Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!um-math!hyc
From: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Con -> RS232
Message-ID: <627@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu>
Date: 30 Apr 89 13:06:57 GMT
References: <111500016@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> <620@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> <531@TSfR.UUCP>
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Reply-To: hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu)
Organization: University of Michigan Math Dept., Ann Arbor
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In article <531@TSfR.UUCP> orc@pell.UUCP (David L. Parsons) writes:
>In article <620@stag.math.lsa.umich.edu> hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) writes:
>> ... This program would just have to close the three
>>stdio descriptors, 0-2, open the AUX: device, and use Fdup or Fforce to set
>>0-2 to the same as the AUX handle.
>
>  'Cepting, of course, that file descriptor 2 isn't stderr.  Gemdos uses
>descriptor 0 for stdin and 1 for stdout, just like Unices, but for some
>totally inexplicable reason, Atari or DRI decided not to support the concept
>of standard error.  File descriptor 2? It points at the rs232 port....

The desktop points descriptor 2 at the rs232 port by default, but you're free
to point it anywhere you want. The MWC runtime code treats descriptor 2 as
stderr, and as such it's usually directed to the console. Of course, none of
this matters if you use Fforce. (Actually, there are 3 variants of the MWC
startup - 1 for desk accessories, 1 for GEM .PRGs, and one for TOS/command line
oriented programs. The default is TOS style, which remaps descriptor 2. That's
what I used for Larn. In actuality, it's the Mark Williams shell that does
the redirection, but that's also beside the point. [The *point* is that you
*can* redirect them and you need to, for the requested purpose.])
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