C1 (protocol)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
C1, more commonly known as Punter or New Punter, is a protocol for file transfer developed in 1984 by Steve Punter as a successor to his original PET Transfer Protocol. It is optimized for transferring files stored on Commodore computers, whose DOS treats executable, sequential, and random-access files differently. C1 was the standard protocol for use on Commodore BBSes, and was rarely supported by terminal or BBS software for other operating systems.
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[edit] Technical information
C1 could transmit block sizes up to 255 bytes with a recommended (but not enforced) minimum of 40 bytes and an overhead of 7 bytes per block.
The C1 specification was rife with inaccuracies and ambiguities, making it difficult to implement from scratch. The C1 protocol nevertheless came into widespread use because the source code for the original implementation was released into the public domain by Punter.
[edit] Variants
The original C1 protocol was designed for single file transfers, but at least four third-party variants supported batch transfers. Though mutually incompatible, these protocols are collectively referred to as Multi-Punter.
