Vadic modems

[utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!unix-wizards]

>From decvax!pur-ee!purdue!cak at Berkeley Mon Oct 19 16:26:29 1981
Actually, I have comments specific to the dialers; I have just spent
a month reworking software for them. The 4.0 software using a
multiplexed file to write the numbers on, with a daemon to read
them off and dial is so much junk; it often gets hung, rendering
the system useless. It is also impossible to detect busy lines,
etc. Part of the trouble, I suspect, is in the mpx code in the kernel;
but I am not in accordance with the method in general. I took an
approach that works, but I am not happy with it either; that is,
I have both uucp and cu doing the dialing themselves, handling
all the funky handshake that has to go on. I think the real solution
is to have a kernel driver that take numbers in the format expected
by a dn-11 and handles the vadic appropriately. I did not have the
intestinal fortitude to do this this year.

By the way, the above comments also apply in part to the other autodialers
that are appearing on the market such as Bizcomp and Hayes;
they are smart, but you have to make the programs that want to
use them smarter, because all the software that dials thinks
it is talking to a dn-11.

	Chris