Olin Lathrop wrote:

> Many PC users now have notebooks as their only PC.  If he wants to
> distribute his gizmo to the general public, then whatever restrictions
> notebooks have should be considered.  I don't remember him saying this was a
> one-off hobby project for personal use with a well known system.
>
> You need to get a life.

Where did you get "he wants to distribute his gizmo to the general
public". Read:

> Now, i'm using winXP and my old applications do not work
> anymore, as hardware access of winXP is completely different...
> so i have to do something new.

If he were targeted his gizmo to the general public he would address
Vista, not WinXP.


>> The OP did not talk about serial ports, he mentioned RS232 interface.
>
> And the RS-232 interface of a PC is commonly referred to as a "serial port"
> or "COM port".  In fact, he used both terms and even clarified that they
> meant the same thing:
>
>  "of the serial interface (rs232)"

No, re-read it once more, he did not talk about ports, he mentioned
only interfaces. So, we may conclude he was not bothered about the
physical presence of the COM port. He's got it already. His problem is
that he can't command it under "new" op system WinXP. That's why he
asked what would be easier under WinXP - to learn how to rewrite code
with existing and working rs232 or completely redevelop the project
with USB. The correct answer would be - once you have hardware working
with RS232 under Win98, just rewrite you code in Visual Studio, its
easy and could be done quickly. "How to access serial ports by using
Visual Basic 2005": http://support.microsoft.com/kb/904795


> The OP was concerned about "future proofing" and specifically
> asked about USB as a option:

When in the future Microsoft will not provide support for last
operating system that support last version of Visual Studio that does
not support COM Port - you may start thinking about being "future
proof, using USB instead of the serial interface (rs232)".

Regards.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist