help in obtaining USB and NCurses

[Hugh Aguilar]

Hello.
I want to write a terminal program to run under Windows.
I downloaded Code-Blocks and was able to compile and run a 'Hello World' program.

#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
  printf("Hello, World!\n");
  return 0;
}

I don't know where STDIO.H is, but GCC seems to know because my PRINTF worked. Maybe there are libraries already there for USB and NCurses in which case I just need to include them.

I found LIBUSB-1.0.28.7Z and downloaded it, and ran 7Z to unzip it.
I got these two files out: LIBUSB-1.0.A and LIBUSB-1.0.DLL.A
I don't know what to do with .A files.

I also need to obtain documentation on how to use the code libraries for USB and NCurses as I've never used them before.

BTW: I downloaded CYGWIN but it put me into a BASH shell. I didn't know how to find my Windows directory. Also, it wasn't clear if I could write console programs that would run under PowerShell, so I ignored CYGWIN and tried Code Blocks that works out of PowerShell. I want to run out of PowerShell because I already have a terminal program written in Python that I'm using in PowerShell I didn't write the Python program. That program doesn't do what I want it to do, and I don't want to learn enough Python to upgrade it, which is why I'm writing my own program in C. I've not done any C programming in Windows, but I did some C programming in MS-DOS in the early 1990s (nothing to do with serial ports or NCurses though). I don't necessarily need an IDE like Code Blocks. In MS-DOS days I just wrote a MAKE file and never used any IDE.

 

[simong1993]

Hey There and welcome 🙂

I see you're working on a Windows terminal program in C and have a few questions about libraries and compilation. Let me address these points:

The header file stdio.h is part of the C standard library that's automatically included with your compiler (GCC in Code::Blocks). That's why you don't need to find it manually.

For libusb:

1. The .a file is a static library (archive). You'll need to link against it during compilation.
2. The .dll is the dynamic library that your program will use at runtime.

To use these with Code::Blocks:

• Add the header files directory to your include path
• Add the library directory to your linker search path
• Add libusb-1.0.a to your linked libraries

For ncurses on Windows, you'll want PDCurses instead - it's the Windows-compatible implementation. Download it from PDCurses

Documentation:

• libusb: https://libusb.info/documentation/
• PDCurses: Look at the examples in the distribution

Here's a basic Makefile approach if you prefer not using an IDE:

makefile

CC = gcc
CFLAGS = -Wall -I/path/to/libusb/include -I/path/to/pdcurses/include
LDFLAGS = -L/path/to/libusb/lib -L/path/to/pdcurses/lib
LDLIBS = -lusb-1.0 -lpdcurses

program: program.c
    $(CC) $(CFLAGS) -o program program.c $(LDFLAGS) $(LDLIBS)

clean:
    rm -f program program.exe

Your Code::Blocks program will run fine in PowerShell. You just need to navigate to your executable and run it.