Re: Re: Is xPL the ideal work-around? Need to access the LPT port from Mister House...

[Gerry Duprey <gerry@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Howdy,

> I agree with your implementation of defining the port i.e. device=888
this
> is not operating system specific (apart from apple of course).

I respectfully disagree.

You pointed out an exception right in your own comment, Apple (which I
happen to know of at least two folks using xPL4Java on their OSX machines).
Also, USB printers and serial ports do not have physical addresses to be
written to.  Solaris does not share the same underpinnings either (and
there
is at least one Solaris xPL'er out there I've communicated with).

Any sort of address is always going to be specific to a particular piece of
hardware, if not an O/S.

And no, Java cannot write to a specific address directly -- it can write to
device names and those device names.  I'm working on a version of this that
I hope to release in a few days.  It cannot take addresses, but does
support
any serial or parallel device your system knows about just ducky.  I've
tested the base of it on Windows and Linux and have someone I'm asking to
test for under OSX.

Cross platform can be a pain and can often add some complexity to a simpler
solution, but the benefits are great, fits better into the underpinnings of
xPL which explicitly talk about being open to any platform and helps to
expand the community of xPL users out there.

In this case, the ability to use an OS specific name really doesn't step
too
far away from a native terminology -- I would think most Windows users are
in fact more likely to recognize LPT1 than 888 ot $3BC, I beleive.

Gerry
--
Gerry Duprey
Ann Arbor, MI 48103
http://www.cdp1802.org