On Sun, 28 Jun 2020 13:37:16 -0600
Grant Taylor  wrote:

> On 6/28/20 1:10 PM, Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
> > Of course it can, each link is point to point
>
> You just said what I said.  "Each (RS-232) link is point to point".  End
> of story.
>
> > but nothing restricts a computer to a single serial port.
>
> I completely agree.
>
> But now you are talking about something decidedly outside of the scope
> of "each link".  ;-)

 Ethernet is the same ever since co-ax died, it's all point-to-point
we just call the (rather specialised) computer with a lot of ports a switch.

> > Way back we used to use Altos Micnet to create a LAN based on UUCP
> > over whatever topology of serial connections you cared to make. These
> > days PPP would be a much better option.
>
> Sure.  That's the software that interconnects multiple machines on top
> of many point-to-point links.

 It runs in the switches these days but it is still there.

> RS-485 supports physically connecting more than two machines to the same
> physical link.  No additional software needed to copy things from link
> to link.  ;-)

 Indeed it does - but multi-drop interfaces are mostly out of fashion
these days (apart from open air ones of course).

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