On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 9:40 PM Larry McVoy
<lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 07:33:54PM -0700, Warner Losh wrote:
On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 7:32 PM Larry McVoy
<lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 07:26:09PM -0700, Warner Losh wrote:
> > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 7:16 PM Larry McVoy <lm(a)mcvoy.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Wow, Kermit is still around? I think the last time I used
that was
> around 1985.
>
> Are modems still a thing?
I used it last year... without a modem.
What problem does it solve that is not solved?
Talking to my DEC Rainbow and downloading files to it? It was
the go-to
protocol of choice. Xmodem is available, but
messes up file
sizes. kermit
just works with this device that's so slow
it drops characters
at 2400 baud.
OK, that is cool, but my question was what problem does it solve that
we face today? Other than talking to 30-40 year old hardware. Why is
Kermit still a thing?
Aside from talking to legacy systems, the Kermit protocol probably has
little to recommend it (xmodem specifically still gets a bit of a
workout in embedded/firmware spaces because it's dead simple). Kermit
as a communications swiss army knife of a program is probably more useful.
That said, I could see it for downloading bulk data from scada systems
over a slow link (RF, serial, or maybe some weird 7 bit thing). I tend
to doubt that's happening much with Kermit these days, though.
It works, it's not flaky and it will talk to practically anything. I use
it for talking with virtual systems running older OSes (Mac, unix, etc)
where other stuff doesn't or just sorta works, if you can run kermit and
theres a path, it'll prolly work more often than not, and certainly more
than more exotic stuff.