RS-232 port genders

[datajerk <datajerk@gmail.com>]

I worked with a lot of RS-232 devices in the mid '80s to the early
'90s.  Dumb terminals, modems, printers, Alpha Micros, the Apple II,
short-hall modems, data collection devices, many different RS-232
multiplexers to add terminals to various UNIX systems, etc...
Excluding a few oddballs (e.g. Macs) they all used female DB25
connectors except, IIRC, IBM PCs (and later the multiplexers started
to use RJ45s).  The PCs used a female DB25 for the parallel port and a
male DB25 for the serial port.  I always thought this was a poor
decision since repairing broken pins on a cable was cheaper than a
device.

As I dug through my vintage serial devices I found a 1985 HP-IL to
RS232C device used to provide a serial port to HP-IL devices such as
the HP41 calculator.  It also has a male serial port.  That has left
me with the thought that something greater was redefining the
convention or was it simply the PC that started the trend to use male
RS-232 ports primarily on computers?

In any case, what got me thinking about this was the installation of a
newly acquired SSC card for my IIe.  Given my history I was neither
shocked or surprised, but it got me thinking.

I plan to build my own cable for the SSC with a male DB25 to conform
with convention and to distinguish it from the female DB25 port I plan
to install for my printer card.  Perhaps that was IBM's thinking as
well.