Re: Need your help. How to use ada communicate with hardware? ---A beginner

[Dan Andreatta <andreatta@mail.chem.sc.edu.REMOVEME>]

kz105@student.cs.york.ac.uk (Jamie) wrote in
news:ba071575.0204110949.747940b@posting.google.com: 

> i'm recently learning ada. we have a project needed using computer to
> control a machine. the machine has a microcontroller. i need to write
> some program to communication with it via RS232 serial link. for
> example, i need to ask the status of machine by sending a request, and
> the machine will return a string to the computer. but i don't actually
> know how to use ada to communicate hardware, becasue i'm a beginner of
> programming. some body said that there is a binding to comms port.
> could anyone please show me how to use it with some examples. Thanks.
> 

If you are working w/ Windows, there are two partial bingings for serial
ports. 

ftp://ftp.usafa.af.mil/pub/dfcs/carlisle/serial/serial.zip
http://users.erols.com/leakstan/Stephe/Ada/win32_com_ports.zip

One side note: I found that to read from a serial port (from a photon
counter) I had to change the DCB settings, enabling the DTR and RTS
controls. In Stephe's package, you have to modify two lines (in 
com_ports.adb), from 

Config.FDtrControl := Win32.WinBase.DTR_CONTROL_DISABLE;
Config.FRtsControl := Win32.WinBase.RTS_CONTROL_DISABLE;

to

Config.FDtrControl := Win32.WinBase.DTR_CONTROL_ENABLE;
Config.FRtsControl := Win32.WinBase.RTS_CONTROL_ENABLE;

HTH,
Dan