Re: Worst design decisions?

["Miquel van Smoorenburg" <miquels () cistron nl>]

In article <cistron.Pine.NEB.4.58.0309181101380.8936 () server duh org>,
Todd Vierling  <tv () duh org> wrote:
> On Thu, 18 Sep 2003 up () 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.