From: "Ian Malone" <ibmalone@xxxxxxxxx>
On 6/21/06, jdow <jdow@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: "David Fletcher" <fc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>
> I'm interested in this thread too, but for different reasons.
>
> We have a looming problem at work, which is a test instrument that's
> controlled by a DOS program on a PC via a serial cable. It works OK but
> serial ports are fast vanishing from PCs especially laptops.
Um, USB to serial adapters exist. (Two kinds exist, actually. One is
a three wire serial emulation. The other is a full emulation.) These
work remarkably well. I've been using them for over a year now. So
adapting the DOS program to almost anything while maintaining a serial
port interface should be no problem at all for either 'ix or 'indows
environments.
It is a problem for hobbyists though. I did a project a few years ago
that used a parallel port to interface with an A/D convertor and a
multiplexer. This is incredibly easy to program in linux. You can't
do this with USB without interface chips/dongles, and the software
side is more complicated.
I've never looked so I'm asking the astonishing question, "You mean
there are no USB to serial port cable drivers that look like standard
serial ports to Linux?" Um, maybe someday someone will get motivated
to do this. It is something likely to be very urgently needed in the
future. (I suspect all the adapters use the same small number of
chips which perform this function. So it should not be TOO bad.)
{o.o}
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