In article <199807030631.AAA18969@suod.cs.colorado.edu>,
Santiago de la Paz  <garnett@suod.cs.colorado.edu> wrote:
> No, they're not: Best gives away their specs for the asking.  Just call up 

Let me suggest you again read what I wrote.

Parts of the APC specs equivalent to the BEST specs are availible (but
not from APC), so *for practical purposes* they're documented about the
same. 

For "political" purposes, no, they're not the same, and I gave suggestions
on how to deal with that.

> I don't have much experience with APC, but the fact that they are sold
> in every discount PC computer shop from Seattle to -- well, all the way
> around the world back to Seattle -- makes me leery of them.  Plus, we've

"My product is harder to find. It must be better!" :-) Maybe as an old
Amiga user I should agree wth you there.

APC does offer a whole range of products, including at the very low end,
which is probably they're so ubiquitous.

> I'd be surprised as well if there is anything the APC boxes can do
> that the Best boxes cannot do, given the complexity of the things.  The 

I can't go into details, but the APC protocol would seem to provide more
information than BEST's does.  Some of what is missing in BEST protocols
can easily be inferred or calculated from what they do provide.  The
known parts of both protocols obviously cover all the really important
stuff.  Neither protocol seems like anything *I'd* want to spend a lot
of effort keeping secret if I were them (I mean, xmodem is extremely
complicated by comparison.  This isn't exactly earth-shattering
technology). 

Anyway, my main point is that there are various options.