han@apple.UUCP (Byron Han, fire fighter) (02/03/88)
With regards to the serial drivers... it is a VERY good idea to close your
serial driver when you are finished. In other words, using RAMSDopen and
RAMSDClose are strongly recommended. It is cheesy to leave the drivers open
when your application terminates. Using the ROM driver does not allow you
to close it without causing people to become sad :-(
So, 1 - try and use the RAM based drivers
2 - try not to directly open driver's by refnum (-6, -7, -8, -9)
use their name if at all possible (.Ain, .Aout, .Bin, .Bout)
3 - always always always close the RAM based serial driver when
quitting your application. There is a means to insure that
DTR stays high when closing the serial driver. Documented in
IM IV.
--
------------------------ Byron Han, Communications Tool ----------------------
Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 27Y Cupertino, CA 95014
ATTnet:408-973-6450 applelink:HAN1 domain:han@apple.COM MacNET:HAN
GENIE:BYRONHAN COMPUSERVE:72167,1664 UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!hanatchison@hpindda.HP.COM (Lee Atchison) (02/04/88)
Question: Why would anyone want to use the ROM serial driver over the RAM serial driver? Where is the RAM serial driver located? In the System file? Is the RAM serial driver included with all Systems? I'm writing a program that needs to read and write to the serial port. I want it to work on a variety of different macs. Is it wrong for me to assume that the RAM serial driver will always exist on a system? Thanks in Advance. -lee ---- Lee Atchison Hewlett Packard, Information Networks Division atchison%hpindda@hplabs.hp.com
han@apple.UUCP (Byron Han, fire fighter) (02/05/88)
article <6500012@hpindda.HP.COM> atchison@hpindda.HP.COM (Lee Atchison) writes: >Question: >Why would anyone want to use the ROM serial driver over the RAM serial driver? There really is no reason to use the ROM driver. Originally, space was tight on the 128K Macintoshes and every byte counted. These days, space is not so critical. >Where is the RAM serial driver located? In the System file? either in the System or in the ROM. I don't know. It shouldn't matter. >Is the RAM serial driver included with all Systems? > >I'm writing a program that needs to read and write to the serial port. I want >it to work on a variety of different macs. Is it wrong for me to assume that >the RAM serial driver will always exist on a system? References - Inside Macintosh Volume II, IV For the Macintosh 128, 512, XL: there is a version of the RAM based serial driver in resource SERD, id 1 for the 128/512, id 2 for the XL For the Macintosh 512e, Plus, SE, II: there is a single new serial driver that replaces the old RAM/ROM serial drivers. "For best results, include the RAM serial drivers as resources of type 'SERD' in the resource fork of your application and continue to use RAMSDOpen and RAMSClose. If the 128K ROM (or later) is present, the new driver is automatically included. Sooooo, if the target machine is 128K ROM or later (see technote 129 to find out how to determine this), you can assume that using RAMSDOpen and RAMSDClose will work. If the target machine is 128/512/XL, then including the SERD resources will guarantee that RAMSDOpen/RAMSDClose will work. PLEASE try to use the RAMSDOpen/RAMSDClose calls. ALSO ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS call RAMSClose when terminating. Cleanliness is always appreciated by the Apple Thought Police :-) -- ------------------------ Byron Han, Communications Tool ---------------------- Apple Computer, Inc. 20525 Mariani Ave, MS 27Y Cupertino, CA 95014 ATTnet:408-973-6450 applelink:HAN1 domain:han@apple.COM MacNET:HAN GENIE:BYRONHAN COMPUSERVE:72167,1664 UUCP:{sun,voder,nsc,decwrl}!apple!han
palarson@watdragon.waterloo.edu (Paul Larson) (02/06/88)
I recieved the RAM serial drivers with my Lightspeed Pascal package. They are resources of type SERD. It's probably best to include the serial drivers in the resource fork of any application which may need them. Johan Larson
atchison@hpindda.HP.COM (Lee Atchison) (02/09/88)
Could somebody please send me a copy of the RAM Serial Driver? I've looked all over and I can't seem to find a copy. It's not in any of my system files, and it wasn't included with my compiler (I've got Turbo Pascal 1.0). Is the RAM driver freely distributable? Or are there limitations? Ie. if I write a commercial (or shareware) program that requires the RAM serial driver, can I distribute it with my program? BTW, I discovered that I didn't have the RAM driver when I tried to do a RAMSDOpen (or whatever that routine is called) and got an error -192 (which I couldn't find documented anywhere). I'm assuming that this error means the driver isn't installed, is this correct? Or does this error mean that something else is wrong? Thanks for the help. -lee ps. Please send me a message before you send my the driver, so I don't get flooded with copies. ---- Lee Atchison Hewlett Packard, Information Networks Division atchison%hpindda@hplabs.hp.com