On Wed, 20 Feb 2002 15:32:34 -0500, you wrote:

>I believe they are "Input HandShaKe" and "Output HandShaKe". They are
>apparently RS-422 terms about which I am ignorant. Macs don't use
>RS-232, but 422 is apparently close enough that it usually works with
>some creative pinning.
  Hmmm, I faintly remember a little about the RS-422 if it is what I'm
thinking... (It was 422, 428, or something in that area....)  Used for
some of the really old Gang Eprom Programmers on PC's... They where
basically a RS-232 that supported multiple devices... Something I had
a hard time to really understand how they could do, but I guess by
multiple devices they mean the daisy chaining of Apple Talk network on
the serial ports... Otherwise, unless someone effectively put a T
Style connector on a serial port, I couldn't picture how or why anyone
would want to do multiple devices on a RS-232.... For devices such as
printers, disk drives, etc. I can perhaps se potential where someone
would want to use multiple devices on a single serial port, but at the
same time, we're not really talking about the same type of system
here... For having multiple devices on the same exact port, we're
really looking at more of a form of USB today, or the Commodore 64
Disk Drives setup, which was "Serial", but not a standard form of
serial port like the RS-232, and incredibly slow!  Each device would
need an ID to know who was talking to who, otherwise everyone would
get messages from anywhere and every time you tried to print the disk
drives would end up attempting to write a sector somewhere.... That,
or you'd have to waste bandwith coding the ID in the packets and
having every device monitor every message looking for the ID
number.... Now the 422 might be a special version of the RS-232 that
works both ways multiple device and single device configurations that
can auto-detect which case it is based upon how the device responds on
the cables....

>Try those sites that I gave the URL to. They seem knowledgable. Here's
>the best one I've found:
>http://www.mindspring.com/~jc1/serial/main.html
>
>I didn't design the thing, I just copied what the manual says :)

>
>The printer is a DTE device so says the manual. In my experience,
>printers are DTE devices requiring a different cable than a modem does.
>The printer cable crosses the send and receive lines.
  Weird.... I remember hearing that the Standard printer cable allows
you to hook up two macs together for Apple Talk and swaps the send and
receive like you said, so guess that does somewhat make since... Now
that you mention it.... Not sure why Apple decided the printer is a
terminal.... ;-)  I mean its easy to picture the computer as a
terminal if you've ever hooked up a modem directly to a true terminal,
the computer as a terminal device only makes since.  I guess their
reasoning for the printer as a "Terminal" device comes from Teletype's
assuming the printer is a Teletype connected to the modem without a
keyboard.... I was just kinda assuming anything (other than another
computer) hooked up to the computer is usually a DCE device, while the
computer its self is usually a DTE device.... ;-)  Learn something new
every day....