Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!goofy.apple.com!chesley
From: chesley@goofy.apple.com (Harry Chesley)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: XMDs for serial I/O?
Message-ID: <12519@goofy.Apple.COM>
Date: 14 Mar 91 20:07:09 GMT
References: <668818815.3@blkcat.Fidonet.Org>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 24

In article <668818815.3@blkcat.Fidonet.Org> 
Paul.Heller@f421.n109.z1.Fidonet.Org (Paul Heller) writes:
> MC> Does anyone know where I might find XCMDs for writing to and reading f
> MC> Mac's serial port?  Any hints or pointers appreciated.
> MC> Thanks,
>  
> Apple sells its "Serial Port Toolkit" of XCMDs thru APDA, and it's
> pretty good.  I've used it with great success up to 38.4 kbps, and it
> seems solid.  The only serious limitation I've encountered is really a
> fundamental HyperCard limit:  you can't deal with ASCII 0s, since
> HyperCard doesn't "see" those.  There's an XCMD called "SendSerial"
> floating around that will *send* ASCII 0s (and translate from Hex
> representations, too) but it doesn't receive.  This shouldn't be a
> problem in normal comm work, but if you're talking to an instrument
> that uses ASCII 0 for something important, you'll have a problem doing
> it with HyperCard.

The 2.6 release of the Toolkit lets you deal with nulls now too. It adds 
XCMDs to send and receive bytes as numeric values (i.e., "100, 101, 102"), 
so you can send anything you want. It also works better when talking to 
non-ASCII devices. There's a corresponding receive XFCN.

You can get it from APDA. It may also be available on apple.com or 
ftp.apple.com, but I'm not sure about that.