[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: a USB for the Apple II smoke test



Scott Alfter wrote:
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

In article <V8bGe.607$gQ5.566@newssvr33.news.prodigy.com>,
Sean Fahey <a2fan@hotmail.com> wrote:

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote in message
K_SdnZmLEtPVgnTfRVn-og@comcast.com">news:K_SdnZmLEtPVgnTfRVn-og@comcast.com...

The fact that it delivered power without burning anything
out is miracle enough.  That it pulsed a data line randomly
to produce the illusion of data is just luck.

Exactly. I'm not aware of any serial mouse support in GS/OS either but, then
again, I'm not an expert on it's innermost, undocumented workings.


IIRC, there was a mouse card for the II that took a serial (as in RS-232)
mouse and got it working in the same manner as the Apple mouse card (so that
existing software would work).  A couple minutes' googling turned up this:

http://www.apple2.org/A2WebRef/A2Reference26.html

    The bitMouse by Sequential Systems is a 100% Apple compatible mouse card
    for use with the II+ and IIe. It uses a standard IBM type serial mouse.

The mouse must be a Microsoft or compatible mouse.
Theoretically, you could've written a mouse driver that would talk to a
serial mouse through a serial card.  Given information on the protocols used
(the two main protocols used were from Microsoft and Mouse Systems, with
many mice supporting both), it should've been doable.  It wouldn't have been
compatible with existing software, though.

As long as the card(s) support the Apple mouse firmware interface
it should be compatible.  Surely Apple created an abstract mouse
interface...?

-michael

8-voice music synthesizer using NadaNet 2.0 networking!
Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."