tel@adimail.UUCP (Terry Monks) (03/26/91)
I bought an excellent 4-port serial card from Taniwha systems so that I could run my bulletin board on a Mac IIfx and still have more serial ports to play with. My (naive) assumption was that I could put the Imagewriter printer, MacRecorder MacVision, Localtalk, MIDI and anything else I wanted on this card. Well I can...but the Chooser doesn't know about the card - because it is not aware of the Communications Toolbox? And Farallon tells me that it is impossible to have the MacRecorder software be aware of any other port. This I frankly disbelieve, but the telephone contact was not a programmer. He claimed that the Communications Toolbox was so buggy they did not want to use it! Farallon is one thing, but Apple is different. I do not see why the Chooser is not aware that there might be other things available besides Modem and Printer outputs. Why does it not knwo about the things that the Communications Toolbox knows about? I am running system 7.0b4 in case anyone cares. -- Terry Monks Automata Design Inc (703) 472-9400
han@Apple.COM (Byron Han) (03/27/91)
In article <856@adimail.UUCP> tel@adimail.UUCP (Terry Monks) writes: >Well I can...but the Chooser doesn't know about the card - because it is not >aware of the Communications Toolbox? The problem is that the printer drivers need to be made aware of the Comm Rsrc Mgr list of serial ports. > And Farallon tells me that it is impossible >to have the MacRecorder software be aware of any other port. This I frankly >disbelieve, but the telephone contact was not a programmer. He claimed that >the Communications Toolbox was so buggy they did not want to use it! I cannot comment on Farallon's (inaccurate) statement except that there are hundreds and hundreds of developers worldwide using the CommToolbox. I will pass your comments on to the printshop. Thanks for your input. -- Byron Han, CommToolbox Emir Changing the world, one connection at a time Apple Computer, Inc. -------------------------------------------- 20525 Mariani Ave, MS: 35CP Internet: han@apple.COM Cupertino, CA 95014 UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!han ATTnet: 408-974-6450 Applelink:HAN1 HAN1@applelink.apple.COM -- Byron Han, CommToolbox Emir Changing the world, one connection at a time Apple Computer, Inc. -------------------------------------------- 20525 Mariani Ave, MS: 35CP Internet: han@apple.COM Cupertino, CA 95014 UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!han ATTnet: 408-974-6450 Applelink:HAN1 HAN1@applelink.apple.COM
mha@memory.UUCP (Mark H. Anbinder) (03/27/91)
Subject: RE> Serial ports QuickMail Reply In article <856@adimail.UUCP> tel@adimail.UUCP (Terry Monks) says: > I bought an excellent 4-port serial card from Taniwha systems so that > I could run my bulletin board on a Mac IIfx and still have more > serial ports to play with. My (naive) assumption was that I could put > the Imagewriter printer, MacRecorder MacVision, Localtalk, MIDI and > anything else I wanted on this card. > > Well I can...but the Chooser doesn't know about the card - because it > is not aware of the Communications Toolbox? And Farallon tells me > that it is impossible to have the MacRecorder software be aware of > any other port. This I frankly disbelieve, but the telephone contact > was not a programmer. He claimed that the Communications Toolbox was > so buggy they did not want to use it! Apple's original plans for System 7 included a completely new Print Manager with a new printing architecture that would require new print drivers, etc. This fell by the wayside, though, and will probably be part of a later release. I believe that this would have included support for different connection methods than are available in today's print drivers, and probably would have been compatible with CTB devices like the Taniwha CommCard. I suspect it would also have supported such things as ADB printers, which Apple has considered, though the ADB isn't really fast enough to handle today's printers. Byron Han (Apple CTB Emir) commented in his followup that any CTB-compatible print drivers would have to be new ones, and he's right. Farallon is, unfortunately, right about the MacRecorder. Their software accesses the serial port DIRECTLY through hardware, rather than using the "Apple-approved" method, of accessing a port through serial-port-management Toolbox calls. They presumably did this in order to get the best possible data transfer between the recorder and the software controlling it. It means, though, that they would have to re-write the software from the ground up, even if doing so would provide satisfactory performance, in order to get it working with CTB serial ports. Happily, this means that you can leave your MacRecorder plugged into the modem port, at the same time that you have told the Taniwha CommCard to pretend that one of ITS ports is the modem port. Virtually all communications software that tries to use the modem port will go through the CommCard, but the MacRecorder will obliviously keep using the real modem port. As long as you don't have too many devices this picky, you'll be fine. You can tell the Chooser that the ImageWriter is in the printer port, as long as you tell the CommCard to reroute any printer port activity to the right port on the card. I'm not sure how best to handle everything else... but the more we tell software and hardware vendors that we want CTB-compatible products, the more quickly they'll get about providing them. -- Mark H. Anbinder mha@memory.uucp 1063 Warren Road #6 607-257-3480 Ithaca, NY 14850 Memory Alpha BBS * 607-257-5822 My statements do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my computer.