As some may not be familiar with what the ASCOM standard and software
is, or does, maybe the following summary (my understanding) will be
of help.

For a non-ASCOM compliant program, such as Guide 8, to communicate
with a mount it needs (a) exclusive access and control of the port
(serial, USB, parallel, whatever) linking the mount and computer and
(b) different software drivers for the mounts it supports.

No other programs are able to 'talk' to the mount while Guide 8 has
control of the mount's port.

The original basic ASCOM concept (thanks to Bob Denny and Doug
George) was to
(a) allow multiple software access to the mount's (or any hardware)
port and
(b) have a standard software interface so that all an applications
software developer need do is write one driver, conforming to the
ASCOM standard, in order to share data/control any other ASCOM
compliant software or device.

Basically, the free ASCOM software runs in the background and creates
a software 'hub' that communicates with the hardware (and software)
port(s). All ASCOM compliant application software and hardware
drivers pass their communications via this software hub ... thus
sharing port access and data.

The open-source ASCOM standard (http://ascom-standards.org/) is now
in its fourth generation and has been, and continues to be, expanded
to include common standards for camera, dome, focuser, weather
systems control, etc....

A great concept and implementation of a long needed 'standard' ...
the way to go, IMHO.

Bernard

> The broken ASCOM link should be http://ascom-standards.org/