Hi, I am looking for a way to control a printer/ parallel port inside Phrogram. I need it to be synchronized with the program (in an "if, then, else" statement) and that is essential. Thanks.

No, it is not currently possible to access external devices ( printers for example ) through Phrogram. Phrogram is intended for beginners and, because of this, the more complex subjects ( such as controlling a printer ) are not and likely will not be possible.

In general nobody in their right mind would attempt to control a printer directly these days... there are much better ways to do it.

But sending information to ports with custom devices on them such as sensors or robotics kits is something that we have thught about. We already have the Weather bug add-in and we've thought about robotics kits like Phidgets.

So Laura - can you let me know a little more about what it is you are trying to do? (If its something you don't want to talk about in public then feel free to email me directly - zman@thezbuffer.com)

 

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Managed DirectX and XNA ? Check out http://www.thezbuffer.com

Ok, I have found a way (...I hope) of controlling parallel ports using an add-in library. Now my problem is making the add-in library, and I'm not sure where to start. Thanks for your help anyway, though.

Right now you are correct that an add-in library is the only way to do this through Phrogram - remember though that they are currently unsupported. I got your email and I will add it to our lit of posible things to do in the future.

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Managed DirectX and XNA ? Check out http://www.thezbuffer.com

If you have not seen this yet...

http://phrogram.com/forums/post/3233.aspx

You can download Visual Studio Express for free at http://www.microsoft.com/Express/. Should also work in Visual Basic. However you need to know C# or Visual Basic to do it...