[Xastir] standards are wonderful...

[Niall Parker]

Alex Carver wrote:
> --- On Fri, 8/21/09, mark.rice wrote:
>> Finally, I wondered if the serial ribbon cable had the proper
>> pin-out for the motherboard header....  no, it didn't. It wasn't
>> even close, and I kick myself for not checking that.  But who would
>> make their own standard, eh?
> 
> That's a little surprising considering there is a standard for the
> serial port pinout.  It was a one-to-one mapping.  Pin one of the
> header went to pin one of the D-shell connector.  Pin 10 was to be
> blank and used as a polarity key with a matching plug in the
> connector hole.

The other cable is typically to make it easy for use with IDC 
connectors, just clamp one on each end. I'm sure both made perfectly 
good sense to the engineers involved, just a different viewpoint (a 
perfect example of the difference between an internal and external 
interface ... ;)

I always made a point to mark my serial cables as 'A' or 'B' just to 
make sure they didn't get mixed up.

				... Niall