[TUHS] Stdin Redirect in Cu History/Alternatives?

[Dan Cross]

On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 9:40 PM Larry McVoy <lm at 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 at 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 at 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.

        - Dan C.
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