zGetPortBit and Bits Other than 0-7

Keywords: 	  zGetPortBit

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Question:

In reading through the Parallel port extender help file I find the following statements: On the main page - "It can also return useful information about the printer’s operation, such as if the printer is busy, out-of-paper, or offline.", and under Parallel Extender Examples - "To check the status of the printer for a busy, out-of-paper, or printer offline message, it uses the zGetPortBit function."

However, when continuing to read on, the zGetPortBit funtion is not used in the example that follows the above statement. (?error in the help file?). Furthermore, when carefully reading the zGetPortBit function, it specifically states that it's parameter 'portbit' is for portbits 0-7 (data), so how would you access status of the other pins? In reading all of the functions, they all seem to be for dealing only with the data bits 0-7. I need to be able to read the status of the input bits (10-nAck, 11-Busy, 12-Paper-Out,13-Select,15-Fault), and hopefully even the In/Out bits (1-Strobe, 14-Linefeed, 16-Initialize, & 17-Select-Printer) of the parallel port.

Most likely, I am not understanding something here, but I sure would appreciate any help you can give me.

Answer:

The WinTel architecture is built on a 8-bit port system. Each I/O device is assinged a range of ports.

If I recall LPT1 is 888-889-890-891

You could try fishing data from the other ports. I think it is

888 bits 0-7
889 bits 8-15
890 bits 16-23
891 bits 24-31

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Article ID:   W14543

Filename:   zGetPortBit and Bits Other than 0-7.txt