Wang 300 Calc

[Fred Cisin]

> > Why can't they just open the box and look at the circuitry?
> > If it's got a UART, and maybe some 1488,1489 chips, then it is serial,
> > etc.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007, Liam Proven wrote:
> [Laughter]
> Hang on... that *was* a joke, right?

Perhaps an exaggeration, but even with my total lack of knowledge of
electronics, how else can I identify the ports on an unknown machine?
A few chips are fairly obvious, such as 6845, UARTs, etc.
Yes, I have seen people connect monitor to mouse port (DE9), serial and
parallel printers to the wrong ports, etc.


> > There is at least one documented case of a fatality from the frustration
> > of "RS232" printer interfacing.
> Do tell?

A man bought a computer and a printer; took them to a computer store for
interfacing; after six weeks without success, he shot and killed the owner
of the store.  I had read about it in a newspaper.  When I mentioned it to
Joe Campbell, he dug up an account (Infoworld?) of it to include in either
his "RS232 Solution", or in "C Programmer's Guide to Serial Communication"
I don't have convenient access in the next few weeks to my books, notes,
etc. Sorry.

--
Grumpy Ol' Fred     		cisin at xenosoft.com