Kermit and 200LX
================
For very long I have known that the old DOS-bast HP palmtops can use
the Kermit [1] protocol. But I never tried to use it before. I have had
several computers with serial port and I also have had the serial
cable for 95/100/1000/200LX machines (with an adapter for some HP
calculators).
So a few days ago I have tried to use all these components and to
transfer some files via serial line. I have used my SGI Indigo
workstation (the R4000-based model which still works - my "main" R3000
Indigo experienced a failure some time ago) and the HP 200LX (a
modified model with an up-clocked CPU and with some 4 MB of RAM). The
Indigo has round ("Apple-style") serial ports so I have had to find
also the adapter for them. I think that it came with that HP serial
cable but I am not sure.
The connection was quite straightforward - I set the "Kermit commands"
menu in the HP's serial transfer program, the n selected to "start
Kermit server" and issues several commands to the C-Kermit on the
Indigo [2]. Then I was able to "send" files to the HP (there was
nothing to ""get") from the C-Kermit's shell. The only issue I have
found is that the HP software does not implement the "remote directory"
command so one cannot see (from the computer side) what is already on
the HP.
Will play with it more....
References:
[1]
gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Kermit%20%28protocol%29
[2]
gopher://sdf.org/1/users/jirka/lx.tak