Re: Low level (GNAT) Ada?

[jerry@jvdsys.nextjk.stuyts.nl (Jerry van Dijk)]

In article <34C716EC.7F0D@mail.connect.usq.edu.au> q9522772@mail.connect.usq.edu.au writes:

>OK, I need to write a device driver, no worries!
>
>Can I write it with GNAT?

I never tried it as the DDK from MS used to be rather expensive. Although
it probably could be done.

>I know these things are usually written in
>assembler but I'm not really wanting anything that special. Afterall
>it's only talking to a logger and another PC terminal.

Now, I am not sure any more what your question really is:

a) How to contol the I/O ports, bus devices, etc or
b) How access the parallel and serial ports.

I answered question (a).

You already gave the answer to question (b):

>What about those DLL files in the system directory. I know there is a
>DLL for Visual C/Basic that is specifically for serial communications.

Actually, the standard Win32 API contains everything you need. However,
it seems you are thinking in Win95 term, not NT terms. On NT there is
an added issue of security.

The problem therefor is not so much a question of Ada or GNAT but about
Win32 programming knowledge.

>How does one reference a DLL entry into a GNAT Ada program?

Usually by linking the import library to your program and calling it :-))

--

-- Jerry van Dijk | Leiden, Holland
-- Team Ada       | jdijk@acm.org