Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!netsys!ziggy!scotty
From: scotty@ziggy.UUCP (Scott Drysdale)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multiple Serial Ports (Re: vt100 v2.9)
Message-ID: <152@ziggy.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 89 02:20:13 GMT
References: <8812150227.AA09671@postgres.Berkeley.EDU> <14049@oberon.USC.EDU> <147@ziggy.UUCP> <3256@sugar.uu.net> <149@ziggy.UUCP> <7161@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Reply-To: scotty@ziggy.UUCP (Scott Drysdale)
Organization: Un*x Link,Frederick Md.
Lines: 41

In article <7161@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> riley@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (Daniel S. Riley) writes:
>In article <149@ziggy.UUCP> scotty@ziggy.UUCP (Scott Drysdale) writes:
>>In article <3256@sugar.uu.net> karl@sugar.uu.net (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:
>[...]
>>>will probably need a precision clock and internal specific intelligence
>>>for MIDI -- sort of like a multiport version of the Roland MPU-401.  The
>>>trouble is, too, it's more expensive plus the programming model is totally
>>>different.
>
>>that's a good point about midi timing.  it would be relatively easy to add
>>a mode to the board which caused it to recognize blobs of midi stuff and
>>append a timestamp to them.
>
>That still leaves the problem that the programming model is different.
>More serial ports for MIDI won't do much good if no programs support
>them.  And no programs will support them if every serial port behaves
>differently.

yes - programming models can be a pain.  i just HATE it when applications
writers try to use systems code :)...  you mention the MPU401 - perhaps
a version of the RAMware (uploaded to the serial board from the host)
could be done which would emulate a gaggle of MPU401's and look to the
application like a serial.device with an mpu401 hanging off the end on
each unit.  i'm not familiar with the mpu401 details, but i'm aware that
it's a popular unit for ibm pc's and stuff.

>I would really like to see some of this hidden by the device driver.  If

perhaps a midi.device driver and a serial.device driver could be written,
which upload different versions of the RAMware to the board and behave
differently in the amiga.  of course, this means creating a new "standard"
programming interface (ie, it's not quite the same as looking like a
serial.device+MPU401 as above).  it'd have to be damn good before anyone
considered supporting it in a commercial product, and i don't have enough
midi experience to competently generate a spec for it.  the MPU401 emulation
technique would probably be more universally accepted.

>-Dan Riley (dsr@lns61.tn.cornell.edu, cornell!batcomputer!riley)
>-Wilson Lab, Cornell U.

  --Scotty