Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcnc!decwrl!ucbvax!memory.UUCP!mha From: mha@memory.UUCP (Mark H. Anbinder) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.comm Subject: Re: Serial ports Message-ID: <52-890-00002.2752879930.69@memory.UUCP> Date: 27 Mar 91 08:50:55 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 55 Subject: RE> Serial ports QuickMail Reply In article <856@adimail.UUCP> tel@adimail.UUCP (Terry Monks) says: > I bought an excellent 4-port serial card from Taniwha systems so that > I could run my bulletin board on a Mac IIfx and still have more > serial ports to play with. My (naive) assumption was that I could put > the Imagewriter printer, MacRecorder MacVision, Localtalk, MIDI and > anything else I wanted on this card. > > Well I can...but the Chooser doesn't know about the card - because it > is not aware of the Communications Toolbox? And Farallon tells me > that it is impossible to have the MacRecorder software be aware of > any other port. This I frankly disbelieve, but the telephone contact > was not a programmer. He claimed that the Communications Toolbox was > so buggy they did not want to use it! Apple's original plans for System 7 included a completely new Print Manager with a new printing architecture that would require new print drivers, etc. This fell by the wayside, though, and will probably be part of a later release. I believe that this would have included support for different connection methods than are available in today's print drivers, and probably would have been compatible with CTB devices like the Taniwha CommCard. I suspect it would also have supported such things as ADB printers, which Apple has considered, though the ADB isn't really fast enough to handle today's printers. Byron Han (Apple CTB Emir) commented in his followup that any CTB-compatible print drivers would have to be new ones, and he's right. Farallon is, unfortunately, right about the MacRecorder. Their software accesses the serial port DIRECTLY through hardware, rather than using the "Apple-approved" method, of accessing a port through serial-port-management Toolbox calls. They presumably did this in order to get the best possible data transfer between the recorder and the software controlling it. It means, though, that they would have to re-write the software from the ground up, even if doing so would provide satisfactory performance, in order to get it working with CTB serial ports. Happily, this means that you can leave your MacRecorder plugged into the modem port, at the same time that you have told the Taniwha CommCard to pretend that one of ITS ports is the modem port. Virtually all communications software that tries to use the modem port will go through the CommCard, but the MacRecorder will obliviously keep using the real modem port. As long as you don't have too many devices this picky, you'll be fine. You can tell the Chooser that the ImageWriter is in the printer port, as long as you tell the CommCard to reroute any printer port activity to the right port on the card. I'm not sure how best to handle everything else... but the more we tell software and hardware vendors that we want CTB-compatible products, the more quickly they'll get about providing them. -- Mark H. Anbinder mha@memory.uucp 1063 Warren Road #6 607-257-3480 Ithaca, NY 14850 Memory Alpha BBS * 607-257-5822 My statements do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my computer.