Readme file of CBAR A CGUI and Allegro addon for serial port communication by Christer Sandberg Email: christer.sandberg@mdh.se Homepage: http://www.idt.mdh.se/~csg/cgui/cguix Readme file of CBAR

Introduction

CBAR is a library with functions that let you communicate with a bar code reader in a simple way. It uses CGUI for dialogs and CCOM for serial communication.

CBAR builds and operates on the following platforms: DOS/DJGPP, Linux, Windows/Mingw32 and Windows/MSVC.

Requirements

You need to have compiled and installed
Allegro version 4.0.x
CGUI version 1.6.7 or later
CCOM version 0.9.3 or later
There are also other requirements like correctly installed compilers etc. but these are already fulfilled if you succeded in making and installing Allegro and CGUI (no additional requirements are needed).

You can find Allegro at: http://alleg.sourceforge.net/

You can find CGUI at: http://www.mdh.se/~csg/cgui/

You can find CCOM at: http://www.mdh.se/~csg/cgui/cguix

Installation

Installation goes in some simple steps, and should be familiar since it is similar to the installation procedure as of CGUI:

Tell the installation process what platform you use. Start a command window (shell) and set the main directory of cbar to you current directory i.e. enter the command
```
       cd c:\cbar
   
```
or whatever is the name of your cbar directory. Then choose platform by running one of the following commands:
```
      fix.bat djgpp     - to compile with DOS/DJGPP
      fix.bat mingw32   - to compile with Windows/MinGW32
      fix.bat msvc      - to compile with Windows/MSVC
      ./fix.sh unix     - to compile with Linux/gcc
```
Specify the path to your allegro installation by setting the environment variable ALLEGRO. E.g. if your allegro directory is c:\allegro then you must type
```
   set ALLEGRO=c:\allegro
   
```
or alternatively put that line into your autoexec file and restart. For unix users:
```
   export ALLEGRO=/home/user/allegro-4.0.3
   
```
or whatever is the name of your allegro directory.
When CBAR is built some programs in the `tools' directory of Allegro will be needed, so you have to install an Allegro version built from sources (or alternatively obtain the required tools some other way, put them in a directory named `tools' and let the variable ALLEGRO point out the directory immediately above `tools').
Specify the path to your CGUI installation by setting the environment CGUIDIR the same way as ALLEGRO, e.g.
```
   set CGUIDIR=c:\cgui
   
```
or for unix users:
```
   export CGUIDIR=/home/user/cgui
   
```
Ensure that all CGUI's tools has been built: Make CGUI's directory to the current, e.g. type the command
```
       cd c:\cgui
   
```
Build:
```
       make dat2c
       make mktext
   
```
Return to the main directory of cbar, e.g.:
```
       cd c:\cbar
   
```
Compile the library. This is done by running "make" at the command line.
Install the CBAR files to common directories. This is done by running "make install" at the command line.
Linux/Unix specifics:
You need to be root to succeed with the installation command i.e. type the command
```
   su -c "make install"
   
```
and enter the root password when prompted for.
Alternatively, if you cannot be root you may install CBAR to some other location by running "make install SYSTEM_DIR=<dir>", which will cause headers to be installed to <dir>/include and libraries to <dir>/lib. Default for <dir> is /usr/local.
To be able to link your program to the CBAR files installed at some other location than the default you need to specifiy the paths to your compiler and linker.

That's it! Now you are ready to run the example program in the example directory.

You may also want to perform some of the optional steps during the installation:

You can compile a debugging library by typing "make DEBUGMODE=1" instead of just "make" and "make install DEBUGMODE=1" instead of "make install". To compile both the usual and the debug library in one step, type "make all" and "make installall".
These debugging libraries require that you also have maked and installed the debugging versions of Allegro and CGUI.
If you want statically linked libraries under Unix or Windows as well as the default dynamically linked libraries (dll under Windows, .so under Unix), add "STATICLINK=1" to the make command like "make STATICLINK=1", or "make DEBUGMODE=1 STATICLINK=1" and also add it to the installation command.
These static libraries require that you also have maked and installed the static versions of Allegro and CGUI.
Users of the MSys environment needs to set the environment vaariable UNIX_TOOLS to 1 before make install is run.
If you want to read the CBAR documentation with the Rhide online help system, go to the "Help / Syntax help / Files to search" menu in Rhide, and add "cbar" after the existing "libc" entry (separated by a space).
To link your application with the debugging lib, link with -lcbard instead of -lcbar.

MSys

Users of the MSys environment needs to set the environment variable UNIX_TOOLS to 1 before make install is run.

Usage

#include <cbar.h> in the top of each file that uses a function from the library.
Before calling any CBAR functions you must have initialized CBAR and CGUI, Note also CGUI! For info about available functions, please read the manual, e.g. cbar.html (but the docs are also available in other formats).
If you link your program on the command line, link with '-lcbar -lccom -lcgui -lalleg'. It is important that you specify the libraries in that order. If you want the ability to debug inside CBAR's functions, then link with '-lcbard' instead of '-lcbar'.
On Linux you can use the following command to link with the default lib of CBAR (please note the ` )
```
   gcc -s -lcbar -lccom -lcgui `allegro-config --libs release --shared` file.o
   
```
where `file' is the name of your file.
For debug libraries use -lcbard -lccomd -lcguid instead and replace release with debug in the allegro config option. For linking a static application use -lcbar_s -lccom_s -lcgui_s and replace --shared with --static.
If you use RHIDE, go to the menu Options/Libraries and fill in cbar. It is important that cbar is above ccom, cgui and allegro. Don't forget to check the box to the left of the library. You have to replace cbar with cbard to include debugging information.
If you use some other environment, there is probably some options dialog where you can enter the libraries names (e.g. -lcbar -lcgui -lalleg).

Contact Info

Email:

christer.sandberg@mdh.se Homepage:

http://www.idt.mdh.se/~csg/cgui/cguix Telephone: