C programming question

[Valentin Bud]

On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Konrad Heuer <kheuer2 at gwdg.de> wrote:

>
> On Wed, 8 Apr 2009, Frank Shute wrote:
>
>  On Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 11:41:54AM +0200, Valentin Bud wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Hello community,
>>>
>>>  I have built with a micro controller a system of power plugs that
>>>  can be controlled through the serial port.  I have 2 plugs that i
>>>  can start/stop and check the status of them. This is accomplished
>>>  by sending different letters (eg. A/W) to start/stop one of the
>>>  plugs and another set of letter for the other plug and one letter
>>>  to check the status.
>>>
>>>  Taking into account the fact that my C skills are almost 0 how
>>>  complicated would be to write a program so I can control that micro
>>>  controller through the serial port. Or is there some kind of
>>>  program that can read/write from/to the serial port from the
>>>  command line. I don't want an interactive program like minicom,
>>>  just a program that connects and send a command (a letter in my
>>>  case) to the serial port.
>>>
>>>  Why not minicom (or any other program like it)? My goal is to be
>>>  able to start/stop the plugs using a web interface.  I have tried
>>>  using minicom and background it but when i log out minicom closes.
>>>  If minicom is started i can send commands to ttyd0 with echo, but i
>>>  can't read anything from serial.
>>>
>>>  Now back to my original question, how hard/complicated will it be
>>>  to write a C program to control the micro controller through the
>>>  serial port.
>>>
>>>  Of course on FreeBSD :).
>>>
>>>
>> About 10 years ago I adapted a a C program that was used to control a
>> board (which basically had a chip and a thermocouple on it) via the
>> serial port.
>>
>> IIRC, the C was relatively simple but if you're a total beginner then
>> it would be hard without cribbing code off the 'net.
>>
>> If you want to learn C then go for it but if you don't you'd be better
>> off using one of the scripting languages: perl, python, ruby etc. and
>> your development time will be much reduced.
>>
>> Also they all have facilities for easily converting your program to
>> use the CGI so that you can webify the control and I'm sure they all
>> have some module for using a serial port (comms/p5-Device-SerialPort
>> in ports for perl).
>>
>
> Please find a program of mine attached; it was used to communicate with a
> card reader connected via serial port. Maybe it will help you a little bit
> although you don't need all the stuff.
>
> Best regards
>
> Konrad Heuer
> GWDG, Am Fassberg, 37077 Goettingen, Germany, kheuer2 at gwdg.de


Thanks everybody for the heads up. I don't know (yet) which path i am going
to take. I know a little bit of perl so i guess i'll start reading on how
can i accomplish my goal with perl.

thanks,
v


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