Hello Greg!

  GAW> ...more imporantly ^S and ^Q (which are the
     > "standard" software XON and XOFF characters) are very
     > commonly used emacs commands...

I'm having a really interesting email conversation with
Robert Kennedy about this. I'm a little surprised that those
keystrokes were chosen despite their historical use in
software handshaking.  Robert seems to be suggesting that
unix (and it's derivatives) /depend/ on hardware handshaking
(apologies to Robert if I've got that wrong).

  GAW> There's a big difference between what the original
     > standards say about the electrical characteristics
     > and maximum tolerances of RS-232 and what actually
     > works in practice with modern line drivers and
     > receivers.

True, as witnessed by the number of 'RS-232' ports running
at 115,200 BpS to support V.90 modems and so on.  As a rule
of thumb I would rather adhere to an appropriate standard
than stretch an inappropriate one (obviously there are times
when it's expedient to bend that rule ;o)

  GAW> RS-422 is cheaper in some respects...

It wasn't so much the expense, as the increased range it
offers (about 1,200m rather than 15m).

  GAW> Running optical connections for normal terminals is
     > out of this world...

I wouldn't normally consider it.  I theoretically prefer
fibre between buildings for Electrical and EMC reasons.
Thankfully this isn't a challenge I'm facing at present.

Regards,
-Andy.


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