On 12/10/22 10:17 PM, Dan Cross wrote:
On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 9:40 PM Larry McVoy <lm@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@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@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.