4 ms·
No need for any programming language in Windows 9X, just open a DOS prompt and use 'copy file.txt COM1: /B'. We used that trick back in the DOS days to print ra
by Anarch157a 2y ago
No need for any programming language in Windows 9X, just open a DOS prompt and use 'copy file.txt COM1: /B'. We used that trick back in the DOS days to print raw ASCII files on parallel (LPT1:) or serial (COM1:) devices. I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11.
- Rinzler89 2y ago> I'm willing to bet it still works on Win11. It might not. A lab I was at in uni still had Windows XP PCs because according to them, that's the last Windows OS that allowed direct serial/paralel port access needed to control the external robotics/CNCs via those old APIs the SW used, since subsequent versions of Windows abstracted away those direct HW API calls that DOS used in the name of security and stability.
- Gormo 2y agoWhat OS-level APIs would something communicating over serial be using? Sure, Windows abstracts the hardware, but that's been true since well before Windows XP, and modern versions of Windows still expose virtual COM ports for serial adapters connected through USB or PCIE, just as XP did. In fact, even DOS abstracts away serial communications: your hardware would be set to a specific I/O port and IRQ, but DOS exposes those as I/O devices, so you would just read and write to COM1, COM2, etc. My guess is that there's some other issue running that old Windows program on modern versions of Windows -- maybe some components are 16-bit, and since current 64-bit Windows doesn't include the VDM, they can't run. Or maybe it's an issue with current versions of certain DLLs.