-=> /* Quoting Will Honea to Frank Sexton */ <=-
 FS> Therefore the fact that some video cards interfere
 FS> with 02e8 (COM4) is not recognized by the video card
 FS> manufactures as a bad thing on their part.
 WH> The video cards are not really at fault.  The XT bus
 WH> allowed the use of 0x100 - 0x3ff for add-in ports (and
 WH> 640K was enough memory for anybody!).
And there you have it in a nutshell.  Opinions vary.  I
personally consider it the video manufactures fault because
they know it causes problems with the installed base of
serial I/O cards (with COM4) and don't fix it. Others say
that since there are no real "official" specs for COM4 and
that since the video card simply doesn't decode enough of
the address that the video guys are not at fault.
Difference of opinion. Not only in the video card industry
but among us users as well. The industry is a plethora of
workarounds, concessions and compromises to allow
compatibility with (legacy?) hardware. This should be just
another one in my mind.
-Frank
(fsexton@xpert.net - http://www.concentric.net/~fsexton)
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