XPost: rec.crafts.metalworking, alt.os.windows.xp, alt.comp.os.windows-xp   
   From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Jim Wilkins"  wrote in message   
   news:jspdjj$2oa$1@dont-email.me...   
   > ...   
   > Windows scripting and OpenOffice Basic look promising,   
      
   Here's a manual for OpenOffice Basic:   
   ftp://ftp.psu.ac.th/pub/openoffice/basic-programming-guide.pdf   
   Look at the DateSerial function.   
      
   Don't be put off by "basic", it has structures and syntax similar to C   
   and Pascal such as functions, Do..Loop and Select Case. The QBasic I   
   use allows simple pointers. I read the mouse position with a   
   machine-code Interrupt 33 routine by Dan Maxwell, stored as a string   
   and called by a pointer to its address.   
      
   I started with Visual Basic 5 and only switched to QBasic because it   
   can read and write the PC's hardware registers. The engineer wanted to   
   use the control, status and data lines from the printer port to run   
   his experimental hardware, so he could plug it into to any customer's   
   unmodified lab computer and boot a DOS floppy to run it, unhindered by   
   Windows polling. At the time USB was uncommon on hand-me-down lab   
   machines, and learning to program it too much unnecessary overhead for   
   me.   
      
   On the next project we turned the LPT port into an I2C interface,   
   using two control and two status lines. I've made an A/D converter out   
   of it by driving a DAC with the data bits and reading a comparator   
   connected to the DAC and the input signal.   
      
   jsw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)