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From: TranslucentAmoebae on 26 Aug 2007 19:28
i started a new thread, because the posters in the other thread were
suggesting that, for some crazy reason, i will not be able to
communicate with my HP48gx using the new ( Completely Different from
all previous OS's ( you can't even run pre-X programs on X...!!! ))
Mac OSX...???!!!
What...!!!

From: Virgil on 26 Aug 2007 20:06
In article <1188170935.766325.248100(a)l22g2000prc.googlegroups.com>,
TranslucentAmoebae <transamoebae(a)seanet.com> wrote:

> i started a new thread, because the posters in the other thread were
> suggesting that, for some crazy reason, i will not be able to
> communicate with my HP48gx using the new ( Completely Different from
> all previous OS's ( you can't even run pre-X programs on X...!!! ))
> Mac OSX...???!!!
> What...!!!

OS 10.3 still allows some of the old programs, but OS 10.4 and onwards
cut off everything not written for the OS X series.
From: Michael Heinz on 26 Aug 2007 20:57
On Aug 26, 7:28 pm, TranslucentAmoebae <transamoe...(a)seanet.com>
wrote:
> i started a new thread, because the posters in the other thread were
> suggesting that, for some crazy reason, i will not be able to
> communicate with my HP48gx...

It doesn't have anything to do with OS-X. The HP48gx uses a non-
standard serial port to communicate. The Macbook doesn't have any
serial ports. There's no easy way to connect the two machines.

To connect them, you would have to find an HP48 serial cable; a Mac-
support USB-RS232 converter, then you would have to download and
compile the Unix tools for the HP48 and compile them for the
Macintosh. If you're up to the task, then you can do these things and
it will work.

From: richwood on 26 Aug 2007 23:53
On Aug 26, 5:57 pm, Michael Heinz <ObviousTr...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> On Aug 26, 7:28 pm, TranslucentAmoebae <transamoe...(a)seanet.com>
> wrote:
>
> > i started a new thread, because the posters in the other thread were
> > suggesting that, for some crazy reason, i will not be able to
> > communicate with my HP48gx...
>
> It doesn't have anything to do with OS-X. The HP48gx uses a non-
> standard serial port to communicate. The Macbook doesn't have any
> serial ports. There's no easy way to connect the two machines.
>
> To connect them, you would have to find an HP48 serial cable; a Mac-
> support USB-RS232 converter, then you would have to download and
> compile the Unix tools for the HP48 and compile them for the
> Macintosh. If you're up to the task, then you can do these things and
> it will work.

Based on 40+ years in computers the term "RS232 standard serial
interface" is an oxymoron. It has gone from a 25 pin D connector to a
9 pin to the HP48 4 pin and from relatively high voltages of + and -
15v or so to + and - 5v TTL signal levels. In the early days of
personal computers Diablo Systems used to publish a whole manual on
hooking up their serial interface daisy wheel printers to all of the
different permutations of the "Industry standard" serial interface
found on various common personal computers from Apple to Xerox.
Connecting high voltage signal and low voltage signal devices could
sometimes even damage equipment.

Not until several years after the introduction of the IBM PC 25 pin
serial interface connector, and later the AT 9 pin connector version,
did anything approaching a common standard RS232 cable and connection
arise. The IBM was so popular that virtually all new printers had
interfaces designed to work with the IBM standard interface signals
and cable.

There are definite reasons that the serial port with it's speed
restrictions and other problems is disappearing but that does leave
the user of the HP calculators with serial interfaces with a problem.
For many PCs add in serial boards are still available for those with
the need.

Sorry to hear of the Mac program compatibility problem as I thought
they had tried to preserve backwards compatibility. That is a
difficult task though when the computer system has used three or so
entirely incompatible processor families over the years.

Rich W

From: Michael Heinz on 27 Aug 2007 13:10
On Aug 26, 11:53 pm, richwood <astronut1...(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Sorry to hear of the Mac program compatibility problem as I thought
> they had tried to preserve backwards compatibility. That is a
> difficult task though when the computer system has used three or so
> entirely incompatible processor families over the years.
>
> Rich W

Rich - what backwards compatibility? HP has never supported their
calculators on the Mac, and the Mac hasn't had RS-232 ports for at
least ten years. Until I wrote HPConnect in 2004 Mac users of HP
calculators were completely out of luck. I chose to only support HP's
USB models because, frankly, that's what I owned at the time. I had
owned an HP48G previously, but a coworker talked me out of it.

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