...
The attention was paid, but like PATA connectors the manufacturers
prefered to save a penny or two by leaving the polarising features
off.
Actually I've ran into several floppy drives where they not only cut
out the notch in the connector shroud for the polarizing plug on the
cable's connector, but they cut out a notch on BOTH sides of the
receiving connector's shroud on the floppy drive which effectively
depolarizes the receiving connector. Whether you used a polarized or
non-polarized cable, it could be inserted in either direction. They
didn't save any money while depolarizing the connector (I doubt 2 cuts
is cheaper than one but I wouldn't be surprised that it is no more
expensive). So even if you had a polarized floppy cable, the a-holes
that made the floppy drive made it impossible to ensure the cable was
plugged in only one way. I doubt it has anything to do with saving a
hundredth of a cent in the manufacturing costs versus just stupid
design (they probably had an excuse but it wasn't for the benefit of
the common end-user or jobber building their own host). They made it
a universal fit (for both polarized and non-polarized cables) by
depolarizing their connector. It is then the jobber's duty to ensure
pin 1 matches up on both ends of the cable.
