[GTALUG] computer hardware testing tools.

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

There is a reason for being pedantic.  But in this case, the issue has
no consequences.

We are being given an incomplete view of the problem.  That's natural
and to be expected.  But when an inconsistency comes up, it casts
doubt on the description and we want to get rid of the doubt.  Doubt
is where bugs often lie.  Good debugging requires systematically
collapsing doubt.

In this case, you didn't seem to know the meaning of "parallel" and
"serial".  I'm not convinced that you do now.

Serial ports on a computer carry EAE RS232 signals
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-232>

Parallel ports on a computer carry a very different set of signals,
originally intended for printers
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_port>
The relevant standard is IEEE 1284.

You really don't want to mix these two up.  Even if computer
manufacturers sometimes used the same connectors for each signal
(lunatics).  If you connect a serial and parallel port together
directly, one or both might burn out.  My guess is that they won't,
but I don't know.

Calling the 25-pin connector on your reader "parallel" is wrong and
could lead to disastrous mistakes.

>From what you have said, there is currently no problem caused by this
confusion. I cannot imagine that any of you concerns arose from this
confusion.

| From: Karen Lewellen via talk <talk at gtalug.org>
| 
| ...and of course that the words serial to parallel  appear in  the product
| description , for smart marketing is unimportant.
| Is  there a reason why you wish to play dueling dictionaries?
| Someone previously started an entire thread on the reading edge, so some on
| the list have seen the unit   in question.