Basic Serial Communication

[cpm18]

I'm fairly unfamiliar with using C++ but I need to put together a simple code to communicate with a microprocessor. This is being down on a Windows Xp/Vista platform since I believe that matters. The serial code is part of a larger project being done in C++ so I am pretty much tied to this language.

Can anyone show me some simple code or point me to a thread with a simple example on how to read/write characters over RS232? The task is very basic in that I write a few commands and then continually read in from the microprocessor.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Scarlet7]

Lookup CreatFile(), ReadFile() and WriteFile(), for example:

 
char Data[1];  // ? a byte or what ever size you need	etc...
int BytesWritten, BytesRead;
HANDLE hComPortHandle;

// To read from the COM1 port:
hComPortHandle = CreateFile("COM1", GENERIC_READ, 0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
while(1)
{
	ReadFile(hComPortHandle, &Data, sizeof(data), (unsigned long*)&BytesRead, NULL);
	//Do something with Data
}

// To write to the COM1 port:
ComPortHandle = CreateFile("COM1", GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
while(1)
{
	// setup Data then write to port...
	WriteFile(hComPortHandle, Data, sizeof(Data), (unsigned long*)&BytesWritten, NULL);
}