I read that article. Got a chuckle out of RS232. Author apparently hasn't worked with anything other than beige-box devices for the last 20 years.
Man, I can not count how many times I was ripping something apart to mess with and found it had a RS232 interface.
It may never die. 400 years from now some guy is going to be messing with a life support system in deep space and using a f-ing "what ever the fuck this thing is to RS232 adapter".
It works well, and it's super easy to implement. You're right, there are going to be alien devices we find someday and there's going to be a serial interface we can talk to on it.
God damn, that would be the best mind-fuck ever.
Find a 20k+ year old alien probe or something.. Start trying to test contact points... Find that they created something that is basically nearly if not entirely identical to RS232 ;)
It's great because it's a single wire (two if you need feedback), serial-to-USB adapters are just a few dollars, and you can bit-bang it with very little code over any I/O pin of an MCU.
I jest but could 232 be the superior master protocol that shall last for all time?
Not always the best for every job but clearly something that will be around more or less forever.
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