On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 9:40 PM Larry McVoy 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 wrote: > > > > > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022 at 07:26:09PM -0700, Warner Losh wrote: > > > > On Sat, Dec 10, 2022, 7:16 PM Larry McVoy 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.