#Ahost
9 messages in this thread
I've been trying to use the program Ahost to download programs from Compuserve,
and most the time I'm successful, but….If it receives just 1 NAKed packet the
program will CRASH. There goes 20 minutes of wasted on-line time, and long
distance charges since I live out in the boonies. Anyone else have this
problem, suggested fixes, or anything that will help? Oh, By the way, this only
seems to occur when I'm using the B protocol download feature of Ahost. The
Xmodem seems to work OK.
John Gager
John,
The B-Protocol lock-up problem is a bug and at this point, there is no
known workaround other than to not use B-Protocol. The authors are going to do
another version some day, but that may be quite a bit off as they have lots of
other work to do first.
Don
I was afraid of that Don. Most of the time it works OK, so if I decide to take
the chance, I just keep my fingers crossed! Do you know whether or not
CompuServe is working on a version of Vidtex for the Amiga? Sure hope so!
John Gager
John,
At this point, I'm not sure what CIS's plans are for a full Vidtex
package for the Amiga.
Don
Knowing what's coming in the future in the way of system software, it would be
extremely unlikely that CIS will write a full Vidtex package for the Amiga.
However, that doesn't mean that a 3rd party won't (the specs are public
domain).
When considering all the high powered programmers their are on these
forums and all the public domain protocols stored in the DLs, when is
Compuserve going to make use of that talent. All they need to do is publish
the interface that CIS uses to interface to a protocol program and allow a way
for users to install their own interface. This way, CIS could be used to test
newer and more powerful file transfer protocols in a very natural way. All we
need is a C compiler…
David Masterson
David,
The Vidtex protocols are available (GO VIDTEX) to the public. I
suspect that someone has at least taken a look at them with the idea of
bringing out a terminal program with full Vidtex support. Or perhaps there are
other things brewing.
Don
The Vidtex documentation doesn't help much. Sure maybe someone in the Amiga
world could implement a better Vidtex program for the Amiga (assuming there is
one already). However, the new program would still be restricted to the file
transfer protocols that CIS allows (A, B, Xmodem, etc.). It would be nice
(think it could be done?) if the program that sets up reading the data as it
comes in could call a user definable/creatable program to check the protocol.
I mean the program on the Compuserve side. However, the overhead in allowing
someone unknown to CIS to test out such a program and then have CIS verify it
(for Time Bombs, etc.) is probably prohibitive – so, I guess, we'll just forget
I brought this up?? }8]
David Masterson
David,
Several years ago, CIS did have an area (it still exists…but the
tools <languages> are no longer accessible) where users could write and run
programs. Unfortunately for the majority, a small minority attempted (and a
few succeeded) in getting at the lower levels of the system and "played games"
with the system software. A few accidents also occured from simple runaway
programs just due to the fact that no system is completely foolproof.
In any event, it became too "dangerous" to continue with the
programming area for the most part, and now any software running on the system,
is programmed by the CIS programmers. As you say, that means that to allow
testing of any new protocol, CIS would have to supply programmer's to write the
software on CIS's end. And as you noted…that would be prohibitive.
Your idea isn't a bad idea, and perhaps at some point in the future,
CIS will be able to attempt something like it.
Don