Sender: richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com
Message-ID: <3A4682D0.EF56B1B5@bigfoot.com>
Date: Sun, 24 Dec 2000 23:12:16 +0000
From: Richard Dawe <richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com>
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To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: An implementation of /dev/zero for DJGPP
References: <3A460B93 DOT 2347528B AT bigfoot DOT com> <2110-Sun24Dec2000202824+0200-eliz AT is DOT elta DOT co DOT il> <200012242003 DOT PAA29486 AT envy DOT delorie DOT com> <003101c06ded$c2781420$9f4d57cb AT spunky>
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Reply-To: djgpp-workers AT delorie DOT com

Hello.

JB wrote:
> If /dev/zero can be used on Windoes, does that mean things like
> /dev/floppy, /dev/cdrom, /dev/modem even, can be used also?

The code I posted implements /dev/zero - that is, there is no /dev/zero
present on DOS/Windows, so we have to simulate it ourselves. DJGPP's FSEXT
mechanism is good for things like this. FSEXTs are a very nice feature of
DJGPP.

/dev/cdrom is just an alias for whatever drive is the cdrom. Under Linux
/dev/cdrom is usually just a symlink to whatever device is the cdrom
drive, e.g. /dev/hdc or /dev/scd0. Likewise for /dev/floppy, e.g. it maps
to /dev/fd0.

I think /dev/floppy would require an FSEXT to read sectors from the disk.
/dev/modem might map directly to COM1: or COM2:, but then I've never
really done any serial port programming, so I don't really know.

Bye, Rich =]

-- 
Richard Dawe
[ mailto:richdawe AT bigfoot DOT com | http://www.bigfoot.com/~richdawe/ ]