Date: Thu 13 Sep 84 16:32:44-EDT
From: Frank da Cruz <SY.FDC@CU20B.ARPA>
Subject: Rainbow MS-DOS Kermit Bootstrapping
To: Info-Kermit@CU20B

Users of DEC Rainbow 100s have complained that there's no bootstrapping
procedure they can use for getting the new MS-DOS Kermit onto the Rainbow
over the communication line.  The problem was that Basic was not available
for MS-DOS on the Rainbow (or else it was so new that no one had it yet),
so the Microsoft Basic program we provided for decoding the .BOO (4-for-3
encoded) binary file could not be used on the Rainbow.

Now, thanks to Bernie Eiben at DEC, we have a version of the Basic program
that will run on the CP/M-86 side of the Rainbow.  It's a reworking of
MSPCTRAN.BAS, which assumes that you already have the .BOO file on your
CP/M disk.  It builds an .EXE file, which you can then move to the MS-DOS
side of your Rainbow by booting MS-DOS and then using RDCPM to get the
file from the CP/M-format disk.  How you get the .BOO file onto the CP/M
disk in the first place is another question.  Either you use some file
capture utility -- commercial or otherwise -- or else you go through the
DDT bootstrap procedure given for CP/M-80 Kermit (since the Rainbow is
also a CP/M-80 system).

Bernie's program is in KER:MSRBBOO.BAS.
