3.783 a multilingual Kermit (57)

Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Sun, 26 Nov 89 17:25:08 EST

Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 783. Sunday, 26 Nov 1989.

Date: Fri, 24 Nov 89 14:19 MST
From: ARippin@UNCAMULT.BITNET
Subject: Kermit_document

A KERMIT PROTOCOL EXTENSION FOR INTERNATIONAL CHARACTER SETS

Christine Gianone
Manager, Kermit Development and Distribution
Columbia University Center for Computing Activities
612 West 115th Street
New York, NY 10025, USA

DRAFT NUMBER 4
AUGUST 24, 1989


NOTICE: THIS IS ONLY A PREVIEW OF THE FOURTH DRAFT. THE FINAL FOURTH DRAFT
WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER. SUGGESTIONS WELCOME!


ABSTRACT

A two-level extension to the presentation layer of the Kermit file
transfer protocol is proposed to allow transfer of non-English-language
text files between unlike computers. Level 1 allows substitution of
single character sets other than ASCII in Kermit's normal text-file
transfer syntax. Level 2 specifies a new transfer syntax in which
multiple character sets may be used, along with mechanisms for switching
among them as defined in ISO Standard 2022. This is still a DRAFT
proposal. Readers with knowledge of real-world multi-alphabet
applications and file formats are urged to comment on the suitability of
this proposal. It is assumed the reader is familiar with the Kermit
file transfer protocol. It is also assumed that the reader is familiar
with ISO Standards 4873 and 2022, but these are summarized in Appendix B.



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