How do programmers interact with drivers?

[Atreyo Bhattacharjee]

So from what I understand, a driver basically tells an OS how to interface with some other hardware. So if a programmer wants to utilize that hardware in hes or her code, how would they do so? For example, if I have a fingerprint reader that came with a driver, how can someone write code that can access the fingerprint readers functionality?

 

[USAFRet]

So from what I understand, a driver basically tells an OS how to interface with some other hardware. So if a programmer wants to utilize that hardware in hes or her code, how would they do so? For example, if I have a fingerprint reader that came with a driver, how can someone write code that can access the fingerprint readers functionality?

Whoever built the "fingerprint reader" will publish an API. Application Programming Interface.

This would expose the specific commands needed, and let someone writing some code how to interact with that device.

 

[Alabalcho]

That fingerprint reader (and its driver) have an API (Application Program Interface), which is published (or made available under certain conditions) by the device vendor.