[rescue] Parallel ports [was Re: Slightly OT: ?Bad Cap Saga]

[der Mouse]

> Don't get me wrong, I -like- that we're getting reliable high-speed
> peripheral buses.

It's fine to have them available.  Having no alternative is not fine.

> However, there are a lot more folks who can go from "neat idea" to
> "cute widget on the desktop" quickly via a parallel port versus USB.
> For one thing, there are very few through-hole USB interfaces.

For another, with a parallel port you don't need a clock and a
specialized interface chip that's comparatively expensive and difficult
to interface to without a CPU.  And you need a clock, probably up in
the megahertz at least.

Give me a nice simple breadboard full of TTL.  No clocks, no CPUs, no
tri-state buses, no RAM or ROM.  I've got one such circuit in
production use right now, controlling the relays I installed into a
12-outlet power bar.

> Again, no, Joe Consumer doesn't need a parallel port.  He doesn't
> need it any more than he needs a quad-core processor, 3GB of memory,
> hundreds of gigabytes of disk space, or a gigabit network port.

Well put.  Nobody objects to different computers coming wit hdifferent
capabilities when the differences are, say, number of CPUs
supported...but where's the "with or without a parallel port" choice?

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