FYI: Qt Feature Request: Serial port support

[topo]

FYI: This could be very interesting for everybody who uses Qt and serial ports. A feature request with this topic is new at Qt bug report page and more votes increases the possibility of implementation. Here is the link:

http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-9980

I think it is very important and so I vote for it !

[jpn]

Hi, have you tried QextSerialPort (mentioned in that qt-interest thread) or QxtSerialDevice (http://dev.libqxt.org/libqxt/src/tip...rialdevice.h)?

[squidge]

Considering serial ports are purely legacy hardware now, I vote for people wishing to use such hardware should use the already available Qt classes such as the above (QextSerialPoprt, etc) rather than spending time merging it into the core trunk of Qt.

[Kumosan]

Considering serial ports are purely legacy hardware now,

Yes and no. Serial ports may be legacy hardware, but I know many many cases where usb to serial converters are used just because the developers know how to program a serial port, but have no idea how to use usb. So the hardware may be dieing out, but the need for serial code will remain for quite some time.

Which does not mean it needs into the Qt trunk.

[wysota]

I would very much like to see a decent usb support in Qt but I think rs serial is also important especially in industrial applications. If I remember correctly Qtopia (or Qt/Embedded...) had an implementation of a serial device and I heard it was supposed to be merged into trunk but I guess this is low on Nokia priority list right now, especially that I would have to be ported to other platforms first.

[squidge]

Yes and no. Serial ports may be legacy hardware, but I know many many cases where usb to serial converters are used just because the developers know how to program a serial port, but have no idea how to use usb.

I've seen this in a large number of applications and hardware, but each time the hardware did not create another COM port in device manager, it instead used the manufacturer provided drivers for direct access (seemed to be FTDI D2XX drivers each time).

[kuzulis]

And is not it easier to extend and refine QSerialDevice?

link zip: http://fireforge.net/frs/?group_id=199
link svn: svn checkout svn://scm.fireforge.net/svnroot/qserialdevice

more so (IMHO) QSerialDevice - the most complete and more functional than other libraries (to date).
PS: the downsides only - no support for Mac OSX and WinCE (other minor sins are not considered )

PSPS: what is the point in large numbers (the zoo) different libraries for serial port? Maybe it is better to combine into one QSerialDevice (ie, add the different pieces of code)?

PSPSPS: it turns out that I (and those who helped me) created this library QSerialDevice vain?

[topo]

In industrial environment and application the serial interface is standard and for this it would be very helpful to have well supported serial interface classes. The problem with QSerialDevice is the GPL license which makes it problematical to use for commercial applications. The potential need is given! This you can see at the different implemented serial interface classes (QExtSerialPort, QSerialDevice, ...). So why don't support this directly?

[kuzulis]

The problem with QSerialDevice is the GPL license which makes it problematical to use for commercial applications.

In principle, the new version QSerialDevice can add license LGPL. It's not forbidden?

The main thing that the community supported the idea, or yourself Nokia. But this (in my opinion) no benefit and unnecessary.

So why don't support this directly?

Although, if they (Nokia) sell really good, comfortable, etc. cross-platform class for the serial device - it would be wonderful!

[jnadelman]

Having a bit of trouble with QextSerialPort on Linux so I'll give QSerialDevice a try.

[kuzulis]

If you are using QSerialDevice - it is better to take from SVN:

svn checkout svn://scm.fireforge.net/svnroot/qserialdevice

[jnadelman]

Thanks. How do I repair the following build warnings?

C:/Users/jnadelman/projects/2010/QSerialDevice/makefile:287: warning: overriding commands for target `build/lib/qintegratedserialdevice/obj/winregkeyreader.o'
C:/Users/jnadelman/projects/2010/QSerialDevice/makefile:272: warning: ignoring old commands for target `build/lib/qintegratedserialdevice/obj/winregkeyreader.o'

If you are using QSerialDevice - it is better to take from SVN:
svn checkout svn://scm.fireforge.net/svnroot/qserialdevice

[kuzulis]

okay. it should be. me too lazy to remove these "warnings"

[jnadelman]

Thanks a million kuzulis. I found QSerialDevice a good deal easier to work with than QextSerialPort. The SerialDeviceWatcher hasChanged signal is perfect for setting up a QComboBox. ABSTRACTSERIAL_DEBUG is also convenient. I did remove "baud" and "bit" from AbstractSerialPrivate::initialiseMap for a better interface with my serial port gui.