Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: TCP/IP on MIDI?
Message-ID: <1989May11.165157.23656@utzoo.uucp>
Followup-To: sci.electronics
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1989May3.180345.6936@utzoo.uucp> <4076@ficc.uu.net> <1989May9.184646.2106@utzoo.uucp> <4135@ficc.uu.net>
Date: Thu, 11 May 89 16:51:57 GMT

In article <4135@ficc.uu.net> peter@ficc.uu.net (Peter da Silva) writes:
>> No, it's the result of not conforming to the standards, pure and simple.
>> What is gained is speed; what is lost is reliability and interoperability.
>
>It certainly seems reliable and it interoperates quite happily with RS232 at
>RS232 speeds, and with MIDI at MIDI speeds...
>Do you have data to back up this claim about reliability and interoperability,
>or do you just have a problem with the Amiga?

I don't have anything in particular against the Amiga; I do have a serious
dislike for people who violate standards simply because they think they can
improve on them.  What matters is not whether it usually works, but whether
it is *guaranteed* to work, even with strange new equipment.  Believe me,
some nominally RS232-compatible equipment is *very* strange.  If you run
in a forgiving environment with hardware that is known to work well with
the Amiga's non-standard "RS232" interface, you'll probably never have
any trouble.  Things change when, for example, you are selling the things
and have customers complaining that their XYZ Computer Company Weirdobox
doesn't work with their "RS232 compatible" Amiga.  Or when you're trying
to push the limits on things like timing and cable length.  Then less-than-
complete compliance with standards can be very significant.

This probably doesn't belong in tcp-ip any more, so I've pointed followups
to sci.electronics.
-- 
Mars in 1980s:  USSR, 2 tries, |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
2 failures; USA, 0 tries.      | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu