Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!bellcore!decvax!ucbvax!pasteur!ames!amdahl!nuchat!splut!stu
From: stu@splut.UUCP (Stewart Cobb)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Serial
Summary: New interface proposal
Keywords: Serial, null modem, rs-232
Message-ID: <332@splut.UUCP>
Date: 16 Jan 88 05:34:59 GMT
References: <2287@crash.cts.com> <945@polyslo.UUCP>
Organization: Confederate Microsystems, League City, TX
Lines: 69


[mailer food]

   There's been some discussion of the failings of RS-232 here.  This is
one of my pet peeves.  I think I have a solution ...

   (The following has little relevence to the Amiga specifically.  However,
Amiga owners tend to be among the most technically literate computer people
around, and I've been looking for a few such to bounce these ideas off.)

   Let's agree that we need a new interface, one that's as widespread as
RS-232, but much more standard.  What are some desirable characteristics?

   - easy to connect (like modular phone jacks)
   - easy to use (smart six-year-olds can hook it up)
   - fast (say, 56 kbps)
   - standard (everyone uses it, and they all use the same "it")
   - backward compatible (to some extent, anyway)

   It's not terribly hard to design such a thing.  The real trick is, once
you've designed it, getting the *WORLD* to switch over.

   I had a bright idea along these lines about two years ago.  I would write
up this interface idea, and send it in to Byte.  Byte would print it, all
the gurus in the micro world would read it, we'd have a big meeting
somewhere where we'd all agree to use it forevermore -- and six months
later, it would _be_ the new standard.

   I wrote up the article.  Byte bounced it.  Sigh.  That was about a year
ago.  I've been rewriting the article for another try, but it's a low
priority.

   The problem is, I don't see anyone switching to a new interface unless
_everybody_ does.  And the only way I can think of to get _everybody_ to
switch is to get them all together in the same room for a "pledge of
allegience."  If each manufacturer can look around and see everyone else,
and know that he won't be out alone in the cold next year, then it will
happen.  But I can't see it happening any other way.  Anyone who makes
himself incompatible with RS-232 (and Centronics), without simultaneously
becoming compatible with something just as widespread, is getting ready to
lose his shirt.

   Note that this is a political problem, not a technical problem.  The
specific technical details of the interface are irrelevant.  What matters is
getting all the gurus of the micro world together.  That takes publicity, in
a place where all the gurus will see it simultaneously.  That is (or was
until recently) Byte.  I can't think of another forum which cuts as large a
swath across the industry.  Not even the nets are that widely read.

   This is where you come in.  What am I overlooking?  Or am I barking up
the wrong tree completely?  If anyone has ideas or suggestions, I'd love to
hear them.  I sort of burned out on this a year ago, but the recent spate of
complaints has gotten me interested again.  RS-232 has definitely outlived
its usefulness!

----------------

   To the guy who wanted hermaphroditic connectors: use the Bell system
trick instead.  Look at your modular telephone.  All the boxes (and wall
jacks) have sockets.  All the cables have plugs on both ends.  You can wire
the cables to do the RX-TX crossover automatically, and then ALL your
sockets will look the same.  This is probably the right way to do it.


-- 
| Stewart Cobb    (Hacking GNC for STS)  ... sun!housun!nuchat!splut!stu
| N5JXE @ KA5KTH or WB5BBW             ... seismo!soma!uhnix1 /
| << Insert the usual disclaimer >>  ... hoptoad!academ /
| Sattinger's Law:  It works better if you plug it in.