Subject: Re: serial mouse emulation for macs w/o adb...
To: andrew watson <awatson@lab.housing.fsu.edu>
From: Sunny Daniels <sdan002@cs.auckland.ac.nz>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 05/23/1996 13:24:11
>i just thought of this while doing something totally unrelated...
>what if instead of using an adb mouse for macs that adb hasn't been fully
>implemented a serial mouse was used.  the code might even be adaptable from
>linux or freebsd etc...  i have a diagram of how to convert the mac serial
>pin config to a 9 pin D connector around here somewhere if anybody wants
>it.  well, let me know what ya think...
>andrew
>

Sounds like a good idea to me!  Second-hand three-button serial mice can 
be bought for around NZ$10 (compared to around NZ$200 for a replacement 
one-button adb mouse, and probably even more for a three-button adb 
mouse). Linux supports both Microsoft-compatible and Mouse-Systems-
compatible serial mice, and the source code for the Linux mouse drivers 
should be readily available.

HOWEVER, ONE WORD OF WARNING:  Since I imagine that the MacBSD people
would not want to put MacBSD under the GNU Public License, you would
probably have to get special permission from the Free Software 
Foundation in order to include modified versions of the Linux serial 
mouse drivers in MacBSD.



--- Sunny Daniels,
--- Department of Computer Science,
--- University of Auckland,
--- Private Bag 92019,
--- Auckland,
--- New Zealand.
---
--- E-Mail: sdan002@cs.auckland.ac.nz