Rif.: how to find API reference information in LabWindows/CVI 2010

[ddcjz]

Hello,

I am debugging our device driver in a project under LabWindows/CVI 2010. The code was developed earlier by other engineer but he is not in the company now. 

Specifically, there are 3 semaphore APIs I wanted to look into, but I could not find the proper document about them. The 3 APIs are used in driver as following:

      SEM_ID  mySema;

      ...

      mySema = CreateSemaphore(NULL, 0, 1, NULL);

      ...      

      dwResult = WaitForSingleObject(mySem, 5000);

      ...

      ReleaseSemaphore(mySema, 1, NULL);

I am wondering if WaitForSingleObject() belongs to the same group of APIs with CreateSemaphore() and ReleaseSemaphore().

Another general question is that where is the documentation for the detailed information of an API used in the driver? Please provide the web link or pdf documents.

Best Regards

[RobertoBozzolo]

All the commands you list are system APIs. If your program compiles successfully it means documentation and support files are already installed on your system: you can find the documentation under Help >> Windows SDK. The same documentation is available on Microsoft technical sites.

Referring to your other question, there isn't a general rule as to where to find the documentation for single commands used in code. As a rule-of-thumb you can try first to launch the function panel for the function (right-click >> Recall function panel or Ctrl + P): if it opens, then that command is part of NI environment and the documentation can be found either in the function panel itself on in CVI help. If you get "Cannot find function panel" error you could try to see where the function is defined: right_click >> Go to definition (or Ctrl+I) should bring you to the include file where the function is defined; hopefully that include file gives informations on the developer of that specific code. As an example, CreateSemaphore should bring you to winbase.h which is copyrighted by Microsoft.

[ddcjz]

Can a driver in Windows be directly used as driver in LabWindows/CVI? How does LabWindows/CVI use Kernel APIs in Windows?

[RobertoBozzolo]

I'm sorry I cannot answer this question: I don't even think I fully understand it!