[comp.os.minix] St Minix RS-232 support

karl@decwrl.dec.com (Karl Rowley) (12/17/88)

RS-232 support in PC Minix is part of the tty driver.  The
main advantage of this arrangement is that the serial port
can be used for access to devices such as modems as well as 
external terminals connected to the system.  

An RS-232 device could be implemented independently from the tty 
driver.  This appears to be much easier than changing the tty
driver.

Adding support for bitmap graphics would also require changes
to the tty driver (already the biggest source file for Minix).
The tty driver could get very, very ugly.

Are there alternative solutions?  Comments?

			Karl Rowley
			Evans and Sutherland Computer Division
			escd!karl@decwrl.dec.com
			...!decwrl!escd!karl