I inherited some older scripts, one of which uses WWWPARAL.DLL, "WIL Parallel Extender" to manipulate the line states of the individual pins on a parallel port. The script runs on a Windows 95 PC which I want to eliminate by moving to a more modern OS. I tried running the EXE under Win XP and get an error that the extender doesn't support the OS. Is there a later version of this extender, or a replacement that talks to parallel ports? I'm running 2002H, but I'm not certain what version of WinBatch was used to compile this specific script. The error includes this information:
WIL Extender Error 201: WIL Parallel Extender not supported in this Windows Version
tristate=zsetportbit(890,5)
WinBatch 32 2000C
WIL Version 3.0cbv.
PS - I'm new to WinBatch. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
The Parallel Port Extender was retired many years ago. It only worked on 95/98/ME Windows platforms - parallel ports have gone the way of the floppy drive. About the only thing I can think of is to find an old native code dll that interacts with parallel ports and use WinBatch's DllCall function to call the dll's functions. Perhaps someone else has a better idea.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help.
Thanks for the feedback. I'll look around for alternatives. I'm supporting analytical test labs with some very old instruments, and equally old PC interfaces (unfortunately none of which are older than I am). When you deal with 30-year-old problems, sometimes you need 30-year-old solutions :o
A quick search will bring up the below article. Although it uses VB.NET and the OP has a very old copy of WB, the author does offer a .dll and code that might be converted to WB dll calls.
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20545/I-O-Ports-Programming-Parallel-port-Reading-Writin
As the article sort of points out, Windows blocks user mode applications from accessing parallel ports directly and the obvious solution is to use a driver. The article provides a link to a site that reportedly has a freeware parallel port driver. However, according to Google, the driver site may attempt to install malware on your system. Obviously, I didn't click to find out whether or not this is the case but be adviced.
Quote from: td on March 10, 2018, 09:02:04 AM
However, according to Google, the driver site may attempt to install malware on your system.
Maybe WB should give a rating for CodeProject as a source.
It's an 11-year-old Codeproject article and I am sure the author's intentions were honorable. It's just that 11 years is a long time in Intenet years and things like download sites can change.
Should have added that any good browser should catch any malicious sites like the one linked to in the Codeproject article. If yours doesn't, you either need to get a security plugin for it that does or get a better browser.