Sorry, I didn't make myself quite clear, in MIDI multiple devices are
plugged into a single line, identified by channels. When you plug in a
device, data may already be flowing quite easily, hence, with no mistakes on
your part you are out of synch. True, you can issue a software command to
reset the whole interface but this is not a pleasant thing to do as it will
destroy all MIDI timing.

Apart from that, you are perfectly correct, there is no way to 100% detect
the next stop->start but over time it should 'drift' back. I will have to
check the MIDI specs however, because the limited common combinations may
make faster deteection possible.

Thanks,
Tom.
----- Original Message -----
From: Paul B. Webster VK2BZC <paulb@MIDCOAST.COM.AU>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: Serial I\O (was Re: TMR0 Latency]


> William Chops Westfield wrote:
> (Hmmm.  Must be careful here, dealing with the *big* guys!)
>
> > I don't see how you can resynchronize accurately without a mark
> > condition lasting more than one CHARACTER time.  Otherwise, there's no
> > way to distinguish the stop/start bit combination from any other two
> > consecutive zero ("space") bits.
>
>   Ahhh!  You presume *immediate* correction.  I wasn't proposing
> immediate resynchronisation.  Let's face it, whatever caused the loss of
> synch in the first place must have garbled at least two characters, so
> you're not going to recover everything, a few more errors is neither
> here nor there.
>   Cheers,
>         Paul B.