running on WinPC + comunication via USB

[Diez B. Roggisch]

martin.nkm at googlemail.com schrieb:
> Hello, I have two questions.
> 1/ If I want to use Python and let my WinPC communicate via RS-232
> with external embedded computer I know there is a pyserial module,
> which I can use it. But what will happen if I want to replace RS-232
> by USB? I know I can have virtual COM port, but all the configuration
> parameters basically refer to RS-232 parameters - baudrate, bits,
> stopbits, parity. In case of USB that's a nonsense I think. Does
> anybody know?

Depending on the setup - no, it's the exact same thing. If e.g. the 
usb-device is a usb2serial converter or otherwise offers it's serveces 
as a serial-like device, it should work.

Additionally, there is libusb + a python-wrapping for that.

> 2/ Second is a basic question. Do I need also cygwin running on my
> Windows PC to get running Python scripts? Or is that Python
> interpreter (Win executable) self efficient? Thanks.

No cygwin needed. In fact you need to be careful *not* to mix python and 
cygwin-python. They can happily co-exist - but installing 
3rd-party-packages for one doesn't imply they are available for the other.

Diez