Well, First thing to keep in mind, if it is not commented properly, It's not your fault. Take the time you need to understand whats going on. Sometimes this takes a few hours.... work thru it.. change values and see what happens (if your really stuck)... to months.... I took over for a predessesor who didn't comment anything. He was the sole programmer in a 15 employee firm. There was some stuff that I told mngment it would take me 3 weeks to write as I had to start over... I couldn't get anything out of what I had to start with. If your in a big organization, Don't be afraid to ask a more senior engineer whats going on. I am concluding you can't ask the original programmer ... I think your right, btw, they would'nt have hired you if someone didn't see some potential... It may be that you just inherited a rats nest.... Keep a good outlook...

Thx Bee.. I think that was just what I needed. I wonder tho, about the reliability. I don't need rts or dts.. just to have them both stay high. I am wondering if switching is a problem. Can you elaborate a bit on that part? If I just set it high and forget it, will it stay? I am hoping the problem you are talking about is the api not seeing the change state. So if I set it then it will stay, not wanting to write a watchdog for it. Thx for the reply..

Can anyone tell me how to output data and recieve from a com port on xp/nt in vs2005 managed C++ ? I have done Parallel i/o before but only on win 9x and never serial. Thx...