"Rudderow, Evan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>Why write a program?  Why not simply FCOPY from the port to a file?
>
 
Well, FCOPY from port to file should work but this will only store
the console output "trace" to a file... which can be done with the
system logging more easily.
 
A small program collecting the input from the DTC port can scan it
for certain messages and trigger immediate actions on them e.g. the
UPS powerfail messages could be used to restrict further logons or
shutdown certain applications...
 
I did not think about this special-cabling-and-detector-program
trick in detail and thus have no idea about how reliable this can
be implemented.
 
Another quite insane application scenario: want to catch spooled
printer output to send it elsewhere e.g. to networked printer (as
of 5.5 this no longer makes sense but lpd/lpr still might do)...
just pipe the printer DTC port back into a "collector" port.
 
Catching the output this way means "after spooler processed CCTL
to control codes like CR, LF, FF" which is different from polling
an OPENQ spooler queue and pulling out spoolfiles on at regular
intervals (like e.g. Unispool and similar products do).
 
As I said before ... all pretty insane ... hmmm ... think pink!?
 
Cheers, Lars/iX