How can I check if there is any incoming data to a boost::asio::serial_port? If there is no data, the program shouldn't read anything, and instead continue with other activities. Hence, to check for the data I cannot use the read function since it would lock my program until any data has arrived.
Answer: Use the async functions instead. They will start asynchronous read/write/wait operations and return so your other code can continue to run meanwhile. The will give you interrupts later, when the operation has finished. If you use boost asio, just remember to run io.run() (where io is your io_service object) to get the interrupts.