Re: serial console

[John Dow <johnmdow@me.com>]

On 31 Jul 2025, at 13:45, Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> wrote:

On Jul 31, 2025, mick.crane wrote:

I've never really known what a serial console is.
Say in relation to a Raspberry Pi or Arduino

Skipping a *LOT* of history (and linguistics, etc), a "serial console"
is a "console" (user interface) provided remotely to the device in
question over a serial communications channel.  I don't believe the term
really came into use until *after* ethernet took over.

I think you’re right there, Dan - when I was soldering up db25 RS-232 cables (pins 2,3,7 and 20 IIRC) and crawling around under floors, a terminal was a terminal and the console was something directly connected to the computer. We didn’t bother with ’serial’ because it’s not like there was any other kind of terminal :) It worries me that knowledge of these things (and UARTs and character vs block devices and any number of other things) is likely to die out with us old farts :)

J

-- 
John Dow <jmd@nelefa.org>
http://www.nelefa.org
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