| ??? 01/05/08 09:55 Read: times |
#149069 - Why develop drivers? Responding to: ???'s previous message |
Joe Gold said:
I would like to write Windows Applications to access Serial and USB etc No special tools are required for this - you can just use the standard Windows APIs. Sure, packages are available that "encapsulate" the nitty-gritty, but they are by no means essential... I have access to the follow PC software tool chains
a. Visual Studio 6.0 (C++ and VB) b. Various flavors of GCC and suitable IDE's c. turbo Delphi (now freely available for download) d. Visual Studio 2005 express now freely available for download) e. and other freely down loadable tools. That should be all you need! (although VC 6 must be pretty outdated by now?) My mail goal is to write some windows apps to talk to my micros. As far as the windows apps are concerned, they just talk to the PC ports (COM, USB, whatever) - whatever's attached to the ports is entirely irrelevant to the apps. Visual C++ seems to be very predominant.. in code examples for USB drivers and apps It is. VS studio is the de facto standard for PC programming. It makes sense, doesn't it - MS tools for MS systems! but but I am still getting my head around OOP All of the tools you've mentioned are object-oriented - you're just going to have to get used to that for any PC programming! and creating drivers for USB etc. Why do you want to create drivers??! Don't all USB-equipped microcontrollers and chips come with ready-made drivers from the manufacturers?! Just use the provided drivers - that's what they're there for! In fact, in many cases, the USB driver makes the device appear as a COM port - so the windows app doesn't even have to be aware that USB is involved at all! I can work with VB... but compile sizes are quite large'ish. That's pretty much in the very nature of PC apps these days! For VC++ and VB - To share development work.... of users have to purchase MS Visual products. No, you don't - the "Express" versions are free. For Visual studio 2005 express edition... I need to know if there are objects and components for Serial Comport and USB etc. See above - it's all just atandard Windows API stuff. Similarly for turbo Delphi - I need to know weather there Serial comport and USB components readily available. Yes there are. Many people here use AsyncPro - which is now open-source. (also for C++ Builder) For GCC, DevC++ and tool chains - I am interested... in the open source and the large community contributions... but again I look for comport and USB code. Again - standard APIs. Undoubtedly libraries that "encapsulate" the nitty-gritty will also be available... |
