The Netcommander sounds interesting - but as you say, it requires extra
cabling. If extra cabling's unavoidable, maybe something like Econet is a
better bet* as you'll have less cabling in total and more capacity (but it
makes the big assumptions that you have an expansion bus you can make use of
on each of your machines, and that you can write protocol software)
Neither is true in gerneral, alas. I have machines with RS232 ports that
have no accessible expansion bus (the Sharp PC1350 and the HP110 are 2 I
can see without getting up). I'd also love to see you write an econet
program for a Philips P850 (2K owrds of core), an HP9830, etc (and yes, I
do have RS232 ports for those machines). Actually, doesn't an original
IBM PC have prolems keeping up with Econet? I was under the impression
that the Acorn econset interface card for that machine has a 6502 on it
to run the econet protocol software.
* by hanging an Econet module off the back of each machine (rather than
rolling your own around the 68B54 ADLC)
That, at least for me, would be the trivial bit.
-tony