SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (01/15/88)
Don Elton (delton@pro-carolina.cts.com) writes: >The only ways to avoid losing data at 1200 baud on an unenhanced //e is to >bypass the firmware scrolling routines (by scrolling the screen yourself) or >to have the host send nulls. Apple hasn't made the defective //e's since >March of 1985. Gee that's peculiar. My //e's were purchased in May of '83 and April of '84. I've never had a problem. Ted Medin's Kermit runs fine at 2400 baud, and it uses the firmware. To the best of my knowledge all the other commware I own bypasses the Apple 80 column firmware. If the problem is in the 80 column firmware, one of my 80 column cards does date from sometime in 1985, but the other is April '84. >//c or IIgs and super serial card clones and I believe that all super serial >card clones, by definition, support interrupts. There are serial cards that address as Super Serial (including some of the internal modems I believe) that don't support interrupts -- the Microtek 622C for instance. Yes, I've seen the instructions about how to add a wire to the Microtek card that will enable interrupts. However, there's a very good reason why I make my living with my mind rather than my hands. Asking me to figure out (on the first try) which pin is which and wire them together is a pretty good prescription for getting something fried (like a motherboard). How much extra code would it take to provide a non-interrupt switch (AE Pro has it, Dick Atlee has it, Ted Medin has it - it can't be that difficult)? In addition, maybe my Mach 3.5 card (a memory cacher) isn't the finest design ever conceived, but it's what I've got, and it disables the interrupts from the SSC. Sure I can shut down the Mach 3.5 before using commware (pain in the neck, requires a reboot), but I have to cold start the //e to enable it again (something I'd rather not do). I appreciate the problem of shareware authors but some of us do pay for it (I've got canceled checks from Carolina Software, and my "official" Diversi-DOS sticker from Bill Basham to prove it). I think the answer may be to shareware a program (TIC for example, without all the "bells and whistles" and send the whole thing only to those who return $$$). I didn't get either the documentation or the help files for ECP8 until I mailed in my check, and I didn't find that unfair. Those who pay for shareware are likely to honor your request that they not post the bymail version of your program on bbs's. True, Kermit is largely unknown outside this newsgroup because Xmodem is just fine for BBS file transfers. On the other hand, what's the value of VT-52, ADM3, Televideo 910, etc. emulation in essentially bbs software? Am I in a bbs backwater missing out on full screen Apple boards? Do corporate mainframes communicate in 8-bit and support Xmodem (after all the $100 that Columbia charges commercial users for the mainframe site license must be a real budget buster)? Actually, I am familiar with a number of corporate systems and all the ones I've seen are 7-bit just like University computers. Those that support file transfer at all support YTerm (which requires an MS-DOS, Kaypro CP/M, or Macintosh computer) or Kermit (sometimes both for goodness sake). --------------------- ARPA: sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@cunyvm.cuny.edu Murphy A. Sewall BITNET: SEWALL@UCONNVM School of Business Admin. UUCP: ...ihnp4!psuvax1!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL University of Connecticut