Re: apple 2 usb

["Smohn Jith" <robwiles@optonline.net>]

"David Wilson" <mcs6502@gmail.com> wrote in message 
1135860395.652818.54380@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com">news:1135860395.652818.54380@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> bob@bob.us wrote:
>> how hard would it be to create a usb card for the 2? even just a gs usb
>> card?
>
> It is harder than you might think. A USB host has to do a lot more work
> than a USB target - the USB protocol was written to make simple devices
> like mice cheap to make. Also, the Apple II has never had hot pluggable
> devices (SCSI, ADB, Smartport etc all enumerate the devices once at
> power-up/boot). Finally, the standards for mouse cards and disk cards
> (for example) use conflicting ROM ID locations making a card that can
> support both difficult to design using standard interfaces.
>
> It certainly could be done for the IIgs but you would need to write
> GS/OS drivers for all possible USB devices (mice, keyboards, mass
> storage etc) as well as the code for an embedded microprocessor on the
> card to run the USB protocol.
>
> I will be impressed if anyone (or a group) manage to do this.

First there's HID standards for USB that mice and keyboards would be handle 
without fancy drivers, second why does USB for the Apple II have to be hot 
swappable?  It is for other systems, but it does it HAVE to be?  Or just a 
USB card that supports printers would be a big step.  As with all things 
Apple II trying to make it perfect usually makes it not at all....