28 Oct
2012
28 Oct
'12
2:10 p.m.
On Sun, 28 Oct 2012, Tony Duell wrote:
You start out by saying you want to only transfer data
from the classic
to the linux box, which to me implies output only on the classic, input
only on the linux bos. Then you want to run web browsers, termianl
emulators ,etc. That implies bidirectional data transfer. Now what
_exactly_ are you tryign to do?
20+ years ago, for XenoComm Parallel, I used "bidirectional"
printer ports and/or modified cheap printer cards to make the
data lines bidirctional (surprisingly easy to to), and made up
adapters from DB25 to FEMALE Blue-ribbon. My [trivial] software
let a PC emulate a printer. The alien computer needed no
additional software (not always feasible ANYWAY), and thought
that it was connected to a centronics printer.
Thus, TRS80, Apple ][, custom data logging hardware with printer
port, etc. could all "PRINT". Instead of dead-trees, the result
ended up as a file on the PC.
I wanted to eliminate the user-interface and run my software
as a background device driver so that the user could ask DOS
to "COPY PRN: filename". But I had some struggles with the
frequency that ^Z occured in PCL and similar printer codes,
and DOS's REFUSAL to let you COPY from a "binary" device.
So, I ran a stand-alone program.
One session of Comdex was enough to make me realize the difficulty
of marketing a product that the average user doesn't understand.
"But ALL of my computers run DOS. Why would I want to transfer
from anything else? Would this be FASTER than my
network?"
"Why would I want to communicate and transfer files without any
additional software on the other machine? XYZ serial program will
INSTALL ITSELF AUTOMATICALLY onto whatever you connect to!"
(HOW does it "install itself automatically" into a machine
with different processor and architecture??!?)
Futile, long gone, product.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com