+ our case); the many and varied UNIX and other API "standards" with
+ which to "comply".
+
+ Upon first glance at the source code, you will probably be appalled.
+ Many will be tempted to clean it up and modernize it. But as soon as
+ you do, you are sure to break something. Remember that above all else,
+ the C-Kermit code is portable to every Unix platform that ever existed,
+ going back Unix V7 (1979)*, and to several other completely different
+ and unrelated operating-system families such as DEC/HP VMS, DG AOS/VS,
+ and Stratus VOS, as well as to some Unix offshoots like OS-9 and Plan 9
+ (from Outer Space). Every release of Kermit has been checked on every
+ platform available -- the older the better! -- to make sure it still
+ builds and runs. Even today (2011), there are modern Unix systems that
+ have non-ANSI C compilers, foremost among them HP-UX (where an ANSI
+ optimizing C compiler is available, but only as an expensive add-on).
+ In a way, portability is the most important feature of C-Kermit and
+ every effort should be made to preserve it through future releases.
+
+ Voluminous edit histories are available going back to May 1985. The
+ first versions of C-Kermit were done on our [29]DEC VAX-11/750 with
+ Ultrix 1.0 and 2.0 (as well as departmental 750s with 4.2BSD**), DEC
+ Pro-380 workstations (desktop PDP-11s) running 2.9BSD, which was
+ [30]ported to the 380 by us. Later (1988 or so) on a big VAX 8650 with
+ Ultrix, which became an 8700 (these no doubt weighed several tons), and
+ finally a succession of non-DEC equipment: an Encore Multimax, 25 years
+ worth of Suns, and now Linux on [31]HP Blades. We also had our own VMS
+ development systems for some years. All this plus a generous assortment
+ of departmental and offsite guest accounts on a multitude of platforms.
+ Anyway, the edit histories:
+
+ [32]ckc04e.txt C-Kermit 4.2(030) May 1985 to 4E(072) Jan 1989.
+ [33]ckc04f.txt C-Kermit 4F(077) Arp 1989 to 4F(095) Aug 1989.
+ [34]ckc168.txt Updates to C-Kermit 5A(168) for VMS Nov 1991
+ [35]ckc178.txt C-Kermit 5A(100) Jul 1989 to 5A(178) Jan 1992
+ [36]ckc188.txt C-Kermit 5A(188) development, 1992
+ [37]ckc189.txt C-Kermit 5A(189) development, 1993
+ [38]ckc192.txt C-Kermit 6.0(192) development, 1998
+ [39]ckc197.txt C-Kermit 7.0(197) development, 2000
+ [40]ckc200.txt C-Kermit 8.0.200 development, 2001
+ [41]ckc211.txt C-Kermit 8.0.201 through 8.0.209 2001-2004
+ [42]ckc300.txt C-Kermit 9.0.300 June 2011
+
+ _________________________________
+ * C-Kermit 6.0 was the last one to be built on V7, as I recall. The
+ code should still be good for V7 but it probably has outgrown the
+ 16-bit address space. In any case there is still a V7 makefile target
+ and a V7 path through the forest of #ifdefs in the code if anybody is
+ running V7 on an emulator and would like to try building C-Kermit.
+ There is no support for V6 but that is only because no V6 system was
+ ever found for development. Notice that some other 16-bit Unixes are
+ supported in the code, including 2.9BSD and Tandy Xenix 3.0, but have
+ not been tried since C-Kermit 6.0
+
+ ** C-Kermit 9.0.300 was built successfully on 4.2BSD about 25 years
+ later, in June 2011.