Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!glee
From: glee@cognos.uucp (Godfrey Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: RS232 indignation
Message-ID: <2014@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 3 Jan 88 02:30:38 GMT
Article-I.D.: cognos.2014
Posted: Sat Jan  2 21:30:38 1988
References: <2188@crash.cts.com>
Reply-To: glee@cognos.UUCP (Godfrey Lee)
Organization: Cognos Inc., Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 30

In article <2188@crash.cts.com> haitex@pnet01.cts.com (Wade Bickel) writes:
>        If the standards people wanted to do things RIGHT, they would
>     have made only one connector type.
>
>        For instance:   make the left half of the connector male, and
>                            the right half female.  Make the connector
>                            so that it can plug into itself.  Whalla!
>                            No more problems.  UniSex cables!

That's just wonderful! What type of connector do you suggest the box have,
male? female? Arrrgh. That is exactly the problem with RS232, which assumes
that there are two types of boxes, ie. computers and terminals, and cables
are supposed to be pass thru devices (male one end, female the other end,
all pins straight thru). This is fine until someone invented PCs, well,
actually, someone decided that it would be neat to connect computer to
computer!

If you look at the consumer market, cables there are much more foolproof. Look
at the video cable, look at stereo cable, look at MIDI cable,...

All these cables have the same connector on both ends, and it makes no
difference which end of the cable plugs into which box!

In fact, we used to run a patch panel for a poor man's digital switch, and we
use stereo cables and jacks, works great, never get confused.
-- 
Godfrey Lee                                      P.O. Box 9707
Cognos Incorporated                              3755 Riverside Dr.
VOICE:  (613) 738-1440   FAX: (613) 738-0002     Ottawa, Ontario
UUCP: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!glee      CANADA  K1G 3Z4