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