Xref: utzoo comp.sys.amiga:49837 comp.sys.amiga.tech:9983
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!sun-barr!newstop!sun!stpeter!cmcmanis
From: cmcmanis@stpeter.Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga,comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Come on PEOPLE...
Message-ID: <131777@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Date: 13 Feb 90 23:44:52 GMT
References: <1990Feb12.223912.7167@ug.cs.dal.ca>
Sender: news@sun.Eng.Sun.COM
Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis)
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View
Lines: 70

In article <1990Feb12.223912.7167@ug.cs.dal.ca> (tom) writes:
> I have recieved many replies(like almost 10...) from my posting asking 
> for help on
> using the SERIAL port(modem)..they all asked "PLEASE foward me any info
> you recieve.." but no replies(at least via email, I believe there was one
> reply on the net that I got) telling me how to do anything..
> SOMEBODY must know how to do it or have source on how to open, read to,
> write from Serial.. 
> apparently many people are having the same problem as I am, hence all
> the requests to me, so your words wouldn't fall on deaf ears..

This seems a good testamonial to my case on the problems with the Amiga 
"serial" architecture.

Anyway, the answer isn't simple. It goes something like this :

Somewhere in your main routine you need to open the serial.device,
to do this you have to allocated an extended IORequest structure,
and created a reply port. There are descriptions on how to do this
in the RKM but basically the flow is something like :

	...
	struct IOExtSer Myserialstruct;

	port = CreatePort(0, 0);
	if (!port) 
		abort("Can't create port!");
	Myserialstruct.IOSer.io_Message.ReplyPort = port;
	error = OpenDevice("serial.device", 0, &Myserialstruct, 0);
	if (error)
		abort("Can't open serial.device!");

	...

char
read_a_character()
{
	char	a;

	Myserialstruct.IOSer.io_Command = READ;
	Myserialstruct.IOSer.io_Length = 1;
	Myserialstruct.IOSer.io_Data = &a;
	DoIO(&Myserialstruct);
	if (Myserialstruct.IOSer.io_Error != 0)
		return (0);
	else 
		return (a);
}

Etc etc for the write and set parameters calls. 

If you want to just check to see if a character is available and
return if there isn't one, then you will need to look up doing 
asynchronous I/O using SendIO/WaitIo.

Read and understand the following sections of the available manuals
and then ask more specific questions if you want to get answers :
	RKM Libraries and Devices : Chapter on serial.device
				    Chapter on Exec/IO
				    
	RKM AutoDocs and Includes :  devices/serial.h
				     serial.device

Sorry about not going into great detail, but you have to meet us
at least halfway.

--Chuck McManis
uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis   BIX: cmcmanis  ARPAnet: cmcmanis@Eng.Sun.COM
These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.
"If it didn't have bones in it, it wouldn't be crunchy now would it?!"