On 8 May, this message from Craig S. Cottingham echoed through cyberspace: > On 2001-05-08 9:15, Michael Schmitz at > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>> i think the `nobody has bothered' is probably the explanation. >> >> Nope, it's actuakky pretty difficult to implement and probably >> not worth the hassle (at least not for anyone who'll never use >> that feature, sorry this is how free software works). > > No, I know. I'm half inclined to tackle this myself, but I'm > currently too interested in spending time at my day job and with my > family. :-)
May I suggest that indeed you spend the time with your family? I think it's better used that way than writing a localtalk driver ;-). But if you wanted to get a divorce, I could dig up some documents from Zilog, the maker of the 8530 SCC serial chips, about how to implement Localtalk. >> Localtalk over >> serial requires synchronous mode operation of the SCC and the >> protocol timing constraints are pretty tight. You don't want to do >> that sort of stuff in non-realtime context. In a multitasking OS >> you don't want to do it busy-waiting in the interrupt handler >> either. But you may see things different, please go ahead and prove >> me wrong. > > I used to write device drivers for DOS and Windows (years ago!), so I > understand what you're saying. Ugh. If you absolutely wanted to, you could always try to implement it under some RT-extended Linux.... >> PC localtalk cards have a coprocessor to offload the protocol >> handling to IIRC. Correct, and two makes of cards are suported under Linux. No idea whether they are PCI or ISA, though.... > Ah. I had an inkling this might be the case. > > More and more, I'm thinking I just need to go ahead and buy that > Postscript-capable laser printer I've had my eye on.... This is probably the best idea for b/w print. If you have serial-port-equipped Mac running MacOS permanently, you could always use that as a Localtealk-Ethertalk bridge (with Apple's software bridge). Cheers Michel ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michel Lanners | " Read Philosophy. Study Art. 23, Rue Paul Henkes | Ask Questions. Make Mistakes. L-1710 Luxembourg | email [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.cpu.lu/~mlan | Learn Always. "
