Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!unm-la!lanl!beta!ttp
From: ttp@beta.lanl.gov (T T Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d
Subject: Re: Thanks to everyone who helped with SIMTEL20
Message-ID: <22924@beta.lanl.gov>
Date: 7 Dec 88 20:23:00 GMT
References: <1383@virginia.acc.virginia.edu> <5616@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>
Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
Lines: 36

In article <5616@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU>, holtz@odin.ucsd.edu (Fred Holtz) writes:
> In article <1383@virginia.acc.virginia.edu> lhb6v@watt.acc.Virginia.EDU (Laura H. Burchard) writes:
> >my local UNIX mainframe, and from there to m PC. For anybody
> >else who has the same problem, the procedure is this:
> >
> >ftp to SIMTEL20
> ...
> 
> This procedure will work,  but sending a file using binary kermit is slower
> than uuencoding the file,  sending it via text kermit,  then uudecoding on
> the PC side.  The uuencoding increases file size about 50%,  but it has been
> my experience that binary kermit file transfers are > 90% longer than text
> mode transfers.  I don't know why kermit has such a large overhead for binary
> file transfers;  any kermit gurus out there that can clue me in??

I have had the exact same experience, but I always assumed the
slow transfers had something to do with the elaborate
multiplexing, encryption, decryption, de-multiplexing link up
that our communications go through.  Perhaps the slow transfer
is a characteristic of all error checking protocols.

The uuencoding-ascii transfer scheme works great for downloads,
but I haven't been able to find an equivalent scheme for
uploading.  It would be very nice to have a small unix routine
that would set up a large memory buffer area to accept high
speed uploads of ascii files.  I know that if I try to upload
this way into a text editor, I quickly overload the input buffer
and start losing characters.  Obviously this would only work for
highly reliable links, but that would be fine for me.  I think
that at least 99% of the binary files that I download as
uuencoded ascii arrive perfectly.  Does anybody out there have
an uploading program such as I described?

Terry Phillips
Los Alamos National Laboratory
ttp@beta.lanl.gov