Hi Stewart, On Sun, 10 May 2020, Stewart C. Russell via talk wrote:
Kind of. Not quite.
Well of course, cannot expect this to flow logically.
Default situation: The first USB serial device you plug in (it doesn't matter which port) appears as /dev/ttyUSB0. The next one becomes /dev/ttyUSB1
Actually, that it has a default makes a grand deal of sense. After all, how often would a person have say 4 of them running at a time?
There's no way of telling which device is what without digging about in udev rules or making sure you use distinct hardware for each one (like the FTDI, Prolific, QinHeng and Silicon Labs devices I mentioned the other day). I suppose, hypothetically that if one has more than one hardware device, you might assign One software program to work with one location, and a second to work with another?
Allocation of COM ports under Windows seems to be random. The first device I plug in is usually COM6 or COM9. No idea about DOS.
My guess is that Windows does this because in dos technically the first 4 and sometimes 5 can have specific associated tasks. In theory, some editions of windows have something that sort of vaguely passes as dos in a round about sort of way. Therefore windows would move things further up the scale. James remark about IRQ lines can still ring true. because IBM used them oddly everyone else decided to sing along. My current computer is a p3 with allot of things going on inside. In fact I have been putting off trying to find what port and IRQ my sound card is using so I can configure mplayer and mpxplay.
I have a USB DecTalk; well, an EMIC-2 board with an FTDI USB-Serial adapter I homebrewed into a small box with a speaker and headphone jack: https://scruss.com/blog/2016/02/27/t%c9%92k-b%c9%92ks-a-tiny-hardware-speech...
Wait! you built a $600 dectalk USB unit in your garage? Does it provide all 9 voices? Can you make it sing? Seriously, to give others here a bit of perspective, the unit I am using right now for my dectalk voice for my computer is built into a box that also provides a fully functional scanner for reading. To be sure Dr. hawking used one voice, but there are 9 in total, all with names like perfect Paul, Doctor Dennis and whispering Wendy, which really does whisper. when it was first sold by xerox the unit cost..$5,500. I replaced it, I prefer to have a spare, for slightly less than a thousand, and often find them sold for around $1,500 even today. A unit the size of what I guess Stewart built sounds closer to a dectalk express, which is a serial port unit, and very hard to find anymore, especially not with a functional battery. I managed to find one about a year or so back, only to have UPS smash it to pieces because of how the customs form was completed. I was actually about to start looking for someone who sells dectalk USB units here, so as to avoid what would happen if I tried to order it from the states. Stewart, your comments about speech quality has me wanting to ask something about speech in Linux, which for the record is reprehensible, even if free. IBM created a voice known as eloquence which while not my cup of tea, would make Linux a reasonable possibility for more people if available. I have no idea what IBM uses the voice for now, but they still own it I am told. . FTDI serial interfaces - although briefly vilified by Linux types - are the
easiest to work with under Linux. Each one has a unique serial number, and can be made to appear on a particular port with a little bit of configuration.
Granted, I am now trying to imagine how those fit into a machine, but cannot help feeling that what constitutes a little bit of configuration for Mr. builds dectalks in his basement, is a grand dance for the rest of the world. I mean seriously, if you want to make some extra cash during the pademic I can likely find you a few happy customers, laughs. Cheers, Kare
cheers,