differences
between the VT100 emulation mode provided by VTKermit and that of a real
VT100.  Also, some details of screen handling are covered in that document.

Documentation distributed with VTKermit consists of:
  VTKERMIT.DOC	-- This file
  FEATURES.DOC	-- Glossy-style list of some VTKermit features
  VT100.DOC	-- Documentation of VT100 features
  SCRIPT.DOC	-- Documentation of script facility
  MENU.DOC	-- Documentation of command menus
  OVERVIEW.SCR	-- Simple "interactive" overview, a script file

VTKermit is distributed with source code.  The program is written in 8086/8088
Macro Assembler language and may be assembled with any Microsoft-compatible
assembler from IBM's MASM version 2.0 onward.  Microsoft's version 4.0
assembler is recommended due to its higher speed.  The distributed
VTKERMIT.EXE file was compressed with the EXEPACK program that comes with MASM
version 4.0, which is also highly recommended.

To install VTKermit to run on a floppy disk, just copy the files from the
distributed "EXE disk" to a DOS system disk.

To install VTKermit to run on a hard disk system, create a VTKermit (or other
name) directory, copy the files from the "EXE disk" into that directory, and
add the directory to the PATH that is set up in AUTOEXEC.BAT.  VTKermit
searches the default PATH for most of its "system" files, so you can be
connected to any directory you want while running the program.

To rebuild VTKermit, copy all of the files from the two "SOURCE disks" into a
VTKermit (or other) directory on your hard disk and type DOITALL.  MASM and
LINK should both be on your default PATH, as should EXEPACK if you have it.
(EXEPACK is well worthwhile, as it cuts the size of the EXE file from about
80K to about 50K bytes.)  Be sure that you have a lot of free disk space when
rebuilding VTKermit ... you will need something like a megabyte.  If after
changing a few pieces of VTKermit you need to relink but don't want to
reassemble everything, you can use the LINKIT batch file instead of DOITALL.

The original MS-Kermit version 2.26 on which VTKermit is based was written by
Jeff Damens and Daphne Tzoar at Columbia University.  The design of the Kermit
file transfer concept and protocol was by Frank da Cruz and Bill Catchings at
Columbia.

All of the VTKermit enhancements were written by Tad Marshall.  Funding for
the development of the VT100 emulator came from Bankers Trust Company.
Funding and much of the design for the rest of the enhancements came from Stan
Baer and Rich Stillman at Harvard Business School.  The script language was
modelled after the script language of Datability's Remote Access Facility,
RAF, for which Rich Rupp and Ron Howard of Datability get credit.

VTKermit is

    Copyright (C) 1982,1983,1984,1985,1986 Trustees of Columbia University

and is subject to all the conditions imposed by Columbia University.  These
primarily disallow any attempt to sell VTKermit or other Kermits for profit.

[End of VTKERMIT.DOC]