Re: gdb with BDM-parallel port won't work

Crossware wrote:
> 
> Actually I don't think GiveIO is a driver, I think it is a hack that 
> by-passes NT's hardware abstration layer and allows programs to continue 
> to use the old I/O assembler instructions.
> 
> The original method was described in a Dr Dobbs article many years ago:
> 
> http://www.ddj.com/architect/184409876
> 

In one sense, giveio is not a driver as it (as you say) simply lets the 
application program have direct access to any hardware it wants.  But 
from the viewpoint of the windows kernel, it is a driver - it is 
third-party software that is installed into the kernel, it has low-level 
access, it is installed and configured as a driver (or a service - the 
distinction is not very clear in windows), and application software uses 
it by opening a handle as they would with a driver.

It is certainly a *very* useful program - most parallel-port hardware 
uses either giveio, or one of the other equivalent drivers available.

If you are ever faced with parallel-port software that does not use 
giveio or the equivalent, and only works on Win9x or Win3x, there is an 
even more powerful hack called "totalio" from the same developers.  When 
this is started as a service, *all* programs have full hardware access.

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