Win32::SerialPort and Win32API::CommPort VERSION=0.20, 1 April 2010 VERSION=0.21, 30 April 2010 (Makefile.PL and test improvements) Hello Serial Port users: If you are not running Windows, you want the Device::SerialPort module instead of this one. It has a compatible user interface and runs on Operating Systems that fully support POSIX.pm. Available from your favorite CPAN site. Since someone asked, MS-DOS does NOT support POSIX.pm. But OSX does. It has been over 10 years since the last release. No functions are considered "experimental" anymore. And this release is mostly test and installer improvements along with a few bug fixes. There is now a module Test::Device::SerialPort on CPAN that emulates these modules (and their POSIX cousins) for testing application code without hardware. While the modules themselves have supported USB ports, COM10 and above, VirtualBox, and embedded ports, the tests did not up to now. These modules are intended for Win32 ports of Perl without requiring a compiler or using XS. In every case, compatibility has been selected over performance. Since everything is (convoluted but still pure) perl, you can fix flaws and change limits if required. But please file a bug report if you do. I have tested with the ActiveState (5.6.x, 5.8.x, 5.10.x) and Strawberry (5.8.x and 5.10.x) distributions. But these modules should work on any Win32 version that supports Aldo Calpini's Win32::API. While the modules have worked on earlier perl versions, I no longer have any way to test them for compatibility. This is the sixth production release. All planned features are now implemented. If you see any place where the code does not match the documentation, consider it a bug and please report it. FILES: Changes - for history lovers Makefile.PL - the "starting point" for traditional reasons MANIFEST - file list README.txt - this file (CRLF) README - same file with CPAN-friendly name (LF only) eg/any_os.plx - cross-platform use and init eg/demo1.plx - talks to a "really dumb" terminal eg/demo2.plx - "poor man's" readline and chat eg/demo3.plx - looks like a setup menu - but only looks :-( eg/demo4.plx - simplest setup: "new", "required param", "restart" eg/demo5.plx - "waitfor" and "nextline" using lookfor eg/demo6.plx - basic tied FileHandle operations, record separators eg/demo7.plx - a Perl/Tk based terminal, event loop and callbacks eg/demo8.plx - command line terminal emulator with Term::Readkey eg/demo9.plx - using debug on a close() eg/options.plx - post-install test that prints available options eg/stty.plx - first try at Unix lookalike lib - install directory lib/Win32 - install directory lib/Win32/SerialPort.pm - the reason you're reading this lib/Win32API - install directory lib/Win32API/CommPort.pm - the raw API calls and other internals html - install directory html/Win32 - install directory html/Win32/SerialPort.html - documentation html/Win32API - install directory html/Win32API/CommPort.html - documentation t - test directory t/Altport.pm - stub for inheritance test t/test1.t - RUN ME FIRST, tests and creates configuration t/test2.t - tests restarting_a_configuration and timeouts t/test3.t - Inheritance and export version of test1.t t/test4.t - Inheritance version of test2.t and "restart" t/test5.t - tests to optional exports from CommPort t/test6.t - stty tests t/test7.t - tied FileHandle tests This is a genuine production release. You can complain if I don't maintain compatibility from this point forward. The experimental items might change a bit - but I'll try to avoid breaking any code. PRE-INSTALL and TEST: Run 'perl Makefile.PL' first with nothing connected to "COM1". You can specify a diferent port to test with 'perl Makefile.PL TESTPORT=PORT'. I recommend you use a "traditional" hard-wired port for testing if available. Several tests are skipped for USB and other specialized ports. For those with make (e.g. Strawberry Perl), the normal mantra applies: perl Makefile.PL TESTPORT=port make make test make install Makefile.PL also generates two scripts for those who don't have a version of 'make' (e.g. nmake, dmake): perl nomake_test perl nomake_install Test::More and related routines are used to generate reports. The test suite covers most of the module methods and leaves the port set for 9600 baud, 1 stop, 8 data, no parity, no handshaking, and other defaults. At various points in the testing, it expects unconnected CTS and DTR lines. The final configuration is saved by test1.t as port_test.cfg in the current directory (e.g COM1_test.cfg). The pod2html output is stored in the html directory. Some perl versions support automatically installing html and others do not. Tests may also be run individually by typing: 'perl test?.t [COMx]' All tests are expected to pass - I would be very interested in hearing about failures ("not ok"). These tests should be run from a command line (DOS box). DEMO PROGRAMS: Connect a dumb terminal (or a PC that acts like one) to COM1 and setup the equivalent configuration. Starting demo1.plx should print a three line message on both the terminal and the Win32 command line. The terminal keyboard (only) now accepts characters which it prints to both screens until a CONTROL-Z is typed. Also included is demo2.plx - a truly minimal chat program. Bi-directional communication without an event loop, sockets, pipes (or much utility ;-) This one uses CAPITAL-Q from the active keyboard to quit since doesn't like CONTROL-Z. And each command shell acts a little differently (Cygnus "bash", COMMAND.COM). Try running the terminal at 4800 baud to get errors (or 300 to get "breaks"). AltPort.pm and test3.t implement the "basic Inheritance test" discussed in perltoot and other documentation. It also imports the :STAT constants. It's otherwise only slightly modified from test1.t (you'll get a different "alias" if you run test2.t or demo3.plx after test3.t). There are some subtle functional changes between test2.t and test4.t. But test4.t also calls CommPort methods directly rather than through SerialPort and adds tests for lookfor and stty_xxx methods. You can read (many of the important) settings with demo3.plx. If you give it a (valid) configuration file on the command line, it will open the port with those parameters (and "initialized" set - so you can test simple changes: see the parity example at the end of demo3.plx). Run options.plx to see the available choices for various parameters along with the current values. If you have trouble, I will probably ask you to save the output of options.plx in a file and send it to me. You can specify a port name for options.plx on the command line (e.g. 'perl options.plx COM2'). Demo4.plx is a "minimum" script showing just the basics needed to get started. Demo5.plx demonstrates various uses of the lookfor routine including setups for "waitfor" and a primitive "readline". Try them out. The default "stty" settings work with a VT-100 style terminal. You may have to set the options by hand. Use any editor. Let me know if the descriptions in the documentation are useable. And if any more options are necessary. Demo6.plx demonstrates tied FileHandles. Perl 5.005 is recommended. It "requires" 5.004. It implements timeouts on all user inputs - so you can run it "hands-off" to see what happens. Demo7.plx uses Tk to create a terminal emulator. Its included to show polling and callbacks using an event loop. Demo8.plx is a simple command-line terminal emulator contributed by Andrej Mikus. Stty.plx is a wrapper around the stty method that implements a clone of the Unix/POSIX function of the same name. It's line noise unless you know Unix. The Perl Journal #13 included an article on Controlling a Modem with Win32::SerialPort. Perl Journal #16 showed how to work with the X10 series of home automation modules (ControlX10::). Please tell me what does and what doesn't work. The module has proven to be pretty robust. But I can't test all possible configurations. Don't trust it for anything important without complete testing. Available on CPAN under Author BBIRTH or on gitHub: http://github.com/wbirthisel/win32-serialport Thanks, -bill Copyright (C) 2010, Bill Birthisel. All rights reserved. This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.