Announcement

**Clay Clear** · 31 Oct 2003, 12:32 AM

Please do not feel stupid about yourself. ALL of us PB programmers
have areas of programming where we do not have much expertise, and
need to ask for help sometimes.

Your best bet would be to compile the routine to a UNIT. Let's
say you named the source code for it "myprint.bas". Then, at the
top of the source file, you would have the line:

$COMPILE UNIT

followed with whatever compiler directives you want for that UNIT
file. Note that any variables that you must share between the main
EXE and the PBU file (the UNIT) must be declared as PUBLIC in the
EXE's source file and must be declared as EXTERNAL in the UNIT's
source file.

Then, after you successfully compile your UNIT, in your main EXE's
source file, near the top (I do not recall if a $LINK metastatement
may be used anywhere in the main source file. I always put them
at the top of my main source files, just to be sure), put the
line:

$LINK "myprint.pbu"

Then you are free to call the procedure in your UNIT file from within
your main EXE's code. Note that the docs say you do not have to
explicitly DECLARE a procedure that is located in a LINKed UNIT.
If the UNIT is located within a library (a PBL file), then you do
have to have explicit DECLARE's for the procedure(s) in the UNIT.

Note that all code located within a UNIT must be in a FUNCTION or SUB - you
cannot have mainline code in a UNIT.

One final note: if you change the source code for the UNIT file, then
recompile the UNIT, you must also recompile the main EXE. This
is because the PBDOS compiler embeds the UNIT directly into the
main EXE at compile time. Therefore, if you do not recompile the EXE
after changing the code in the UNIT, then the EXE will not contain the
changes in the UNIT.

I hope this helped!

------------------
clayclear4 at mchsi dot com

**Michael Mattias** · 31 Oct 2003, 02:37 AM

Second the UNIT recommendation.. and maybe go a step further..

Compiling to a PBC (chain) module would allow you to change specific routines without recompiling te entire application.. that is, you could ship a only a new *.PBC file and the customer is upgraded.

Hint: if you are now writing primarily using GOSUB..RETURN converting to either units or chain modules is going to take some work, as in either case you'll have to arrange for procedures to have access to all the data they need. While PUBLIC/EXTERNAL and COMMON can do the job, long-term your best solution for a maintainable system is to use parameterized procedures which use no 'global' datanames.

FWIW, "change my form" was the most common mod request my firm received when I was GM of a VAR firm. We went to the equivalent of "unit" files (separately compiled, then linked) to make this easier.

MCM

[This message has been edited by Michael Mattias (edited October 31, 2003).]

**Allen B. Zilbert** · 31 Oct 2003, 02:53 AM

Basit,

Here is an alternative solution.

Code:

PRINT_NOW:
     PRINT_PORT$="1" : `this number could be sitting in a variable 
     OPEN "LPT"+PRINT_PORT$ FOR OUTPUT AS #20
     OPEN "Company.dat" FOR INPUT AS #21
     INPUT #21, TabSpot, NoAddrLines
     For Ctr = 1 TO NoAddrLines
          INPUT #21, AddrData$
          Print#20, AddrData$
     Next Ctr
     INPUT sold(1)
     Print #20, tab(TabSpot); ”Sold At”; sold(1)
     CLOSE #20
     CLOSE #21
     RETURN

Allen

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[This message has been edited by Allen B. Zilbert (edited October 31, 2003).]

**Michael Mattias** · 31 Oct 2003, 03:15 AM

Yet another way:

Code:

%customer_1 = 0   ' set only one of these to 1
%customer_2 = 1
%customer_3 = 0

...
  GOSUB Print_Now
...
PRINT_NOW:
$IF %customer_1
  $INCLUDE "PNow_1.bas"
$ENDIF
$IF %customer_2
  $INCLUDE "PNow_2.bas"
$ENDIF
$IF %customer_3
  $INCLUDE "PNow_3.bas"
$ENDIF

   RETURN

Keeps each customer's print routine in separate file, does not disturb your main code.

MCM

**Mel Bishop** · 31 Oct 2003, 06:01 AM

If you want to center the business header lines on the paper,
and assuming the paper is handling 80 characters per line, you
can use:

Code:

print #20,tab(40 - int(len(text$) / 2));text$

------------------

**Basit Bulbulia** · 31 Oct 2003, 06:54 AM

Ummm interesting, we in South Africa would say . . "Julle het a plaaaaan maar" .. that would translate as "You have a plan .. but . . "

Hey Clay, thanks for encouraging me to . . but the truth is now I feel even more stupid . .*hehe*

Allen, has a method which I currently use, (having a company file and then using it), this does not work if the stationery is complex and has many columms etc. .

Now Michael's code could most definately work for me, however It would still require that I compile the main program each time the .bas file is changed.

Thanks people, much appreciated. .
www.compubyte.co.za

------------------
BASit
www.witelafrica.net
[B][email protected]

[This message has been edited by Basit Bulbulia (edited October 31, 2003).]

**Michael Mattias** · 1 Nov 2003, 02:49 AM

however It would still require that I compile the main program each time the .bas file is changed.

So CHAIN or SHELL a separately-compiled printing module...

CHAIN SOLUTION

File of COMMON variables shared by main program and chained print module:

Code:

' FILE: COMMON.BI
COMMON LastModule$, CustomerNo%, Print_port$, CompanyInfo$(), Sold!()

PRINT Module, each customer has his own module, or maybe there is a 'default' module
for customers who use your standard forms:

Code:

' FILE: PRINTNOW.BAS
$COMPILE CHAIN
$INCLUDE "COMMON.BI"

    DIM I AS INTEGER

    OPEN "LPT"+PRINT_PORT$ FOR OUTPUT AS #20
    PRINT #20, CustomerNo%             ' print custmer number in correct place
    FOR I = 1 to 3
        Print#20,CompanyInfo$(I) ' 1=name, 2= address, 3 = city, state, zip
    NEXT
    Print#20, "blah blah blah"
    Print#20,tab(40);Sold At; sold(1)  :’variable storing price item was sold
    ' set last module so main program knows what to do when it restarts..
    LastModule$  = "PRINTNOW"
    ' return to main program
    CHAIN "MainProg.exe"

' end of file

Main program, with provision right at the start to redirect flow to the point
where the print module returns

Code:

' FILE: Main Program.bas
$COMPLILE EXE
$INCLUDE "Common.BAS"

MAIN:
     IF LastModule$ = "PRINTNOW" THEN   ' is program starting because it's returning from CHAIN?
       GOTO PrintNowReturn              ' and resume execution at that point
     END IF
.....


PrintInvoice:
' set up the COMMON variables to be passsed to the CHAINed print module..
      CustomerNo%  = 9876
      Company$ (1) = "The Acme Company"
      Company$ (2) = "1234 Main St."
      Company$ (3) = "Ottumwa IA 56789"
      Sold     (1) = 1234.56     ' price
      LastModule$  = "MAINPROG"
      CALL     SaveSharedVariables         ' save what we will need on return
      CHAIN   "Printnow.PBC"
PrintNowReturn:
' we get here when the printnow chained file has returned
      CALL     RestoreSharedVariables      ' reload current values 
      PRINT "Invoice printed, do something"
.....

SUB SaveSharedVariables 
 DIM hF AS INTEGER
  hF = FREEFILE
  OPEN "Save_me.txt" FOR OUTPUT AS hF
  WRITE #hf, sharedVar1, SharedVar2, SharedVar3, ...
  CLOSE hf
END SUB

SUB RestoreSharedVariables
 DIM hF AS INTEGER
   hF     = FREEFILE
   OPEN  "save_me.txt" FOR INPUT AS hF
   INPUT #hF, sharedVar1, sharedvar2,sharedvar3,...
   CLOSE hf
END SUB

As I said before, when using CHAIN files it can be tricky to keep track of where you are at and because variables (other than COMMON) lose their values across a CHAIN, you have to save and restore.

(Maybe recompiling the main program for each customer doesn't look so bad anymore?)

SHELL SOLUTION

Write the variables needed to a file (like the save routine above).
SHELL a separate EXE file to print the invoice
In the separate EXE file which will do the printing, read the variables from that file (like the reset routine above).

This way you wouldn't have to worry about 'flow control' in your main program, as SHELL will return to the next line of code in your main program.

MCM
(Kinda fun to do MS-DOS code, haven't done that in a couple of years..)

[This message has been edited by Michael Mattias (edited November 01, 2003).]

**Aslan Babakhanov** · 3 Nov 2003, 04:24 AM

Can someone explain me why it is not possible to chain another
module by using string variable isntead of filename?
i.e.

Code:

 A$ = "chainmod.pbc"
 CHAIN A$

I can give you a real example:
Let's say we have a main program and list of chain modules:
MAIN.EXE
CH1.PBC, CH2.PBC, CH3.PBC ..etc.

Users can browse throght the list of chain files and run one of them.
In case of upgrade, I could just send an appropriate chain module (ex. CHxx.PBC)

I know, that there is another way (send modified MAIN.EXE and chain modules),
but the way I described below is more convenient: You provide only chain module.
---
Is it possible or PBDOS restrict using of string variable as a parameter for CHAIN command?

Hope, I could explain my situation.

Best regards,
Aslan.

------------------

**Lance Edmonds** · 10 Nov 2003, 08:37 PM

CHAIN can certainly use a string argument in PB/DOS 3.5. A quick test program confirms this... for example:

Code:

$COMPILE EXE "NONAME.EXE"
COMMON X%
INCR X%
PRINT "NONAME.EXE LAUNCH COUNT =" X%
A$ = "NONAME.EXE"
IF X% < 25 THEN CHAIN A$

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

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Sub Routine compiled/changed out side main source how to intergrate with main code ?

Sub Routine compiled/changed out side main source how to intergrate with main code ?

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