Umberto Zanghieri's ZP Engineering srl offers a LPTTCL extension [L1 ] for parallel-port that works on Windows 98, NT, and 2000.
A few notes on LPTTCL by UZ.
- parallel port access on Win98 is rather easy; on the other hand, doing the same on NT and 2000 requires a driver. LPTTCL attempts to provide the same technique on all three platforms.
- it allows access not only to the data port, but also to control and status registers; this allows for many options (i.e., emulation of EPP cycle access)
- it is not speed optimized; bit-by-bit control is rather slow.
- it has been designed for simple control of external devices and emulation of serial protocols as I2C.
Users have reported that it works correctly under Windows XP.
A few additional notes (UZ, 29 aug 03):
- LPTTCL must be installed and run by a user with administrator privileges (not relevant on Win98)
- uninstall must be done manually (sorry for this), by deleting the files and by removing the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\ZPPORT entry from the Windows registry.
- LPTTCL only works for low-range I/O (ISA style). If you have a PCI parallel port card that maps into a high I/O, you will not be able to access it from LPTTCL.
- we received feedback from many programmers that use it for access to custom hardware, development boards and similar. Someone has used it for PLD download, others for I2C bit-bang emulation, others for adding pushbuttons to a PC...
- LPTTCL does NOT conflict with Windriver-based drivers (i.e., Xilinx parallel port cable), provided, of course, you are not using both on the same port...
- remember that you need to explicitly specify the LPT base address by issuing a lp_setba command; there is no detection of base address from BIOS.
On Linux (or any other PC Unix) just open the right device (/dev/???) and then read and write it as you wish for basic access.
Serial port programming is of related interest.