Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!chinacat!chip From: chip@chinacat.Unicom.COM (Chip Rosenthal) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: Computone/Intelliport device drivers .vs. FAS Message-ID: <1840@chinacat.Unicom.COM> Date: 7 Feb 91 20:50:46 GMT References: <1991Feb3.053633.13387@yrloc.ipsa.reuter.COM> <1289@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca> Organization: Unicom Systems Development, Austin, TX Lines: 34 In article <1289@ecicrl.ocunix.on.ca> clewis@ferret.ocunix.on.ca (Chris Lewis) writes: >My remembrance was that: > - the snazzy features (transparent print thru and the other gunge) > are useless. ^^^^^^^? I think `dangerous' is the correct word. My experience has been that Computone cards irrevocably lockup eventually if you don't disable all that stuff in the /etc/ic_control (or whatever it's called) file. I never could figure out how they got so popular - they don't work. My opinion is that half the crap serial card vendors put into their boards and drivers don't belong there. Multiple tty's, transparent print, keyboard mapping and the like should be performed on the system through pty's and line disciplines and stream modules. Even though this gunk is totally wrong, rude, and crude - I still tend to use them. You know...too lazy to write a transparent print daemon which does it correctly :-) I've found, as a rule, Digiboard and Equinox tend to understand what is needed for a UNIX system, and have had good results with both vendors. The Equinox scheme for full modem control is a bit screwey, but it's probably a reasonable tradeoff for the port density you get. Both vendors also seem to have good support behind their boards, and I feel comfortable recommending them. Neither vendor is cheap - but if you want cheap you should be getting a dumb card, populating it with 16550's, and running FAS. In intelligent serial cards, my experience is that cheap buys you broke. -- Chip Rosenthal 512-482-8260 | Unicom Systems Development | I saw Elvis in my wtmp file. |