creating driver through VB

[timawa]

This is my thrid week using VB and was wondering how do I create a driver for a gamepad...you know,just the basics as to "how to start" and "what to know" when making a driver. Thanks.....

[si_the_geek]

The very first rule of making a driver... don't use VB

Drivers need to be extremely efficient, which is very hard to achieve using VB. I believe that they also need calling conventions that VB doesnt support.


If you have only been coding for a short period, drivers are not the kind of thing you should be working on.

[Buzby]

What is it with people on this board!!

This is my thrid week using VB and was wondering how do I create a driver for a gamepad

What! Your third week with VB - that's less than a month - and you are trying to write a low-level hardware driver. Write an address book, write a car database, write a shopping list generator. *DON'T* write a driver.

Saying all that Microsoft do provide DDKs (Driver Develpment Kits) for use by driver creators:

http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/ddk/default.mspx

but be prepared to be out of your depth very quickly...

[kebo]

Originally posted by si_the_geek
[B]The very first rule of making a driver... don't use VB

I would disagree about that as a blanket statement. I have written many,many drivers for my own hardware designs as as well other exsisting designs using serial, parallel and yes once the ISA bus in VB. After all, the MSCOMM is very adequate and alot easier to use than setting all the registers needed to control the serial port if one were using C. Having said that, there are somethings that VB would not be suited for; USB drives, Firewire drivers, ect. But if you are on one of the legacy ports, VB could possibly do just fine.

What! Your third week with VB - that's less than a month - and you are trying to write a low-level hardware driver. Write an address book, write a car database, write a shopping list generator. *DON'T* write a driver.

As far as only the third week, my first ever VB project was writing a parallel port driver and it went just fine (I had been programming other languages for years though).
My advice, is to understand the hardware and its communication protocol complete, and make a choice about programming languages based on that and if it can be done in VB, then so be it.

gl
kevin

[PacMansRancor]

First of all, he said it's his first time programming in VB, doesn't mean he's never programmed in another language before, give him a chance atleast.

[timawa]

Right...It is my third week with VB and my first code was a Parallel Port monitoring application and it work just fine. I use it with my interface projects. I can already read responses from a gamepad that I made but cant get as to how to create a driver to use on games. anyway, I start off with C and now I'm trying out new stuff... since VB is a lot simplier to understand.. really need your help. Thanks.....