Return-Path: Received: (qmail 13907 invoked from network); 21 Dec 2001 12:39:58 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO murphys-inbound.services.quay.plus.net) (212.159.14.225) by excalibur-qfe1-smtp-plusnet.harl.plus.net with SMTP; 21 Dec 2001 12:39:58 -0000 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal Received: (qmail 112 invoked from network); 21 Dec 2001 12:39:56 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO post.thorcom.com) (212.172.148.70) by murphys.services.quay.plus.net with SMTP; 21 Dec 2001 12:39:56 -0000 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1106 Received: from majordom by post.thorcom.com with local (Exim 3.33 #2) id 16HOrO-0004c3-00 for rsgb_lf_group-outgoing@blacksheep.org; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 12:33:10 +0000 Received: from e23.nc.us.ibm.com ([32.97.136.229] helo=outside) by post.thorcom.com with esmtp (Exim 3.33 #2) id 16HOrN-0004bx-00 for rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 12:33:09 +0000 Received: from southrelay01.raleigh.ibm.com (southrelay01.raleigh.ibm.com [9.37.3.208]) by outside (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id GAA138242 for ; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 06:28:44 -0600 Received: from usa.net (ss4.bld.socks.ibm.com [9.14.4.69]) by southrelay01.raleigh.ibm.com (8.11.1m3/NCO v5.01) with ESMTP id fBLCU4R212060 for ; Fri, 21 Dec 2001 07:30:04 -0500 Message-ID: <3C232B49.24253C5A@usa.net> Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 13:30:01 +0100 From: "Alberto di Bene" X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.78 [en] (Windows NT 5.0; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org Subject: LF: Re^n: long haul QSO's .. >> programming References: <195.af5e4.29539b76@aol.com> Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Precedence: bulk Reply-To: rsgb_lf_group@blacksheep.org X-Listname: rsgb_lf_group Sender: DL4YHF@aol.com wrote:

[...]
IMO, the serial port will exist a bit longer than the "LPT" port, and if not, there are a couple of USB->"COM" interface chips available which do not require advanced programming because they look like ordinary "COM" ports to an application. Or, as suggested earlier, use a PIC16F628 which has a nice UART and (in a PIC programmer's world) a large RAM and code memory. You can even program PICs in "C" these days as I saw on SM6LKM's page.

Wolf,
yes, if I recall correctly, the WinIO utility did work only with the home versions of Windows
(95, 98, 98SE, ME), not with the 32-bit versions.

About the ports, maybe the best solution for those who plan to write Windows code to support
new weaksignal modes is to isolate the last layer of the actual interfacing with the port to a well
defined module, with a clearly defined interface with the rest of the program, such that it will be
possible to substitute the parallel version for the serial one, and viceversa. In this way everybody
will be happy.

73 Alberto I2PHD