Le Friday 05 April 2002 � 14:34:38, andy iskandar a �crit:
> hi all :

Hello,

> I am new to this community.  so I am probably gonna
> ask some stupid questions :)

No. Questions are never stupid. But sometimes :-)

> If the card reader is connected to the serial port/USB
> port of your PC running linux.
> 
> isn't it true that all you need is the linux driver
> for your uart chip and USB controller ?

You need the drivers for the UART and USB controller but it is not
enough.

> and the connection from the serial/usb port of your PC
> will be using rs232 and usb protocol ?

RS232 and USB protocol are low level protocol.

> this being said, should it matter which vendor you are
> buying the reader from ? 

Only to know if the driver for this reader is available for your
platform.

> I guess the application on your PC will be different
> for different reader's vendors ??? and this is where I
> have to find out how to actually drive the reader
> using rs232/usb ?

The idea behind PC/SC it to have a unifom interface that is _NOT_
dependant of a particular reader manufacturer.

If you want to can compare the smart card communication stack with the
network communication stack.
You need a driver for your Ethernet card.  This driver will provide a
uniform API to the kernel. This is the equivalent of the smart card
reader driver.
Then the kernel provides a higher level API (IP, TCP). This is equivalent
to what PC/SC provides.

The USB community is working on Chip/Smart Card Interface Devices
(CCID). This defines a common protocol (and so a common driver) for all
USB CCID compliant smart card resaders.

Bye,


PS: it would be nice if you could edit you mail and remove the unused
parts (nearly all the lines you quoted).

-- 
 Dr. Ludovic Rousseau                        [EMAIL PROTECTED]
 -- Normaliser Unix c'est comme pasteuriser le Camembert, L.R. --
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