Re: serial port access under win32 (win2K)

[Matthew Flatt <mflatt@cs.utah.edu>]

Quoting "Chris Wright":
> Any pointers on how to access the serial ports (COM1->COM4) under win32.

If you only wanted to read, or only wanted to write, you can use
`open-input-file' or `open-output-file' on "COM1", etc.

More likely, you want to both read and write to the serial line.
Unfortuately, you can't use `open-input-file' and then
`open-output-file', because opening a COMx port in either mode locks it
from other uses.

MzScheme needs an `open-input&output-file' function, which would solve
your problem, but it's not there yet. (Soon, I hope...)


Probably the only options for now are to use some ActiveX tool (I don't
know what that would be) or to write a little extension in C.

Maybe someone on plt-scheme already has implemented a relevant
extension?

Matthew