DM>     I think the above strategy would alleviate this 
 DM> problem. if there are 
 DM> chars, read them, otherwise release the time slice. If

It is better to use "Wait for something" read timeout processing;
 this way,your application is blocked in the DD -- who is the one who knows
the instant something is avaiable.

There is no need to call an ioctl to see if characters are waiting.

There is no need to call DosSleep

        1) Put port into "wait for something" mode.
        2) Set a long timeout (>5000ms).
        3) In an infinite loop,  call DosRead() with a large (>1000)
           buffer.  If it returns ByteRread == 0,  it means it timed out
           (a good time to test the carrier).
        4) If it returned BytesRead > 0,  your program got the bytes
           without hesitation (ie: DosRead() does not wait for your
           whole buffer to be filled if there is a pause in the incoming
           data) .


--- Maximus/2 3.00