Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU!DREUBEN
From: DREUBEN@EAGLE.WESLEYAN.EDU) ("DOUGLAS SCOTT REUBEN)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Serial Card/Modem programming
Message-ID: <9008130823.AA17365@apple.com>
Date: 13 Aug 90 08:28:28 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 37
X-Unparsable-Date: 13-AUG-1990 04:14:04.86

Hi-

All this talk about the Apple Cat reminded me of a problem I once had:

I have lots of programs that I wrote for the Cat, which do things such as
dialing, call-forwarding, etc. They were all quite modular, and after I got
my US Robotics modem, I tried modifying my programs so that they could work
with either the Cat or the USR. I basically figured that I'd have a toggle
in the beginning of the program which asked "Should I use the Cat or the
Serial Card/US Robotics modem?".

However, when I tried to get the Serial Card/USR to dial or check for busy
or talking on the line, etc. (things that you could easily do with a few
Peeks and Pokes on the Cat), nothing came of it. I couldn't seem to get the
USR to do anything other than pick up the phone, and couldn't even manage
to send telephone numbers down the line for the USR to "touch tone" out.
I even tried to get it to "flash" a call for a 3-way dial tone, but that
didn't work either. 

Now I know that the USR/Courrier has some of these features built into it,
and they can be access from a good terminal program, but short of writing
my own terminal program, is there any way to effectively control the USR
(or any modem connected to a Super Serial Card) in a method similar to that
which one may use to control the Cat? The idea is to integrate such a control
method into my existing programs, and not to have to rewrite them all so
that they will work with the USR/Serial Card yet be incompatable with the
Cat...

Alternately, are there any good 2400 bps modems on the market now that are
as easily accessable as the Cat was?

Thanks in advance for any help!

-Doug

dreuben@eagle.wesleyan.edu
dreuben@wesleyan.bitnet