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Re: [PLUG] OT: Mouse Protocols
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I advised a guy that, depending on the internals of the mouse, a ps/2
mouse might not work with a serial port adapter. Is that generally true?
To the best of my knowledge, that's not true. The software's looking
for a certain set of signals, those signals are conveyed in one way on
a PS/2 cable, in another on a serial cable, but they're *there* in
both, so a convertor should just work.
An adapter just changes the connector style. Like you wrote, ps/2 and
serial signals may be conveyed in a different way. Does every mouse
know how to handle both sets of signals? On the computer end there are
different drivers for ps/2, serial, and USB mouses. (Then there are bus
mouses, but that's another story.)
That's a pretty ridiculous series of adaptors, though. Forget
translation problems, what about signal loss?
I agree.
And, actually, you may end up with trouble getting power out to the
mouse if it needs a lot of juice (like, say, those fancy optical
mice).
I think he did have an optical mouse. I highly recommend them. I don't
think power or signal loss would be a problem unless the connectors are
stressed. Having five inches of connectors going into a little ps/2
port with a cable hanging off of it might count as stress!
I also advised (sorry for this) that if he is running Win98 that using
USB wouldn't be a problem.
Under what circumstances *would* using USB be a problem? The current
version of every major operating system I can think of except for
Irix supports it. (And I'm excepting Irix because I don't know, not
because it doesn't.)
Win95 had USB problems, among other problems. I'm pleased with USB
support in Red Hat 7.3.
keys... and that you can't find a 3-button USB mouse unless you buy
it from Sun... THOSE are problems. But not immediately relevant
here, I don't think.)
I use Logitec USB optical wheel mouses. The wheel also acts as a
middle button.
Did I offer sound advice or am I getting rusty?
Well, if your advice was "you're being silly, why go through all
those convertors when you could probably get a PCI USB card for the
same price", then you came to the right conclusion even if some of
your support was a bit off. :^>
Yeah, I can't say for sure that the adapters would not work, but I
couldn't say that they would work. The USB card offers betters
possibilities, even if it costs a little more. Still the best solution
is to find a true serial mouse.
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