Hey folks thanks for the opportunity, I can sure use the help at this point!

I've only been programming using VB for the last 4 months and the subject of using the parallel, serial(9db and USB) ports has come up.

I know that VB was never originally created with port IO in mind, but there has to be an API, or something, that can be used to provide this kind of process.

I have done my best to research the possibility, but my Visual Studio 6.0 only seems to provide info on the C based functions which I am already aware of.
And the updated MSDN library is useless in my opinion.

My questions are...

1. Is there a recently created function, or API, that I can use to perform I/O on the serial and parallel ports in VB?

2. Is there access for the use of Assembly code in VB like in C++'s ability to incorporate the use of Assembly?

3. If none of the above, can an API be created for IO use in VB. Or must it be an API/DLL created using C++ then incorporated as the API for use in VB?


Sincerely,
EEteng

Thanks!