Although the correct way is to use a VxD, you can simply do in's and out's
from user mode in Windows9x.  You cannot, however, do this under WindowsNT.
Note that if the lpt port you are using is shared (i.e. there is a
printer/scanner/etc on the same port), you need to have a VxD to call VCOMM
contention services. This guarantees exclusivity.

                                                        - Dennis

At 01:28 PM 12/17/98 EST, you wrote:
>        I've just read thru Parallel Port Complete.  Nicely done!  Now,
>it SEEMS to me that it should be possible to avoid reinventing the wheel.
> Seems that there SHOULD be a generic parallel port VxD or driver we can
>install in Windoze that would give us control of a parallel port and let
>us twiddle bits on the port.  Does such a thing exist?
>        Further, I've written my own code for the 16c74a for nibble mode
>transfers and a modified SPP transfer to the PIC (I use the Parallel
>Slave Port, latching data on the SPP strobe, then inverting one status
>bit as a simple one wire handshake).  However, is there a library for the
>PIC where someone has written various parallel port routines including,
>perhaps, the advanced protocols?