Worst design decisions?

Thu Sep 18 22:26:29 UTC 2003

In article <cistron.Pine.NEB.4.58.0309181101380.8936 at server.duh.org>,
Todd Vierling  <tv at duh.org> wrote:
>
>On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 up at 3.am wrote:
>
>: Without a question:  PS/2 style keyboard and mouse connectors.  Impossible
>: to tell from each other,
>
>And this part is somewhat funny, too, because the PS/2 connector layout is
>capable of having both devices share the same bus (there's two unconnected
>pins, which some laptops use to provide alternate CLK/DATA signals).
>
>If PS/2 mice used the unconnected pins rather than the same CLK/DATA pins as
>the keyboard, all machines could simply have two connectors using all six
>pins and you'd be able to plug either device into either socket.

Actually a PC can detect if a mouse or keyboard is plugged in
and behave appropiately - there were PCs (I forget which) on
which it didn't matter what port you used for kbd or mouse, it
all just worked. In fact 2 kbds is quite possible as well.

So that is basically a software problem.

Mike.