VAX file format conversion

[Douglas Taylor]

On 8/13/2016 3:14 PM, Peter Coghlan wrote:
>
>> Oh and if you are doing serial transfers, yes, keeping the baud rate
>> low is a good strategy.
>> I had to spend some time working on the DECnet-DOS DDCMP driver
>> developing better character overrun recovery strategies. Yes, you may
>> be coming in via a terminal line, but that line can hiccup from time to time.
>>
> Additionally, I would suggest using any terminal line other than the
> console line (OPA0:) to do any sort of serial file transfers, even for
> cutting and pasting groups of lines into a terminal emulator running in
> a window on some other system.  It is very easy to overrun the console
> and to end up getting it hung requiring a reboot or even a poweroff to
> clear it.  I suspect there is no flow control at all on the console
> terminal line and error recover is poorer than on ordinary terminal lines.
>
> If you can only log in on the console due to lack of licensing, I would
> suggest manually typing in just the VAX-VMS hobbyist license (and maybe a
> license for a networking product) on the console, then logging on using
> another terminal or over the network to transfer the other licenses.
>
> If you can't avoid cutting and pasting into a terminal emulator attached
> to the console line, do no more than groups of one or two lines at a time.

The console line is different than other serial ports on the VAX when it 
comes to flow
control, I seem to remember using the other lines for transfer without 
these problems.

I was too lazy to type in the one PAK by hand, although I seem to 
remember doing that in
the past.

>
>>> Is Hyperterminal screwing things up?
>>>
> Hyperterminal and/or any of the so-called VT100 emulators bundled with
> Windows are of little use to connect to anything that makes more than
> the simplest use of a VT100 terminal or later generations of same.  It
> will work ok for entering line mode commands but if you start up an
> editor or another fullscreen application of moderate complexity, it
> will fail spectacularly and leave you with a garbled mess on the screen.
> The problem is that Hyperterminal et al do not implement scrolling
> regions correctly or maybe at all.
>
> If Hyperterminal purports to provide kermit file transfer, there may be
> an option somewhere to specify text rather than binary file transfer or
> it may be that this is not required at that end.

Is there a linux program that will do the serial terminal 
emulation/logging ?  I have a laptop
that I am using as the console I am thinking of changing it over to 
Debian Linux.  I was
using an old Dell Mini but the keys were way to small for typing accurately.

Doug