🚀 go-pugleaf

Folks,

Recently, I posted an article in which I said:

> > This is a plea to Mac software vendors: Please consider
> > the fact that some Macs can have more than just the two
> > "standard" serial ports. At least give me the _option_ of
> > choosing a serial port other than the printer port and the
> > modem port. 

Sak Wathanasin
me clarify my request. He wrote:

>Until the recent introduction of the "Communications
>Toolbox", there was just no way of finding out about extra
>ports. The *system software* assumed that there were only 2
>ports, and there were no calls to, for example, ask the
>system how many ports there were. 
>
>Of course, if you are a s/w developer who worked with a
>particular manufacturer, there were ways to deal with his
>comms card, but there was no easily available, system-wide,
>Mac-model-independent way of scanning for ports. But now
>that the CTB is widely available, this problem will go away.

This, by the way, has some very interesting implications. Probably the
most important implication is that _since_ _virtually_ _all_ _Mac_
_applications_ _make_ _use_ _of_ _at_ _least_ _one_ _serial_ _port_,
_virtually_ _all_ _Mac_ _applications_ _should_/_must_ _use_ _the_
_Communications_ _Toolbox_.

One very common mistake will be Mac applications developers who will
say things like "my application has nothing to do with 'communications,'
therefore, I don't have to worry about the CTB." If your application
give its users a choice of which serial port(s) to use (or _should_
give users a choice), then you should consider the CTB.

Thanks for your time and consideration.

				-- Ed

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edward V. Berard                                | Phone: (301) 353-9652
Berard Software Engineering, Inc.               | FAX:   (301) 353-9272
18620 Mateney Road                              | E-Mail: eberard@bse.com
Germantown, Maryland 20874                      | 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------