Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!van-bc!
From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: XPR protocol
Keywords: use in BBS
Message-ID: <773@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca>
Date: 21 Sep 89 11:12:35 GMT
Lines: 41
Return-Path: <lpami!lphillips>
To: van-bc!rnews

In <20033@usc.edu>, papa@pollux.usc.edu (Marco Papa) writes:
>|Well, that sort of assumes that all future comm programs will be of the type:
>|"one comm program per serial port". I wouldn't want to make that assumption.
>
>I really don't understand what you mean. Do you mean to suggest to use "more
>than one comm program" per serial port? That of course works only if the port
>is SHARED and the comm programs "collaborate" (i.e, only one receives at any 
>one time).  Or do you mean "one comm program that controls two serial ports
>at the same time"?  If this the case, then it is much easier done by creating
>a "reentrant" version of the comm program (easily done today with Lattice, not
>MANX). In that case, running multiple instances of the comm program, each one
>using a different port, will have the same space overhead as running one copy
>that controls multiple ports. With today's programs that support multi-serial,
>each instance of the program will allocate its own 'code' segment. That might
>change sometime soon :-) Could you elaborate?

Sure... it was more of a general observation than a specific recommendation for
any given number of comm programs per serial port.

What I meant was that on a machine like the Amiga, it is probably unwise to
make assumptions about the number of comm programs it takes to run one serial
port.  This can work both ways, in that the number of comm programs running,
may be more or less than the number of serial ports in use, and even further,
that one comm program need not be a single, traditional, standalone program,
but might consist of a single serial port handler and a number of
XPR/XEM/XDISPLAY/XSCRIPTX/Whatever modules.

All configurations are possible, and though some might be less probable than
others, I don't think we should limit the choices of configuration by limiting
implementations of programs such as XEMs and XPRs; certainly not while we are
just starting to develop the first building blocks.

-larry

--
The Mac? Oh, that's just like a computer, only slower.
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|   //   Larry Phillips                                                 |
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