[MacPerl] CommConnect.pl, serial tool buffer size, and memory leaks/fragmentation

["Robert A. Decker" <comrade@umich.edu>]

  Last week I posted an observation that everytime a call is made through
CommConnect.pl there is an 8 byte (?) or so memory leak due to memory
fragmentation. Has anyone thought about this further? Does anyone want to
see the original script?

  In the meantime I've gotten around it by making my script query the
serial tool every 1 second (rather than every loop - which worked out to be
8 to 14 times every second) for data. 
  However, I know very little about the serial tool (or communications in
general). Am I in danger of overrunning some kind of serial tool buffer?
The Newton connects to the Mac at 19,200 baud. Is this 19,200 bits/sec?
Which would be 2400 bytes per second? Will the serial tool be able to
handle filling up with that much data before it starts overwriting previous
data?

  Also, does the serial tool have correction built-in? Will it be smart
enough to know if some data it was sent is missing a couple bits/bytes and
that it should reload it? 
  Or should I write into the Perlscript (and Newtonscript on the Newton
end) that it should download the data twice and compare the two downloads,
or is there a more efficient way? Has anyone on this mailing list dealt
with these issues?


thanks,
rob
--
<mailto: "Robert A. Decker" comrade@umich.edu>
Programmer Analyst - Health Media Research Lab
University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center 

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