24 Feb
2007
24 Feb
'07
3:07 a.m.
On Sat, 2007-02-24 at 18:30 +1300, Mike van Bokhoven wrote:
Now this is going to sound very vague, but perhaps
it'll jog someone else's
memory. Once upon a time, it was possible to buy a serial file transfer
package that supported transfer to/from MS-DOS machines with no removable
media, e.g. machines with dead floppy drives, so long as they were able to
load MS-DOS or similar in some way. The process went something like this:
1. Make sure the two machines have compatible RS232 settings.
2. Connect the two machines with a null-modem cable.
3. On the driveless machine ('client'), type a short command that
effectively mapped the serial port to the console.
4. On the 'server' machine, run the transfer software, selecting the option
that sends the software to the client machine. The server would then upload
and start the client software - instant networking.
IIRC this was Laplink, using a serial cable. You entered CTTY COM1
which would switch the console to using the serial port, and then the
remote Laplink would bootstrap itself and do a CTTY CON to give the
console back.
I can't remember exactly how it did this, maybe it did a COPY COM1
LL.COM and had a bootstrap that would copy over a 7-bit link.
You could use this method to enter in a larger program, by dumping it in
hex, converting it to a DEBUG script with lots of E commands and then
pushing it in (assuming you have DEBUG available).
--
Lawrence Wilkinson lawrence at ljw.me.uk
The IBM 360/30 page http://www.ljw.me.uk/ibm360