BV> That is Pauls end. I _think_ that Pauls end is also responsible for
BV> the wait which we see sometimes before the transfer to us completes.

BL> Yes! That pause at the end can be quite long, but only occasionally.
BL> Sometimes it hangs up immediately, and other times it sits there for
BL> a good 10 seconds.

Thats sounds more like the modems V42 (LAPM) stuff. It has provision
for not dropping carrier while it hasnt had an ack from the other end
in the LAPM for whats been sent. You can override that behaviour in your
modem init with most modem. Cant tell you the command for Sportsters.

BL> It's a pity Paul writes C. I really can't make head nor
BL> bloody tails out of C. I can write it okay, but programmers
BL> get carried away with how easy it is to write C in shorthand,

Yeah, its possible to write some remarkably cryptic code in C.
Rather harder in most other modern languages.

OTOH part of your problem is just like the vocabulary stuff in
english. You have got the essentials of the language in your head,
and that allows you to write it. You dont yet have the common style
stuff which people use when writing in C tho, just what stuff usually
looks like when they toggle a single bit. So it isnt obvious to you
when you see it in someone elses code what its doing, you have to
think it thru and that gets in the road of readability with other
peoples C code.

BL> as if the stuff you type on the screen matters a rat's arse!

Its not that so much, some of the cryptic stuff is just succinct
and obvious once you get into the habit of using it. Thats always
been part of the difference with C, use of a much richer set of
operators so you can very succinctly express what you want to do.

Bit like regular expressions, they look like chicken tracks if
you arent fluent with them but are very succinct expressions of
complex rules when you are.

BL> It's funny. I'm progressing with VB to the stage where
BL> I seem to know it ALL. It means I'm due to come a gutser
BL> and learn some more, but programming is not all that hard.
BL> Most of it is double-guessing what is likely to go wrong,

Its more covering all eventualitys, ideally with a robust alg.

BL> It's nearly time I had a fiddle with assembler.

How does the saying go about talking dogs ? |-)

--- PQWK202