On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 06:13:00PM +1100, charlie allom wrote:
> not a question of stability, but ease of use - using a term where
> you can cut and paste makes OF hammering a much nicer process.

True, true...

But that still doesn't make anything you can call ttya magically
appear on a machine lacking serial ports. :^>

My point was more that Apple could justify the lack of a serial
port to those interested in using OpenFirmware if that OF reliably
worked with screen as output and kbd as input. Not that I expect
many people deciding what ports appear on current models are
engineers as opposed to designers, though. The latter probably agree
with you on the actual ease of use point (though, perhaps you can
see how using the I/O devices physically connected to the machine
makes a certain amount of sense from a user interface point of
view).

Having only booted a B&W G3 into OF once, tinkered briefly, then
left it alone (it wasn't mine), I can't speak much to the best
methods of extended tinkering with OF on the more modern macs
lacking serial ports.

       ~ g r @ eclipsed.net