> Where's your null-modem? The single most important tool in the _world_
> for anybody with incompatible systems. Even when I was a child of thirty
The second most useeful tool is a 'Christmas Tree' - one of those little
RS232 adapters with red and green lights for the most important signals
(TxD, RxD, RTS, CTS, DSR, DTR and CR). They sell for about \pounds 12.00
(say < $20.00) in the UK.
Although I have a good breakout box, a data error rate tester and a
Tektronix Datacoms analyser, I use the 'Christmas Tree' a lot more than
any of the other serial testers. It's small, convenient, and if it does go
walkabout, I can afford to replace it.
It's useful for figuring out if you need a null-modem cable (what pins are
inputs and what are outputs), what handshake lines are in use, etc.
> > > Emulator BBS
> > > 01284 760851
> > > Keeping 8-Bit ALIVE
> >
> > Emulators can be fun, but I've never met an emulator that was as good as
> > the real thing. Excepting Macintosh emulators, of course. :)
>
> There's something fun about running a TRS-80 (or other 8-bit) emulator
> under a PC emulator on a Unix box. Levels of abstraction...
I really don't see the interest in emulators if the real hardware still
exists. I'd much rather have the real thing, and have all the fun of
maintaining it, than have a piece of software (probably without source)
running on a PC that I can't get spare chips for. Perhaps it's because I'm
a hardware hacker, but emulators seem to lack so much compared to the
phyusical machine.
> Ward Griffiths
--
-tony
ard12_at_eng.cam.ac.uk
The gates in my computer are AND,OR and NOT, not Bill
Received on Thu Jun 19 1997 - 17:10:51 BST