4 ms·

IDK about MacOS, but on Windows 9x/XP, sending bytes via serial was incredibly trivial in C#, Visual C++ or even ols school Visual Basic.[1] Even if you didn'

IDK about MacOS, but on Windows 9x/XP, sending bytes via serial was incredibly trivial in C#, Visual C++ or even ols school Visual Basic.[1] Even if you didn't have one of the dozens of already written serial terminal apps, you could write your own pretty easily in one of those languages to push bytes out the serial port, with just a few standard API calls. I doubt MacOS didn't have something similar. Unless of course, MacOS back then was somehow shittier than Windows, which I doubt. [1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.visualbasic.devices.ports.openserialport?view=netframework-4.8.1 https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.visua...

Anarch157a 2y ago
No need for any programming language in Windows 9X, just open a DOS prompt and use 'copy file.txt COM1: /B'. We used that trick back in the DOS days to print raw ASCII files on parallel (LPT1:) or serial (COM1:) devices. I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11.
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  > I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11. It might not. A lab I was at in uni still had Windows XP PCs because according to them, that's the last Windows OS that allowed direct serial/paralel port access needed to control the external robotics/CNCs via those old APIs the SW used, since subsequent versions of Windows abstracted away those direct HW API calls that DOS used in the name of security and stability.
  - Gormo 2y ago
    What OS-level APIs would something communicating over serial be using? Sure, Windows abstracts the hardware, but that's been true since well before Windows XP, and modern versions of Windows still expose virtual COM ports for serial adapters connected through USB or PCIE, just as XP did. In fact, even DOS abstracts away serial communications: your hardware would be set to a specific I/O port and IRQ, but DOS exposes those as I/O devices, so you would just read and write to COM1, COM2, etc. My guess is that there's some other issue running that old Windows program on modern versions of Windows -- maybe some components are 16-bit, and since current 64-bit Windows doesn't include the VDM, they can't run. Or maybe it's an issue with current versions of certain DLLs.
NegativeLatency 2y ago
Didn’t know how to program at the time I was using classic macos but my current understanding (having done some retro programming for fun) is that unless you specifically installed a programming environment there’s no real ability to script or even run commands.
Sesse__ 2y ago
Windows 9x/XP did not come with C#, Visual C++ or Visual Basic. Likewise, classic macOS did not come with any programming or scripting languages. In this respect, they were equally “shitty”, and your solution would have been unavailable for both.
- jwnin 2y ago
  windows xp sp1 and later bundled .net framework, which included compilers for c# and vb.net. ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history#Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history...
- Rinzler89 2y ago
  AFAIK MacOS was just another UNIX, and in UXIX writing to a serial port was just writing to a file. Are you telling me MacOS had no shell scripting capabilities to write to a file via the command line? Even MS-DOS could do that.
  - lmz 2y ago
    Mac OS X is a UNIX (of sorts). Mac OS classic (as in the article) is most definitely not.
    - Rinzler89 2y ago
      So that version of MAcOS had no possibility of some command line shell scripting?
      - Sesse__ 2y ago
        There was no command line at all.
      - bas 2y ago
        Brings back memories, but you'd have to install a programming environment, e.g.: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Programmer%27s_Workshop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Programmer%27s_Works... - http://www.think-pascal.org/#SetUp http://www.think-pascal.org/#SetUp - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THINK_C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THINK_C

Anarch157a 2y ago

No need for any programming language in Windows 9X, just open a DOS prompt and use 'copy file.txt COM1: /B'. We used that trick back in the DOS days to print raw ASCII files on parallel (LPT1:) or serial (COM1:) devices. I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11.

Rinzler89 2y ago
> I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11. It might not. A lab I was at in uni still had Windows XP PCs because according to them, that's the last Windows OS that allowed direct serial/paralel port access needed to control the external robotics/CNCs via those old APIs the SW used, since subsequent versions of Windows abstracted away those direct HW API calls that DOS used in the name of security and stability.
- Gormo 2y ago
  What OS-level APIs would something communicating over serial be using? Sure, Windows abstracts the hardware, but that's been true since well before Windows XP, and modern versions of Windows still expose virtual COM ports for serial adapters connected through USB or PCIE, just as XP did. In fact, even DOS abstracts away serial communications: your hardware would be set to a specific I/O port and IRQ, but DOS exposes those as I/O devices, so you would just read and write to COM1, COM2, etc. My guess is that there's some other issue running that old Windows program on modern versions of Windows -- maybe some components are 16-bit, and since current 64-bit Windows doesn't include the VDM, they can't run. Or maybe it's an issue with current versions of certain DLLs.

NegativeLatency 2y ago

Didn’t know how to program at the time I was using classic macos but my current understanding (having done some retro programming for fun) is that unless you specifically installed a programming environment there’s no real ability to script or even run commands.

Sesse__ 2y ago

Windows 9x/XP did not come with C#, Visual C++ or Visual Basic. Likewise, classic macOS did not come with any programming or scripting languages. In this respect, they were equally “shitty”, and your solution would have been unavailable for both.

jwnin 2y ago
windows xp sp1 and later bundled .net framework, which included compilers for c# and vb.net. ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history#Overview https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.NET_Framework_version_history...
Rinzler89 2y ago
AFAIK MacOS was just another UNIX, and in UXIX writing to a serial port was just writing to a file. Are you telling me MacOS had no shell scripting capabilities to write to a file via the command line? Even MS-DOS could do that.
- lmz 2y ago
  Mac OS X is a UNIX (of sorts). Mac OS classic (as in the article) is most definitely not.
  - Rinzler89 2y ago
    So that version of MAcOS had no possibility of some command line shell scripting?
    - Sesse__ 2y ago
      There was no command line at all.
    - bas 2y ago
      Brings back memories, but you'd have to install a programming environment, e.g.: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Programmer%27s_Workshop https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_Programmer%27s_Works... - http://www.think-pascal.org/#SetUp http://www.think-pascal.org/#SetUp - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THINK_C https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THINK_C