Your use of "backwards" and "everything else" is mainly relative to IBM-PC compatible systems; some people don't realize that there were other computers before (and even after) IBM PCs and Apples.
As I said, with a few notable exceptions the usual rear panel connector for serial (DTE or DCE), parallel and some SCSI ports was a female DB25F; serial printers of the day also used a female DB25F connector. In this context the Model T is essentially an intelligent terminal (DTE); have a look at the back panel of pretty well any terminal of the day (except DEC) or even a UNIX or CP/M computer and you'll probably find female DB25Fs. The IBM PC with its unusual (for the time) male DB25M was just becoming mainstream at the time of the M100; as its popularity grew the various ways that it deviated from the conventions of the day became the new "standard" and the market for gender changers grew substantially.. The point is that when dealing with vintage equipment like the Model T or even an external modem do not assume that a female DB25 is a parallel port as IBM have (re)defined it. m ----- Original Message ----- From: Brian White To: [email protected] Sent: Friday, August 11, 2017 6:13 PM Subject: Re: [M100] M100 Digest, Vol 80, Issue 9 It's wired as DTE, but with a female connector. *That's* what makes it backwards, not merely the female connector by itself. If it were a female connector, and wired as DCE, that would be unusual for a computer, but it would still be conforming to the same conventions as everything else. When you buy a random serial cable with male pins in a 25 pin connector, if you know nothing about the insides of the cable or where it came from or what the original packaging said etc, 99 44/100ths of the time that combination expects to be plugged into a modem, or other DCE device. The M100 isn't a modem, but if it's connector were wired DCE, that "modem" cable would still work. *today* such a plug would have an extra dimension of wrongness because it would be ambiguous with a printer port, but at that time, D25F might not yet have become a standard for parallel printer ports. It doesn't matter that the printer port on the M100 itself isn't confusable with it's own serial port, it's still a factor as long as a significant number of printers and their cables out there can physically plug in to the wrong port. At the time, that might not have been true like it absolutely is today.
