When I started programming for the serial/comm port I was amazed how little useful information there was available. In fact most books do not even mention the serial port, let alone show you how to program the comm port in any detail. Consequently I decided to write my own book on this subject and although I say it myself, there seems to be no other work of this detail on the market. The book deals with software control and hardware handshaking, reading input control lines for the serial port, including reading port registers, and manipulating the bits, using Boolian LOGIC, and then writing back new values to the registers. An important aspect of getting to grips with programming the serial port is an understanding of the RS232 standard, and consequently the book also includes all you need to know about RS232 standard for the the serial interface. -- RWD Nickalls

TABLE OF CONTENTS
a) Preface
b) Conventions
c) Disclaimer

     PART I: The serial interface

1) The RS-232 Standard                        
   / introduction/ Circuits / Voltages / Connectors / problems with S232

2) Transmission of data                       
   / introduction / asynchronous transmission / timing of data line sampling

3) Flow control                               
   / introduction / hardware handshaking / software handshaking / the checksum

4) The PC serial interface                    
   / introduction / the UART / UART addresses / UART registers / handling of serial I/O

5) Serial interface programming in QuickBASIC
   / introduction
   / opening a serial port
   / outputting data to a peripheral device
   / inputting data from the serial port
   / opening a data file
   / reading hidden control characters
   / accessing data using ON COM
   / accessing a reply code
   / emptying the Receive buffer
   / reading a data-file
   / use of the LTRIM$ function
   / Time delays / trapping errors
   / trapping keys / the checksum
   / controlling the output control lines
   / monitoring the input control lines

     PART II: Miscellaneous topics

6) Kermit                                     
7) Electrical safety and the PC               
8) Data analysis                              

    PART III: The equipment (lots of examples for specific devices used in medicine).

     PART IV: Appendix

a) ASCII control and graphic characters       
b) Serial port connector pin-outs              
c) Key codes                                   
d) The null modem                              
e) Program for a device simulator              
f) QuickBASIC OPEN and OPEN COM statements    
g) Plotting data using GNUPLOT 3.4             
h) Binary and hexadecimal notation             
i) Glossary of terms and abbreviations        

REFERENCES                                     
INDEX                                         

© 1999 Dean F. Sittig

dfs 3/23/99