Post by thread:Parallel-port programming in a Windows world

I have a 16C84 that is to be programmed in-circuit as part of our customers' system configuration. Ideally, this would run under Windows NT. However, it appears that the parallel-port programming model (as seen in Messrs. Tait and Goodwin, and the Microchip ECH) wants direct port-level communication with the parallel port, and from what little I know of NT, this is not allowed. Has anyone else tried to integrate a parallel-port programmer under NT? Can someone perhaps point me to "model" printer driver code, so I can figure out how to include what I need? Thanks, Karen Black Blodgett, OR

Karen L. Black wrote: > > I have a 16C84 that is to be programmed in-circuit as part of our customers' > system configuration. Ideally, this would run under Windows NT. However, > it appears that the parallel-port programming model (as seen in Messrs. > Tait and Goodwin, and the Microchip ECH) wants direct port-level communication > with the parallel port, and from what little I know of NT, this is not > allowed. > > Has anyone else tried to integrate a parallel-port programmer under NT? > Can someone perhaps point me to "model" printer driver code, so I can figure > out how to include what I need? > > Thanks, > Karen Black > Blodgett, OR Having tried to write a printer driver for NT, and having a lot of difficulty it was much easier and almost as good, we went to Windows 95 instead. Your simplest solution is to NOT use NT. Writing a 'printer driver' for NT, to put it simply....is HELL. If you dont really need to use NT for in-circuit programming dont!!! Just use a DOS boot disk and do it that way. If you have the NT DDK (Device Driver Kit) from Microsoft there is a sample UNIDRIVER for NT included. Supposedly you can just write a diver script that will do what you need, and It MAY write directly to the port. Also under NT nearly all IO is done via a file interface from the NT API, But I'm not sure about the printer ports. I hope this kind of helps, but for my money I would not bother with NT.. -- Alan Nickerson --------- It seems to me that the best new ideas come from people who don't know that they "can't". -- Paul Mathews, spam_OUToptoengTakeThisOuTWHIDBEY.COM

Take a look at issue 74 (September 1996) of Circuit Cellar Ink. There is an article about writing a VxD for Windows 95 that allows access to the printer port. Although VxD's don't currently work in NT, Microsoft may put support in for them soon. MD On Fri, 4 Oct 1996, Karen L. Black wrote: {Quote hidden}> I have a 16C84 that is to be programmed in-circuit as part of our customers' > system configuration. Ideally, this would run under Windows NT. However, > it appears that the parallel-port programming model (as seen in Messrs. > Tait and Goodwin, and the Microchip ECH) wants direct port-level communication > with the parallel port, and from what little I know of NT, this is not > allowed. > > Has anyone else tried to integrate a parallel-port programmer under NT? > Can someone perhaps point me to "model" printer driver code, so I can figure > out how to include what I need? > > Thanks, > Karen Black > Blodgett, OR >