5.4.2. What kinds of terminal programs exist for the 128? Desterm Desterm 2.0/2.1 Matt Desmond | mdesmond@ionline.net + http://www.ionline.net/~mdesmond/desterm.html For more information on DesTerm or to get a copy by mail, contact Matt. Bob's Term Pro Dialogue 128 Wave Click Here Software Maurice Randall ftp://ccnga.uwaterloo.ca/pub/cbm/INCOMING/telecom/ A GEOS 128 high speed terminal program. Demo available at above addres= s. 5.5. Can I use my Commodore computer on Amateur Radio? Yes you can. If you want to use your CBM system as a terminal for a standard RS-232 compatible packet radio Terminal Node Controller (TNC),= you can hook it up in the same way as a modem. See Section 5 for more information on how to connect your Computer to a modem. In addition, the ICHPUG User Group (see Section 15 for address) has an extensive library of files for the C64/128 relating to Amateur Radio. If you would like to use the Commodore 64 as a Amateur Radio repeater controller, Engineering Cosulting manufacturers such an item: Engineering Consulting 583 Candlewood Street Brea, CA 92621 Robert Blumenkranz (Contact) radiobob@earthlink.net (Contact) http://www.earthlink.net/users/engcon/webdocs/ 5.6. Is there TCP/IP software available for Commodore computers? Unfortunately, there is none at this time. However, the following information is available: Jim Brain has performed tests that demonstrated the ICMP and IP protocol layers. Daniel Dallmann has now verified these tests and both of them, as well as Cameron Kaiser, are independently working on a TCP/IP protocol stack for the Commodore 64. #! rnews 2604 Path: pravda.aa.msen.com!news1.best.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.mathworks.= com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!katbert.ipa.net!news From: Jim Self Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: Re: Triumph of the Nerds Date: 5 Jul 1996 06:13:49 GMT Organization: Internet Partners of America Lines: 63 Distribution: world Message-ID: <4ribqt$in5@katbert.ipa.net> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: ipa-171-12.ipa.net Kungfushi@f103.n3407.z1.fidonet.org wrote: > > On 06/26/96, Kungfushi quoted All: Re: Triumph of the Nerds. > > eN> In article , > eN> Frigg@f103.n3407.z1.fidonet.org says... > >The C64 was *my* first > computer, > eN> and that was in 1992, when it was >considered >by most people to be > ancient > eN> history. etc etc ---snip---snip-- -Kungfushi History rewritten: The Antique Curse by fiction historian Jim Self , Jan 18, 2008 Back in 1996, a major TV network ran a broadcast that made mention of the old standby Commodore 64 and its incredible impact on marketing of personal computers. Many folks had long since forgotton how they had enjoyed their first computer. But this presentation rekindled their old interest and they longed for the old machine. As a result, many went about the task of hunting up a replacement just to "collect", as indeed we are a nation of collectors. A new fad was born. The strange result was that old Commodore computers, their periferals, games and other programs became highly prized items idling away on display on their favorite what-not shelves. Some were even used for mail boxes or painted in psychodelic colors as a sort of new art form or were placed on the dash of vehicles in the hope of spiritual protection. Then the cost of old out of production Commodore equipment of every description skyrocketed as did its software. Collectors abounded. Prices eventually exceeded the cost of new IBM and other PC related toys. They were no longer available in swap shops nor on the net but only in antique shoppes. Those true-to-the heart Commodore lovers were forced to pay huge prices to replace what they needed to continue their beloved hobby. Or else just give it up. Another offshoot was that the rather quiet little usenet known as comp.sys.cbm was inundated with novices whose numerous irresponsible postings ultimately ran off the old time correspondents. A similar phenomenon occurred in CB radio in the early 1960's. Sometimes it may be best not to be honored, decorated, lauded applauded or even noticed. :) #! rnews 24489 Path: pravda.aa.msen.com!news1.best.com!news.texas.net!newshost.comco.com= !newsfeed.concentric.net!news-master!mariner.cris.com!Gaelyne From: Gaelyne@cris.com (Gaelyne Moranec) Newsgroups: comp.sys.cbm Subject: COMP.SYS.CBM: General FAQ, v3.1 Part 4/9 Supersedes: Followup-To: comp.sys.cbm Date: 5 Jul 1996 06:21:24 GMT Organization: Brain Innovations, Inc. Lines: 414 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: Reply-To: brain@mail.msen.com NNTP-Posting-Host: mariner.cris.com Summary: This posting contains answers to questions that commonly surface= in comp.sys.cbm. This posting will tell you enough to get your computer connected to a network, fixed, and/or enhanced. This f= ile should be read by new users of comp.sys.cbm before posting to th= e group. It should also be proofread by users who are currently active in comp.sys.cbm. Keywords: CBM FAQ Help List C64 C128 VIC Modem X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] Archive-name: cbm-main-faq.3.1.p4 Comp-answers-archive-name: commodore/main-faq/part4 News-answers-archive-name: commodore/main-faq/part4 Comp-sys-cbm-archive-name: main-faq/part4 Version: 3.1 Last-modified: 1996/06/05 =09 -----------------------------------------------------------------------= ---- Table of Contents (for this file) --------------------------------- 6. The Online Information Reservoir 6.1. How do I download? What is a transfer protocol? 6.2. What is the difference between PETSCII and ASCII? 6.3. Where can I find Commodore programs? 6.4. What is a file extension, and what do they stand for? -----------------------------------------------------------------------= ---- 6. The Online Information Reservoir How true this is. There is information everywhere online, just waiting to be accessed and used. Hoever, getting at the information can be a time consuming process. 6.1. How do I download? What is a transfer protocol? To transfer files for another computer (another 64 or 128, UNIX, OS/2, DOS, MVS, VMS, Amiga, Atari, or other), you should use a transfer proto= col. Although it is possible to transfer files by turning on the terminal program's capture buffer and receiving the file, this is not very reliable and is prone to errors. When transferring any sizable amount = of data, one should use some sort of error-correcting file transfer protoc= ol. A file transfer protocol splits a file into many pieces, or "packets", = and send a number of them at a time. It then waits for an acknowledgement = from the receiver that the received received the packets correctly. At this point, the sender send the next batch of packets. This process is repeated until the entore file is transmitted. Each packet contains computed checksums and other error detection bytes to ensure the received data is not corrupt. Below are descriptions for some of the more popular protocols: C1 (commonly called Punter Protocol) C1 is a Commodore specific transfer protocol that used to be the standard for file transfer. However, with the increase in IBM-based bulleting board, it has been replaced by other protocols. Most Commodo= re BBS systems still offer C1 (usually called Punter in the list) as an op= tion, but almost no other BBS systems have support for it. There is, however= , a C1 protocol transfer program for MS-DOS called puntr104.zip. KERMIT KERMIT is the name of one of the oldest file transfer protocols. KERMI= T is unique in that it can encode the file being transmitted so that it does not contain any bytes greater than 128 and does not contain any special control bytes that terminals use to perform special actions. A= s such, this protocol is the most robust, but it is also the slowest. A common statement is, "if you can't KERMIT it, you can't get it" XMODEM XMODEM comes in several varieties. Standard XMODEM sends files in 128 = byte packets. There are two standard error-correction methods with XMODEM checksum and CRC. CRC is the more modern of the two. There is also a version of XMODEM which supports 1K-byte packets. This version is most commonly known as XMODEM-1K, but is sometimes erroneously called YMODEM. YMODEM YMODEM is a "batch" XMODEM protocol, allowing you to transfer multiple files in one operation. ZMODEM A new file transfer protocol is ZMODEM. ZMODEM is theoretically the fastest transfer protocol, but only shows a speed gain over the others on noise-free telephone lines. It achieves this speed increase by only replying to the sender about the bad packets. Most terminal programs support PUNTER, XMODEM, XMODEM-1K, YMODEM, and KERMIT. The Kermit terminal program only supports KERMIT, and Novaterm= , as of version 9.5, supports ZMODEM receives, but not sends. 6.2. What is the difference between PETSCII and ASCII? (Note that the Amiga line of computers uses the ISO 8859-1 character set, so this does not apply to Amiga computers) When Commodore designed the PET line of computers, they chose for the character set encoding a special encoding called PETSCII. This set is similar but not the same as the American Standard Code for Information Intercahnge (ASCII). Now, this does not cause any problem when transferring information between or among Commodore computers (except the Amiga, which I believe uses ASCII), but causes problems when exchanging information with othe computer types. The obvious solution is for all Commodore users to translate incoming information into PETSCII from ASCII when talking to another type of computer. However, this effectively ruins binary files, which have no concept of character codes. Therefore, the rules are: Do not translate when exchanging binary files with any computer Translate all textual information exchanged with non-Commodore computer= s. Translate textual information exchanged with Commodore computers only if they are translating it as well. If a text file you retrieve looks like the uppercase letters should be lowercase and vice versa, then the file is in ASCII and needs to be converted to PETSCII. 6.3. Where can I find Commodore programs? Commodore programs are available from a number of sources. For commer= cial software, please see Section 15.1 for a list of software dealers. For shareware and public domain, you can use FTP (Section 6.9), electronic mail (Section 6.5.2), and bulletin board system in addition to the software dealers to download or buy programs and other software. 6.4. What is a file extension, and what do they stand for? A file extension is a 1 or more letter suffix appended to the end of a = file name to indicate the type of file it is. The extension usually indicat= es the contents of a file. The list below describes some more common file extensions, what they are used for, and how to use the file. Please note that these file extensions are not Commodore-exclusive. Ma= ny computers use file extensions. Also note that some file extensions are cumulative. IF a file is named "filename.tar.gz", this indicates t= hat the file is of type "gz", and the file(s) inside the gz file are of typ= e "tar". To use this file, one would note that both extension are archival extensions. One would undo the "gz" archival method to restor= e the "filename.tar" archive, then undo the "tar" archival method to rest= ore the original file. Extension: Meaning: Notes: ----------------------------------------- .txt Text File This file is not compressed, so it ne= eds no decompression step. However, the = file may be in either ASCII or PETSCII for= mat, so a conversion step may be necessary. Most terminal programs can do this conversion, and there are stand-alone programs that do the necessary conver= sion also. .sda Self-Dissolving Just load and run the .sda file to Archive dissolve the archive. Will dissolve itself into its constituent files. C64 and C128 .sda files are not compatible with each other. .sfx Self-Extracting Load and run just like a .sda file. Archive The same archive can be extracted on either a C64 or a C128, memory permit= ting. .arc ARChive Use the program arc250.4 or earlier for the 64 or arc128 for the 128 to dissolve the archive. arc128 is avai= lable as part of the CS-DOS package. Other de-archive programs may exist. .lzh LHArchive Use the program lhx in CS-DOS on the 128 to dissolve this archive. These are not very common. This archive uses the same format as .sfx files, but is not self-extracting. It is a standard format also used by Amiga (and MS-DOS) computers. This format originated on the PC. .lnx Lynx Archive The above formats all compress files = when storing them; Lynx just stores them. There are many different versions of Lynx out there, so good luck dissolvi= ng these. .lbr Library Archive A format similar to lynx. Library dissolving programs exist for both th= e 64 and 128 to dissolve these. .uue UUEncoded file UUencoding is a process whereby a bin= ary file can be converted to an all-text file, transferable by E-mail. This encoded file can later be UUDecoded b= ack to the original binary file. Unix has uuencoding/decoding utilities. A program "uuxfer" for the C64 (by Fuzzy Fox) will both uuencode and uudecode. Note that the contents= of uue file could be another archived fi= le. .uua UU archive An extension of uuencoding, a uuarchi= ve file is a concatenation of one or mor= e UUEncoded files. So far as I know, t= his was introduced by Craig Bruce in his = ACE shell for the C=3D128, and the utilit= ies included with that shell create and dissolve uuarchives. .kar Kevin's Archive Another text archive format that seem= s to have originated with Craig Bruce, this is a proscription for concatenat= ing a series of text files (which can inc= lude uuencoded files) into one file. More information can be found in C. Bruce'= s documentation for his ace shell. x! ZIPCoded file ZIPCode is a program that takes an en= tire disk and "compacts" it into 4 files t= hat have a number followed by a '!' and t= hen a filename. Also, ZipCode can compre= ss files, in which case the x is a lette= r (a,b,c,d) and there need not be 4 fil= es. If ZipCode has compressed individual files, there will be an "i!" or "x!"-prefixed file on the disk that h= olds the directory of the file compressed.= To make things even more confusing, ther= e are two versions of ZipCode (v1 and v= 2). The newer version will accept v1 arch= ives, but not vice-versa. Use ZipCode v2 t= o unpack such archives. x!! ZIPCode 6-pack This is a ZIPCode archive that takes = an entire disk and puts it into 6 files, each file containing GCS codes and he= ader info for the tracks. This is basical= ly a nybble copier that stores the data = it receives from the disk into files. .bco BCODEd file BCODing is very similar to UUencoding= in that a binary file is converted into = an all-text format that is 33% larger th= an the original. The difference is that= the BCODE format provides additional information for error detection and automatic data segmentation and reordering. C-code versions of "bcod= e" and "unbcode" are available via FTP a= nd Commodore versions are provided with ACE-128/64. .zip ZIP archive Zip is a file format used on IBM platforms and is created by the PKZip program that is available for some platforms. There are two forms of zi= p files that have the same extension. Both are created by different version= s of PKZip. The first, version 1.01, can = be dissolved on a 64 by using the progra= m UNZIP64. The second, newer format is version 2.04, which cannot be dissolv= ed by UNZIP64. Your best solution when in = doubt is to dissolve the files on another platform. For the 128, there is a ve= rsion of the UNZIP64 program, called UNZIP1= 28 that has been modified to run in 128 = mode. It is in a file called NZP12817.SFX. = This archive also has a 64 version. ]x Compression Kit x =3D 4,7,8, cmd, or c(xx) to denote = type Archive of media that was compressed. The fi= les can be extracted only with The Compre= ssion Kit, from Mad Man Software. .tar TAR Archive UNIX Tape ARchiver. This program can= be used to archive files as well. The f= ile must be decoded using tar. .Z Compress archive Compress is a program on UNIX that wi= ll shrink a single file. It is usually = used on .tar files in UNIX to reduce their size. The file must be decoded by th= e uncompress program, available on UNIX= , PC, Mac and other platforms. Also, a very old version of GNU Zip u= sed this extension, although the file is = not fully compatible with the compress fo= rmat. .gz GZIP Archive GZIP is a free program developed by t= he Free Software Foundation to freely sh= rink their software. the resulting file m= ust be decoded by GUNZIP, available on many platforms, before using. .taz Compressed TAR This is a file that should have the extension "tar.Z", but has been short= ened for MS-DOS. Run uncompress, then tar= on this file. .tgz Gzipped Tar File This is a file that should have exten= sion tar.gz, but has been shortened for MS= -DOS Run gzip or similar on the file, then= tar. .gif Graphics This is a compressed graphics format Interchange created by Compuserve. To view this = file, | Format one must find a GIF viewer program: + GEOGif.SFX - Converts GIF to GEOPain= t. + VGIF.SFX - 64 mode viewer. + GDS.SFX - 128 mode viewer. .jpeg Joint This graphics format can use one of t= wo Photographers compression algorithms. One, called = DPCM Expert (Differential Pulse COde Modulation) Group retains all of the information in the= original file, which is usually a pic= ture. The more common algorithm, called DCT (Discrete Cosine Transform), relies o= n the inability of the human eye to disting= uish among some colors. DCT "throws away"= some information in the file (picture), wh= ile still retaining the essence of the pi= cture. To view these pictures, one must eith= er obtain a JPEG veiwer or convert them = to GIF format. .jpg JPEG This is an MS-DOS named .jpeg file. .tiff Tagged This is a graphics format used on hig= h Image performance workstations. To view th= is File graphics format, you will need to con= vert Format something else. .pcx IBM Picture This is graphics format used in DOS o= n IBM machines. Convert this file to a GIF file to view. .pict Mac PICTure This is a graphics format used on App= le Macintosh machines. Convert this fil= e to a GIF file to view. .d64 1541 Disk Image This file stores an image of one enti= re .x64 disk, for use with Commodore emulator programs. Several programs exist to extract the image onto a disk or plac= e a disk onto an image. The only differe= nce between the .x64 and .d64 file types = is an added 64 byte header on a .x64 file. .t64 DataSette Image This file is analogous to the .d64 fi= le type, but for tapes. .p00 PC64 (Emulator) This file encapsulates a Commodore pr= ogram Program File Image or data file. To extract the origina= l file, remove the first 26 characters.= In addition to .p00, there is .s00 (SEQ)= , and .u00 (USR) files, but are very rare. .bmp Windows Bitmap This is a format used for graphics in Microsoft Windows and OS/2. Convert = this file to a GIF to view. .pbm Portable Bitmap .xbm X bitmap This is a format used for graphics on= the X windowsing system. Convert this fi= le to a GIF to view. .html HyperText This is a WWW hypertext document. To Markup view this file, you will need a WWW Language browser of some kind. See Section 6.= 8 for more information on WWW. .doc Document This file could be a word processing = file from a program like Word for Windows,= Wordperfect, or any other word proces= sor. Also, some text files that contain documentation use this extension. .cvt GEOS file GEOS files use a special file format.= The files are called USR files, but they = have special information in the file that normal files don't, so you cannot jus= t upload a GEOS file like any SEQ or PR= G file. You can pack all the extra information and the data into a regul= ar Commodore SEQ or PRG file with a prog= ram Called Convert. It has a version 2.5= and a 3.0. The files that result from th= is conversion have the extension. The f= ile must be processed again by Convert be= fore it can be used with GEOS. .N64 64NET file Since the 64NET system works by allow= ing an MS-DOS machine to be used as a lar= ge disk drive, a way was developed to ma= p CBM filenames into the MS-DOS limitat= ions. The .N64 filenames indicates such a f= ile. If the file type indicates an archive, there are many programs availabl= e that will handle most archival methods. One of these is called Omega-Q = II, which includes one-stop compression and decompression of many of the ab= ove archival types. If you use a host system to download the files from, you may want to decompress the files before downloading. Even though the files will be larger to download, the time to decompress them offline will not be a factor. However, those who pay by-the-minute for download time would probably want the smallest possible file, which implies decompressing o= n the local machine, except in the case of a UU encoded file. These file= s are actually bigger in the 'UU' format.