Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!udel!princeton!phoenix!kadickey
From: kadickey@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kent Andrew Dickey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: BBoard protocols (none)
Message-ID: <10352@phoenix.Princeton.EDU>
Date: 11 Sep 89 06:18:36 GMT
References: <8909092230.AA26919@uunet.uu.net> <12526@athertn.Atherton.COM>
Reply-To: kadickey@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Kent Andrew Dickey)
Organization: Princeton University, NJ
Lines: 40

In article <12526@athertn.Atherton.COM> paul@athertn.Atherton.COM (Paul Sander) writes:
>[stuff about Amigas and "Diga!" omitted]
>
>There's a guy named Asko Kauppi in Finland who's taking on this challenge.  He's
>designed a suitable protocol, and was finding people to develop it along with
>a number of applications before starting his duty in The Service.  I'll forward
>a copy of this article to him to see if he wants to begin a discussion of his
>progress here.

I should like to remind people that several years ago a program called
Cat-fur was written.  It allowed two users to chat while simultaneously
sending a file (or disk).  Similar programs appeared about the same time
allowing a transfer to occur IN BOTH DIRECTIONS at the same time--both
sides would be sending and receiving at once.

Although most of these programs were designed specifically for the Apple
Cat modem, the reason was simple--the Apple Cat had a special mode of
half duplex 1200 baud in its 300 baud model.  That is, for the price of
the 300 baud model, these special programs could achieve 1200 baud
transfer rates!  No special tricks were invlolved--it just relied on the
fact that the Apple Cat 300 baud modem was a very impressive piece of
technology:  It contained a 8 bit D/A converter (for creating the
Touch-Tone signals), independent send/receive baud rates (along with
fully adjustable carrier tones, too--you could use a 300 baud carrier
during 1200 baud transmissions if you so desired...or have the receive
line receiving at 1200 baud while sending data at 300 baud), an option
for a touch-tone decoder chip, and option for BSR control, and option
for a serial port add-on (so that an external modem or printer could be
hooked up), control for an external tape drive (so that you could build
your own answering machine), etc.

Actually, everything but the touch-tone decoder chip was built-in--all
of the other 'add-ons' were merely adapters.

So, in terms of this 'chat' option being a new idea--it most certainly
is not.  Cat-Fur is at least 5 years old, if not more.  It most
certainly is older than the wide-spread acceptance on 1200 baud.

			Kent Dickey
kadickey@phoenix.Princeton.EDU