Re: Devices names....
- Posted by LarryMiller Nov 20, 2014
- 1299 views
Names like CON, PRN, and NUL were created a long time ago to facilitate access to these ports from the command line and batch files. This was possible because these devices were very simple and programmers could expect they would behave in a predictable way. These names were maintained in Windows for compatibility, but not the preferred way of communication. USB ports are much more complex and could not be accessed by such simple methods. Thus, no such names were ever defined.
A big problem with USB ports is that they can be used for a mouse, keyboard, printer, disk drive, and a wide variety of other devices. And the user is able to change this at any time. Each has their own specific requirements for use. And there is no simple way a program can detect what device is connected.
In a modern OS programs normally access devices without the need to know how or where they are connected to the computer. The OS manages all the complicated details of ports and such.
