4 ms·

Serial Port Communication in C#

10 points by ionela 18y ago

ionela 18y ago
The serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time.
- prospero 18y ago
  C# is a Java-like language that uses the .NET runtime. Unlike Java, it has first-class functions. A dog is a four-legged animal that goes woof. A cow is like a dog, but it's larger, and goes moooooo.
ivankirigin 18y ago
For any low-lever hardware engineers, I can highly recommend using Python. The struct module is by far the easiest way to send and interpret exact bits along a wire.
ajross 18y ago
I'll never understand the mindset behind windows developers that says: "When starting a project to do some simple low-level task, first throw up a uselessly simple GUI application and put a button on it." I mean, half of this article is about how to use the GUI wizard, just to show off about 10 lines of code. Beyond that, it's reasonably instructive. I'm happy to know that RS-232 isn't forgotten in the .NET world; there is lots of legacy hardware out with important things to say. Although I was amused by this bit of hubris in the API design: serialPort1.StopBits= StopBits.One; I'd be curious to hear why the designer felt that the concept of a "stop bit" was so important or complicated that it deserved its own abstraction for the number one. :)
- jcl 18y ago
  It looks like the StopBits enumeration is in place for type-safety. It has the values None, One, Two, and OnePointFive. With just those four values, any representation other than an enumeration would be either inefficient or confusing. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.stopbits.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.stop... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_start-stop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_start-stop
  - ajross 18y ago
    Not really, no. The "stop bit" is an asynchronous delay inserted between the transition edge of the final bit of a byte and the rising edge of the next start bit. It's a fundamentally analog unit of time that just happens to be measured in "bits". In principle, there could be hardware that wants three stop bits, or 0.7. To the extent that there are only four values, that's purely because of historical convention (and maybe limitations of early PC UARTs, I don't have datasheets handy). All of which could have been easily and more robustly encapsulated by the use of a float instead of the bizzaro-world enum that they chose.
revolvingcur 18y ago
Before you criticize this article as simplistic or unnecessary (arguments about interest to this audience aside), consider that .NET 1.1 didn't have built-in serial port communication. Having spent many hours hacking serial comm in C#, I can say that this would have been a welcome resource, even given its brevity.

10 points by ionela 18y ago

ionela 18y ago

The serial port is a serial communication interface through which information transfers in or out one bit at a time.

prospero 18y ago
C# is a Java-like language that uses the .NET runtime. Unlike Java, it has first-class functions. A dog is a four-legged animal that goes woof. A cow is like a dog, but it's larger, and goes moooooo.

ivankirigin 18y ago

For any low-lever hardware engineers, I can highly recommend using Python. The struct module is by far the easiest way to send and interpret exact bits along a wire.

ajross 18y ago

I'll never understand the mindset behind windows developers that says: "When starting a project to do some simple low-level task, first throw up a uselessly simple GUI application and put a button on it." I mean, half of this article is about how to use the GUI wizard, just to show off about 10 lines of code. Beyond that, it's reasonably instructive. I'm happy to know that RS-232 isn't forgotten in the .NET world; there is lots of legacy hardware out with important things to say. Although I was amused by this bit of hubris in the API design: serialPort1.StopBits= StopBits.One; I'd be curious to hear why the designer felt that the concept of a "stop bit" was so important or complicated that it deserved its own abstraction for the number one. :)

jcl 18y ago
It looks like the StopBits enumeration is in place for type-safety. It has the values None, One, Two, and OnePointFive. With just those four values, any representation other than an enumeration would be either inefficient or confusing. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.stopbits.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.stop... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_start-stop http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asynchronous_start-stop
- ajross 18y ago
  Not really, no. The "stop bit" is an asynchronous delay inserted between the transition edge of the final bit of a byte and the rising edge of the next start bit. It's a fundamentally analog unit of time that just happens to be measured in "bits". In principle, there could be hardware that wants three stop bits, or 0.7. To the extent that there are only four values, that's purely because of historical convention (and maybe limitations of early PC UARTs, I don't have datasheets handy). All of which could have been easily and more robustly encapsulated by the use of a float instead of the bizzaro-world enum that they chose.

revolvingcur 18y ago

Before you criticize this article as simplistic or unnecessary (arguments about interest to this audience aside), consider that .NET 1.1 didn't have built-in serial port communication. Having spent many hours hacking serial comm in C#, I can say that this would have been a welcome resource, even given its brevity.