README.

DOC File
Release Notes for Microsoft (R) BASIC Professional Development System
Version 7.10
(C) Copyright Microsoft Corporation, 1990
Product Serial Number: 00-007-2710-00007050
This document contains release notes for version 7.10 of the Microsoft (R)
BASIC Professional Development System for MS-DOS (R) and the Microsoft
Operating System/2 (MS(R) OS/2). The information in this document is more
up-to-date than that in the manuals.
This version of BASIC contains the "BASIC Language Reference" and
"Programmer's Guide" published with the previous release of the product,
version 7.0. The information in those manuals is current with this
release except where noted in this document. The "Getting Started" manual
explains the features new to version 7.1 in Chapter 1, "New Features."
Microsoft revises its languages documentation at the time of reprinting,
so some of the information in this online file may already be included in
your manuals.
=======================================================================
Contents
=======================================================================
Part
----

Description
-----------

Notes and Tips

Notes for "Microsoft BASIC Language Reference"

Notes for "Microsoft BASIC Programmer's Guide"

=======================================================================
Part 1: Notes and Tips
=======================================================================
Quick Library Compatibility Between Versions
-------------------------------------------Quick libraries created with version 7.1 that use the LBOUND or UBOUND
functions or the ERASE statement on a dynamic array whose elements include
a record containing a static array will not work with version 7.0 of QBX.
Compatibility with Novell Netware
----------------------------------If you have a peripheral (such as a mouse) that uses Interrupt Request
Level (IRQ) 3, and your system is part of a network using Novell (R) Netware
version 2.15 or earlier, your system may hang when you load QBX, PWB, or
CodeView. As a temporary solution, set your peripheral to use another
interrupt. For more information, contact your Novell Netware dealer.
PWB State Files / Help Under OS/2
---------------------------------

Do not directly edit PWB state files (such as CURRENT.STS). To change editor
settings in PWB, choose Editor Settings from the Options menu. For more
information, see the section "Customizing the Environment" in Chapter 4 of
"Getting Started."
MSHELP.DLL must be located in the path set by LIBPATH in your CONFIG.SYS
file in order to use Help in PWB under OS/2.
NMK Utility
----------The NMK utility (NMK.COM) should not be used within PWB. To get help on
NMK, type QH NMK from the command line.
ILINK and BIND Utilities
-----------------------Documentation for the ILINK and BIND utilities is included online for
compatibility with Microsoft C. These utilities are not included with
Microsoft BASIC and are not supported by BASIC.
I/O within LPRINT, PRINT #, PRINT # USING, WRITE, and WRITE USING
----------------------------------------------------------------If you use any of these output statements with an argument that is,
itself, an input/output statement, the output will go to the
console screen rather than the expected file or device. To avoid this
problem, use a variable to get input, and use that variable as the
argument to the statement that will perform the output. In the following
example output will always go to the screen:
OPEN "Test1.dat" FOR INPUT AS #1
OPEN "Test2.dat" FOR OUTPUT as #2
PRINT #2, INPUT$(10, #1)
The following rewritten example will send output to the proper place:
OPEN "Test1.dat" FOR INPUT AS #1
OPEN "Test2.dat" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
TEXT$ = INPUT$(10, #1)
PRINT #2, TEXT$
Output is also sent to the screen if you use an argument that is a
user-defined function that also performs input/output. You must not
use user-defined functions that perform I/O as arguments to any of the
preceding output statements.
Debugging Custom Run-Time Modules with CodeView
-----------------------------------------------You can debug custom run-time modules with CodeView only in protected mode
(CVP.EXE). To do this you must prepare the run-time module as follows:
1. Compile the source files using the CodeView options (/Zi or /Zd).
2. Set the LINK environment variable to include the /CO (CodeView) option.
3. Run the BUILDRTM utility to create the custom run-time module.
After you run BUILDRTM, you should set the LINK environment variable back to
its original setting.
References to Version Numbers in Filenames
------------------------------------------

The references to the filenames for the BASIC run-time libraries and runtime modules in the "BASIC Language Reference" and "Programmer's Guide"
include the 7.0 version number, e.g. BRT70ENR.LIB. Change these to include
the 7.1 version number, e.g. BRT71ENR.LIB.
=======================================================================
Part 2: Notes for "Microsoft BASIC Language Reference"
=======================================================================
Page
----

Section\Note
------------

31-32

CALL (BASIC Procedures)

----------------------In version 7.1, BASIC supports the use of the BYVAL keyword
in CALL, DECLARE, SUB, and FUNCTION statements for BASIC
procedures. You can use BYVAL to pass parameters by value
rather than by reference (the default). It is no longer
necessary to enclose parameters in parentheses to emulate
passing by value. For more information and an example of using
BYVAL in BASIC procedures, see the online Help for the DECLARE
statement (BASIC procedures). For specifics on using BYVAL with
CALL, see the online Help for the CALL statement (BASIC
procedures).
Change the explanation of the example to state that the SUB
procedure prints a message on the 24th line of the display.

37

CHAIN
----Under DOS 2.1, CHAIN will not work unless filespec$ provides a
path. Also under DOS 2.1, if the run-time module is in the
root directory, the root directory must be listed in the PATH
environment variable.

40

CHDIR
----Refer to the online Help for CHDIR for a more appropriate
example of CHDIR and MKDIR usage.

61

COMMAND$
-------The fifth line from the top of the page is missing a pair of
parentheses. The line should read:
SUB Comline (NumArgs, Args$(), MaxArgs) STATIC

68

CONST
----You cannot use ASCII 01 and 02 in string constants if you are
going to compile to an executable program. The compiler
(BC.EXE) uses ASCII 1 and 2 internally to represent
End-of-Statement and End-of-Line, respectively. You can,
however, still use 1 and 2 within the QBX environment.

84

DATA
---You cannot use ASCII 01 and 02 in data strings if
you are going to compile to an executable program.

See the preceding note for CONST.

88

DECLARE (BASIC Procedures)

-------------------------In version 7.1, BASIC supports the use of the BYVAL keyword
in CALL, DECLARE, SUB, and FUNCTION statements for BASIC
procedures. See the online Help for this statement for more
information.

93

DECLARE (Non-BASIC Procedures)

-----------------------------Reword the paragraph following the note to read:
Be careful when using the SEG keyword or when passing parameters
by near reference (no keyword), because BASIC may move variables
in memory before the called routine begins execution. Anything
in a CALL statement's argument list that causes memory movement
may create problems. You can safely pass variables using SEG or
near reference if the CALL statement's argument list contains
only simple variables or arithmetic expressions. SEG cannot be
used to pass arrays.

116

END
--Syntax 2, END [n%], accepts a range of integers from -32,768
through 32,767, inclusive.

144

FUNCTION
-------In version 7.1, BASIC supports the use of the BYVAL keyword
in CALL, DECLARE, SUB, and FUNCTION statements for BASIC
procedures. See the entry for page 31 for more information.

147

GET (File I/O)

-------------The argument for record number should be "recordnumber&" since
it accepts a long-integer value.

151

GET (Graphics)
-------------Screen modes 3 and 4 should be added to the table at the top of
the page. Both modes use one bit per pixel per plane and have
one plane.

177

KEY (Assignment)
---------------The KEY n%, stringexpression$ syntax can also be used to
create user-defined keys. Refer to the information on page 180
for specific details on how this is accomplished.
The description for the KEY ON statement in the table in the
middle of the page should mention that only the first five
characters of the soft-key string value are displayed for
function key F10.

180

KEY (Event Trapping)

-------------------The correct value for the Ctrl+Alt key combination is &H0C
(12 decimal) for non-extended keyboards and &H8C for extended
keyboards.

181

Keyboard Scan Codes

------------------Add the following to the Keyboard Scan Code chart:
Key
--F11
F12

Code
---133
134

200

LOCK...UNLOCK
------------The paragraph after the warning incorrectly states that BASIC
may generate the error "Bad record number" if you attempt to
access a file that is locked. BASIC will generate only the
"Permission denied" error message in this case.

238-239

OPEN COM
-------Under OS/2, specifying DS0 to ignore the state of the Data Set
Ready (DSR) line does not work properly. In this case, you
will have to either not ignore the DSR line or you will have
to jumper the DSR line to an active high-signal line. Refer to
serial port information that specifically pertains to your
hardware, and perform any modifications at your own risk.
The range for the parity argument should include the value PE.
Setting parity to PE enables parity error checking.

261

PLAY (Music)
-----------The remarks should note that the PLAY statement generates an
"Illegal Function Call" error if you attempt to use the
enharmonic notes C-, B+, E+ or F-.

275

PRINT USING
----------The syntax for the PRINT USING statement should be as follows:
PRINT USING formatstring$; expressionlist [;]
The PRINT USING statement does not use print zones. You cannot
replace the optional semicolon with a comma.

280

PUT Statement (File I/O)

-----------------------The argument for record number should be "recordnumber&" since
it accepts a long-integer value.
The introduction to the example near the bottom of the page
incorrectly states that "the following two statements write
15 bytes to file number 1:" The example actually writes 17
bytes to file number 1, since the first two bytes store
the length of the string in BASIC.

333

SETMEM Function
--------------The example shows using the C malloc() and free() functions to
allocate and free memory. These will take the allocated memory

away from the BASIC program until the program terminates. To be

able to reallocate memory using SETMEM after a C procedure, you
must use halloc() and hfree().
The corrected C code for the SETMEM example is as follows:
void far cfunc(bytes)
int bytes;
{
char *halloc();
char *workspace;
/* Allocate working memory using amount BASIC freed. */
workspace=halloc((unsigned) bytes, 1);
/* Working space would be used here. */
/* Free memory before returning to BASIC */
hfree(workspace);
}
345

SOUND
----The duration argument accepts any positive single-precision,
floating-point value between 0 and 65,535, inclusive.

368-375

StringAddress, StringAssign, StringLength, and StringRelease

-----------------------------------------------------------Sample MASM code for these entries includes lines like
the following:
extrn StringAddress: proc far
call StringAddress
In all cases, only "far" should appear after the colon
in the extrn directive. In addition, all extrn
directives should appear outside of any .code or .data
segment directives. For example, the extrn directives
in the sample code on page 369 should appear as
follows:
.model medium, basic

; Use same model as BASIC.

; Define external (BASIC library) procedures.

extrn StringAddress: far
extrn StringLength: far
.code
; Define procedure with one-word argument.
...
376

SUB
--In version 7.1, BASIC supports the use of the BYVAL keyword
in CALL, DECLARE, SUB, and FUNCTION statements for BASIC
procedures. See the online Help for this statement for more
information.

409

WIDTH

----The Remarks state that the WIDTH #filenumber% form of the

statement may be used with a file. This form of the statement
may only be used with a device opened as a file with the OPEN
statement.
425

DATESERIAL
---------Change the paragraph that begins "For each of the three
arguments..." to read as follows:
When converting specific dates, the ranges shown above for each
of the arguments should be used. However, when using expressions
to calculate date serial numbers for relative dates (e.g., a
week from 10 Dec 89) each of the three arguments can be any
valid integer as long as the resulting date serial number
is between -53,688 and 65,380, inclusive. Date serial
numbers outside this range generate the error message "Illegal
function call."

506

Matrix Math Toolbox

------------------The first sentence of the Remarks for the MatSEqn FUNCTION
should read:
The MatSEQNtype% procedure solves a system of linear equations
contained in a one-dimensional vector and in a square matrix;...
The sentence beginning "The second matrix,..." should read:
The second matrix is used to enter the vector constants for
that system of simultaneous equations.

518

Fonts Toolbox
------------Change the first sentence in the second paragraph to read as
follows:
Nine font files are supplied: Courier fonts in COURA.FON,
COURB.FON, and COURE.FON, Helv fonts in HELVA.FON,
HELVB.FON, and HELVE.FON, and Tms Rmn fonts in TMSRA.FON,
TMSRB.FON and TMSRE.FON.

523

Fonts Toolbox
------------Add the following documentation for the GTextWindow before
existing documentation for GetTotalFonts:
GTextWindow SUB
Action

Retains the logical coordinates of window

boundaries. (See note below.)

Syntax

GTextWindow (x1, y1, x2, y2, Scrn%)

Remarks

The GTextWindow procedure uses the following

arguments:
Argument
--------

Description
-----------

x1

Integer containing the minimum

X value (logical coordinate).

y1

Integer containing the minimum

Y value.

x2

Integer containing the maximum

X value.

y2

Integer containing the maximum

Y value.

Scrn%

Integer containing either cTRUE

(used with WINDOW SCREEN statement
to show window Y values increase
top to bottom) or cFALSE (used
with WINDOW statement to show
window Y values increase bottom to
top )

This procedure should be called after defining

VIEW and WINDOW and prior to calling OutGText.
To clear the current window, call this routine
with X1=X2 or Y1=Y2.
Note: The first call to OutGtext will work without
calling GTextWindow, however all subsequent calls
treat the coordinates as pixel coordinates of the
window; therefore, to retain the logical
coordinates call GTextWindow prior to calling
OutGText.
See Also
524

See OutGText statement for more information.

Fonts Toolbox
------------Change the last line of the LoadFont% FUNCTION section to read:
l% = LoadFont%("n1/n3/n6")

549

User Interface Toolbox

---------------------Change "CommandKeySet" in the paragraph following the table to
"ShortCutKeySet."

550

User Interface Toolbox

---------------------Add the following line after the COMMON SHARED statement for
GloStorage:
COMMON SHARED /uitools/GloWindowStack() AS INTEGER

586

User Interface Toolbox

---------------------The AttrBox SUB is incorrectly identified as being a procedure
in GENERAL.BAS. Actually, AttrBox is found in UIASM.OBJ.

601

Keyboard Scan Codes and ASCII Character Codes

--------------------------------------------Add the following to the table on page 601:
|
|
| ASCII or | ASCII or | ASCII or
| Scan | ASCII or | Extended | Extended | Extended
Key| Code | Extended | with SHIFT| with CTRL | with ALT
---|-------|------------|------------|------------|-----------|Dec|Hex|Dec|Hex|Char|Dec|Hex|Char|Dec|Hex|Char|Dec|Hex|Char
---|---|---|---|---|----|---|---|----|---|---|----|---|---|---F11|133| 85|133| 85| NUL|135| 87| NUL|137| 89| NUL|139| 8B| NUL
F12|134| 86|134| 86| NUL|136| 88| NUL|138| 8A| NUL|140| 8C| NUL
---------------------------------------------------------------

606

BASIC Reserved Words

-------------------Add PRESERVE to the list of BASIC reserved words.

608-610

BASIC Compiler (BC)

------------------In version 7.1, the following options were added for the BASIC
Compiler:
/? or /Help

Displays compiler syntax and options.

/FBr[filename] Generates a file containing restricted program

symbol information for use with the Programmer's
WorkBench Source Browser. This information file
has the name specified by the filename argument.
If no name is specified, it has the same name as
the source file with an .SBR filename extension.
The file contains information about the
definitions and references to all global
symbols.
/FBx[filename] Generates a file containing extended program
symbol information for use with the Programmer's
WorkBench Source Browser. This information file
has the name specified by the filename argument.
If no name is specified, it has the same name as
the source file with an .SBR filename extension.
The file contains information about the
definitions and references to all global and
local symbols.
The information for the /Z option applies to PWB, as well as to
the M editor.
611

BUILDRTM Utility
---------------The run-time argument to BUILDRTM should not include a path or
a file extension.

620

NMAKE
----Change the description for the macrodefinitions argument to
the following:
An optional field that lists macro definitions for NMAKE to

use. Macros can also be specified in the makefile. See the

"Macro Definitions" section for details.
631

Table 4.1 Run-Time Error Codes

-----------------------------Add run-time error 89, "Insufficient ISAM buffers," to
the table.

639

Database needs repair

--------------------Change REPAIR.EXE to ISAMRPR.EXE.

653

Illegal Function Call

--------------------This error may also occur if an error is trapped and corrected
by the user between BEGINTRANS and COMMITTRANS statements. For
example:
ON ERROR GOTO TRAP
OPEN "A:\FOO.MDB" FOR ISAM ...
BEGINTRANS
...
COMMITTRANS
PRINT "The TRANSACTION was SUCCESSFULLY committed"
...
END
TRAP:
IF ERL = 10 and ERR = 71 THEN
INPUT "Hit any key after the DRIVE door is CLOSED...";a$
RESUME
END IF
This example may cause an "Illegal function call" error on the
COMMITTRANS statement if the transaction is interrupted by a
"Disk not ready" error.

656

Run-Time Error Message - Insufficient ISAM buffers

-------------------------------------------------There are not enough buffers to handle ISAM file processing.
See the section "Estimating Minimum ISAM Buffer Values" in
Chapter 10 of the "Programmer's Guide" for more information.
ERR code: 89

665

Run-Time Error Message - Overflow

---------------------------------In the first list item, change "40 indices" to "28 indexes."
Remove the sentence that begins, "If there are 32 open
tables..." This limitation is not correct and does not cause an
Overflow error. See "Using Multiple Files: 'Relational'
Databases" in Chapter 10 of the "Programmer's Guide" for
information on open table limitations.

684

Link error L1083 - Cannot open run file

--------------------------------------This error can also be caused by a read-only .EXE file of the
same name as specified for the run file. Link will not be able
to overwrite the read-only file.

690

Link error L2044 - Symbol multiply defined

-----------------------------------------This error may also appear in PWB when doing mixed-language

programming with C. The error results from the C start-up
code being linked in twice. To avoid the error, enter the
appropriate BASIC library (for example, BRT71ENR.LIB
for a program using the BASIC run-time, emulator math,
near strings, and running in real mode) in the Additional
libraries field of the Link Options dialog.
=======================================================================
Part 3: Notes for "Microsoft BASIC Programmer's Guide"
=======================================================================
Page
----

Section/Note
------------

41

Defining Procedures
------------------The DATA statement should be added to the list of statements
and expressions not allowed within a procedure.

56

Passing Arguments by Value

-------------------------This section describes how to emulate passing parameters
by value in BASIC procedures by enclosing the parameter in
parentheses. With version 7.1 you can define parameters
to pass by value using the BYVAL keyword in the DECLARE
statement for the procedure. For information on using BYVAL in
BASIC procedures, see the online Help for the DECLARE statement
(BASIC procedures).

66

Preserving Values of Local Variables with STATIC

-----------------------------------------------In the first example, a "Duplicate Definition" error will occur
if the procedure SubProg2 is called more than once. To avoid
this, rewrite the example as follows:
SUB SubProg2
STATIC Array() AS INTEGER, FirstPassFlag%
IF FirstPassFlag% = 0 THEN
DIM Array(-5 TO 5, 1 TO 25) AS INTEGER
FirstPassFlag% = 1
END IF
...
END SUB

68

The Factorial Function

---------------------In the example declaration of the Factorial# procedure, delete
the STATIC keyword so the line appears as follows:
FUNCTION Factorial# (N%)

224

Presentation Graphics
--------------------Table 6.1 should indicate that the Presentation Graphics toolbox
can only be used in real mode.

250-251

AxisType

-------The table listing the elements of the AxisType structure

incorrectly lists the "Labelled" element. That element should
be referred to as "Labeled."
The description for the TicFormat element should state that you
should set TicFormat to cNormFormat to display tick mark labels
in decimal format.
319

ISAM Support
-----------The Note on this page indicates that ISAM is not supported
under OS/2. With version 7.1 this restriction has been
removed.

341

Restrictions on Indexing
-----------------------Add the following to the end of the first paragraph:
The maximum number of indexes per table is 28.

344

Setting the Current Record by Position

-------------------------------------Add the following just after the paragraph that begins,
"The effect of any of the MOVEdest statements...":
If you trap errors while using either a MOVENEXT or
MOVEPREVIOUS ISAM statement, and an I/O error occurs (either
57 or 71) on an index that is not the NULL index, you must
resynchronize ISAM internal pointers before using another
MOVENEXT or MOVEPREVIOUS statement. Synchronization can be
done using any valid SETINDEX statement, either a MOVEFIRST or
MOVELAST statement, or any of the SEEKxx (SEEKEQ, SEEKGE,
SEEKGT) statements.

345

A Typical ISAM Program

---------------------The command line used for invoking PROISAM for use with the
BOOKLOOK program (shown halfway down the page) is stated as
PROISAM /Ib:24. The efficiency of the ISAM has improved and
the program can now be run in 640K conventional memory, with
no expanded memory, with only 9 buffers: PROISAM /Ib:9. If you
have EMS available, you need not specify the /Ib option.

376

Starting ISAM for Use in QBX - /Ie argument

------------------------------------------The explanation for the /Ie: option for the ISAM TSR states
that "...In practice, you only need to specify /Ie if your
program code (or a loaded Quick library) actually manages EMS
memory." Although this is true, there may be other times when
you want to reserve EMS for other uses. Having many ISAM
buffers improves the performance of ISAM, but during program
development ISAM performance may be less important than the
size of your program's source code. For example, your program
may only need 10-12 ISAM buffers to prevent an "Insufficient
ISAM buffers" error at run time. If you have 1.2 megabytes of
EMS available, you can use the /Ie: option to minimize the EMS
used by ISAM buffers, reserving the rest for program source
code. For example, if your program needs about 10 buffers, you
can invoke the ISAM TSR with /Ie:900. This will provide several

hundred K of EMS to be used for ISAM buffers. The rest will be

reserved for QBX (and your program source code). Note that
only program parts whose size is between 512 bytes and 16K are
placed in EMS by QBX. You can check the sizes of your
procedures and module-level code blocks by pressing F2 to see
the View menu's SUBs dialog box.
380

Using ISAM with Compiled Programs

--------------------------------The note labeled Important at the bottom of the page no longer
applies in version 7.1 since you can specify additional options
from the Make EXE dialog box when compiling within QBX.

393

The ISAMCVT Utility

------------------Add the following sentence just before the section entitled
"The Repair Utility":
No EMS driver can be loaded when running ISAMCVT.

394

Repair Utility
-------------Replace the paragraph that begins, "When you use the ISAMREPR
utility..." with the following:
The ISAMREPR utility requires an additional 32K within your
database to re-create the system indexes. This adds a least
32K to the size of the database. Do not run the utility if
your disk does not have this amount of space available in the
current working directory. Also note that the maximum size of
a database is 128 megabytes. When you run the ISAMREPR
utility, adding 32K to the size of an extremely large database
may cause it to exceed the maximum allowed. ISAMREPR deletes
inconsistent records in tables, but does not compact after
doing so. Compacting a database is described in the next
section.

490-497

String-Processing Routines
-------------------------Sample MASM code in this section includes lines like
the following:
extrn stringassign: proc far
call stringassign
In all cases, only "far" should appear after the colon in the
extrn directive. In addition, all extrn directives should appear
outside of any .CODE or .DATA segment directives. For an
example, see the entry for pages 368-375 of the "BASIC Language
Reference."

494

BASIC Calling MASM

-----------------Change the first sentence in the paragraph following the
"Important" note to read as follows:
This MASM code uses the .MODEL directive which establishes
compatible naming and calling conventions for BASIC, and
it also uses simplified segment directives.

Change the third-from-last line of the example to read as

follows:
C$ = AddString$(A$, LEN(A$), B$, LEN(B$))
520

Language Changes for Protected Mode

----------------------------------Table 14.1 indicates that all of the ISAM statements and
functions are not supported in protected mode. With version
7.1 that restriction has been removed.

539

Using Stub Files

---------------The third paragraph on this page states that stub files can be
used to create run-time modules. This is true for all stub files
except OVLDOS21.OBJ and NOEMS.OBJ, which cannot be built into
run-time modules. These stub files can be linked with programs
using run-time modules, however.

558-560

Using BC Command Options

-----------------------The first paragraph in this sections states that the slash (/)
and the dash (-) can be used interchangeably to specify BC
command-line options. This is true, but they cannot be
intermixed. You must use either all slashes or all dashes
in your command line.
Add the following command options to the table: /?, /Help, /FBr,
/FBx. See the entry in this document for pages 608-610 of the
"BASIC Language Reference" for descriptions of these options.
The description of the /Z option applies to PWB, as well as to
the M editor.
When using the /D option with dynamic arrays, it is possible
to produce incorrect results if you pass an array element to a
procedure that changes the value of the element index. For
example, the following works properly when compiled with all
options except /D:
CALL SubProc(a(i),i)
PRINT a(i), i
The following performs the same operations and works properly
with all compile options including /D.
j=i
CALL SubProc(a(i),j)
PRINT a(i), j

561

Using Floating-Point Options (/FPa and /FPi)

-------------------------------------------The new CURRENCY data type is not currently supported in the
alternate math library.

576

Options
------Replace /NOD with /NOE in the table at the top of the page.

589

Valid LINK Options

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

The /PACKCODE option can be abbreviated to /PACKC, not /PAC as

shown in the table.
595

Ignoring Default Libraries (/NOD:filename)

-----------------------------------------Add the following to the paragraph that begins, "In general,
higher-level languages..."
For example, if you specify the /NOD option when linking a
protect-mode BASIC program, you must explicitly specify the
run-time library (BRT71xxP.LIB) and OS2.LIB in the libraries
field of the LINK command line.

599

Specifying OS/2 Window Type

--------------------------You cannot use the /D compiler option together with /PM:VIO.

611

Linking Stub Files

-----------------The first paragraph on this page states that you can link stub
files with custom run-time modules. This is true for all stub
files except OVLDOS21.OBJ and NOEMS.OBJ. These stub files can be
linked with programs using run-time modules, however.

624

Mouse, Menu, and Window Libraries

-------------------------------If you rebuild toolbox Quick libraries, files should be
compiled with the /Ah option (allow dynamic arrays to be
greater than 64K) if you intend to use QBX with the /Ea option
(Put arrays into expanded memory).
Also note that Table 19.1 applies to all toolbox files, not
just MOUSE.BAS, MENU.BAS, and WINDOW.BAS.

625

Loading and Viewing Quick Libraries

----------------------------------QBX now requires that the BASIC source for any Quick library
be compiled using the /Fs (far string) compiler option.
Consequently, QBX will not permit you to load a Quick library
file that has the near string features of earlier versions of
QuickBASIC. If you encounter an "Invalid Format" error when
attempting to load an older Quick library file, you should
recompile the files using BC with the /Fs option.
You may also encounter the "Invalid Format" error if you
invoke QBX with a /Ea option (put arrays into expanded memory)
and have not compiled the Quick library with /D (generate
debugging code) or /Ah (allow dynamic arrays of records,
fixed-length strings, and numeric data to be larger than 64K).

636

Description Blocks
-----------------The following information applies to the command component
of description blocks:
The first character after a dependency line in a description
block must be a whitespace character, i.e., either a space or
a tab. An error occurs if only a carriage return is used on a
blank line.

663

OBJECTS Directive
----------------This section should note that you should not include the
OVLDOS21.OBJ or NOEMS.OBJ stub files in the list of filenames
after the OBJECTS directive.

701

Elementary Data Types - String

-----------------------------You cannot use ASCII 01 and 02 in strings constants if you
are going to compile to an executable program. The compiler
(BC.EXE) uses ASCII 1 and 2 internally to represent
End-of-Statement and End-of-Line, respectively. You can,
however, still use 1 and 2 within the QBX environment.

702

Elementary Data Types - Numeric

------------------------------A math coprocessor (80x87) handles rounding of extremely small
numbers differently from the way numbers are rounded by the
BASIC emulator math package. Because of this difference, some
numbers that are properly displayed using a coprocessor are
rounded and displayed as zero when using emulator math. The
range of single-precision floating-point numbers that are
properly displayed as input, using the emulator math package,
is +/- 2.802597E-45. For double-precision floating-point
numbers, the range is +/- 4.94065645841247D-324.
In Table B.1, the description for double-precision floating
point numbers should say that they are accurate to 15
digits. Also, the upper and lower ranges with or without
the alternate math library should be +/-1.79769313486231D308
rather than +/-1.797693134862315D308 for regular math and
+/-1.79769313486232D308 for alternate math.

707

Data Types in ISAM Files

-----------------------In Table B.2, the description for the DOUBLE data type
should list the upper and lower ranges as
+/-1.79769313486231D308 rather than +/-1.797693134862315D308.