Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Communications Toolbox questions
Message-ID: <9357@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 19 Dec 89 21:20:46 GMT
References: <3352@hub.UUCP> <37369@apple.Apple.COM>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 43

In article <3352@hub.UUCP> 6500stom@hub.UUCP writes:
>>I agree entirely.  Apple should have written an External Comm Mgr that
>>encompassed all of AppleTalk, serial ports and any other cards that
>>might be installed.

In article <37369@apple.Apple.COM> austing@Apple.COM (Glenn L. Austin) writes:
>You're missing two points -- (1) external serial ports are supported,
>(2) to support external serial ports for AppleTalk would require a major
>effort from both the serial port manufacturers and the AppleTalk group.

Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see what the problems are for
modem servers on Appletalk, provided the protocol is a simple duplex
data stream protocol.  It seems that one could easily write a
connection tool for such a thing, and even put the Chooser-type
functionality into the configuration dialog using the new lookup
interface support.  Of course, the task of implementing such a tool
would fall on the modem server developer; there's no pressing reason
for Apple to do this.

Or do you mean something else by "external serial ports on Appletalk"?

>If people are expecting that the CTB can do
>specialized work that previously required an entire application to accomplish,
>they will be disappointed.  The CTB is basically like the Device Manager - 
>smart enough to deal with different "devices", but too low-level to maintain
>database structures.

I'm also not clear on the meaning of this.  First, terminal emulation
and file transfer are specialized work that previously required an
entire application to accomplish, and that's supposedly what the Comm.
Toolbox is all about.

What in particular are you exempting from the scope of the Toolbox?
All LAN/WAN login services?  Just FTP?  Modem service?  Toolbox-based
BBS's?  What?

And what do databases have to do with anything?
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank and
 danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning."
    -- Aleister Crowley, THE BOOK OF LIES