Richard Cini wrote:
There is something for the Commodore computers which did just that. It
was PC software, acting as serial to Ethernet bridge basically.
Unfortunately I don’t remember the name; I’m trying to find it in my
vast archive-o-stuff.
There was a web browser for the C64 called Con-Tiki, I think. It provided a Windows-like user interface, and used some little box to connect to the internet, via an ethernet connector, as I recall.
I also remember ethernet modems for PCs. Some were plug in cards, others were like external modems that connected via the PC's RS-232 ports. I don't know how they worked. I suspect there were special software drivers that ran on the PC to talk to them. They were mainly used to network multiple PCs.
I've seen a number of people who put their vintage computer on-line by using a serial port to connect it to a PC, and then software on the PC to do all the "heavy lifting" to get it on the web. But that feels a bit like cheating. :-)
What I'm thinking of is far less ambitious. Basically, have a website specifically set up to be as easy as possible for vintage computers to navigate. You just need some way to get to the page. Then all the displays a simple ASCII, and you'd send it ASCII keystrokes to navigate.
Lee Hart
--
A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is
nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint Exupery
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Lee Hart, 814 8th Ave N, Sartell MN 56377, www.sunrise-ev.com
Lee Hart