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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
HDMI Adapter for 2017 13” MBA
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<blockquote data-quote="MacInWin" data-source="post: 1837631" data-attributes="member: 396914"><p>Well, at first that sort of worked, but it quickly degenerated. RS-232 was a protocol for serial connections but quickly became shorthand for a cable with a DB-25 or DB-9 connector on it. Then the DB-25 and DB-9 began to be used for all kinds of connections due to the fact the parts were so available. In those non-RS-232 uses not all of the pins were wired so you could not use one of those cables for RS-232, although they looked exactly the same as a true RS-232 cable. Firewire didn't succumb to much abuse because it was pretty much limited to Apple and that was during the near-death experience of the 1990s. SCSI was also small market. Centronics Parallel became the printer standard and then along came USB and wifi and it died. I remember one computer I had used Centronics Parallel connectors internally for power connections! USB gets used for all sorts of things these days, including just providing power with zero data. </p><p></p><p>The issue is that while there are defined standards, there is no enforcing body, no way to keep anyone from mis-using a component that is engineered to a standard in a non-standard way.</p><p></p><p>What Apple did was settle on USB-C ports as the physical standard, then supported all kinds of data flows through that port with appropriate adapters. What you quoted was pretty clear to me. And one can get docks with all those outputs on them so that all of those protocols can be used simultaneously.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MacInWin, post: 1837631, member: 396914"] Well, at first that sort of worked, but it quickly degenerated. RS-232 was a protocol for serial connections but quickly became shorthand for a cable with a DB-25 or DB-9 connector on it. Then the DB-25 and DB-9 began to be used for all kinds of connections due to the fact the parts were so available. In those non-RS-232 uses not all of the pins were wired so you could not use one of those cables for RS-232, although they looked exactly the same as a true RS-232 cable. Firewire didn't succumb to much abuse because it was pretty much limited to Apple and that was during the near-death experience of the 1990s. SCSI was also small market. Centronics Parallel became the printer standard and then along came USB and wifi and it died. I remember one computer I had used Centronics Parallel connectors internally for power connections! USB gets used for all sorts of things these days, including just providing power with zero data. The issue is that while there are defined standards, there is no enforcing body, no way to keep anyone from mis-using a component that is engineered to a standard in a non-standard way. What Apple did was settle on USB-C ports as the physical standard, then supported all kinds of data flows through that port with appropriate adapters. What you quoted was pretty clear to me. And one can get docks with all those outputs on them so that all of those protocols can be used simultaneously. [/QUOTE]
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Apple Computing Products:
macOS - Notebook Hardware
HDMI Adapter for 2017 13” MBA
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