Subject: Programming com ports 6. ***** Q: Why can't I read / write the com ports. A: Com port programming (most often writing telecommunication programs) is much much more complicated than simply trying to use write (com, whatever); read (com, whatever); This is a very advanced subject (frankly, beyond me), and the best way to learn is to try to obtain some code to show you how. One place to look at is Turbo Pascal text-books (I have a long list of them at garbo.uwasa.fi archives in my collection of Turbo Pascal units ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/ts/tsfaqp3470.zip. There also is an example by David Rind in ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pd2/faquote.zip. Another source is International FidoNet pascal conference at some bulletin board near you. The conference has had some very good discussions in it. (No, I don't have them stored for distribution, nor any further information.) Some files you might wish to look at: ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/turbopas/comm_tp5.zip and comtty30.zip. Furthermore, you should see the COMM.SWG examples in the fine SWAG (SourceWare Archival Group's) collection of TP sources. Available from the /pc/turbopas directory at Garbo. For the current references to the SWAG files see ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/INDEX.ZIP. --------------------------------------------------------------------