[Coco] rant about ADB was Re: Odd cable

Willard Goosey goosey at virgo.sdc.org
Wed Feb 29 04:29:00 EST 2012


On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 12:20:55AM -0800, Dean Leiber wrote:

> ADB was almost like a precursor to USB. I think in theory it was
> supposed to be 'hot swappable' like USB but it didn't work out too
> well in practice.  Generally I never had much problem with it on any
> of the systems I had, but then again I'm kinda gentle on my
> computers since I have to pay for repairs. :-D And S-video cables
> made good replacement ADB cables (or vice versa) in a pinch.

I don't think adb's anywhere near as fast...

And from what I've read, the "hot" in hot swappable was the problem --
ADB isn't fuse protected and you're really not supposed to unplug and
replug gizmos with the power on.  Which of course people DID anyway,
then blamed ADB itself for being a buggy interface.  (Willard looks up
with pious innocence. :-)

The real problem was probably MacOS would get corrupted due to the
lack of memory protection and crash the adb driver.  Since the power
key is on the keyboard it's then impossible to do a clean
shutdown/reboot...

Willard
-- 
Willard Goosey  goosey at sdc.org
Socorro, New Mexico, USA
I search my heart and find Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
  -- R.E. Howard



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