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From: mdf@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark D. Freeman)
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc,net.micro
Subject: Re: IBM BASIC COMPILER V2.01 and other BASIC goodies
Message-ID: <1965@osu-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jun-86 11:04:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: osu-eddi.1965
Posted: Fri Jun 20 11:04:07 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 21-Jun-86 10:13:26 EDT
References: <733@nicmad.UUCP>
Reply-To: mdf@osu-eddie.UUCP (Mark D. Freeman)
Organization: StrongPoint Systems, Inc. (guest of Ohio State U.)
Lines: 50
Xref: watmath net.micro.pc:8767 net.micro:14871

Summary:

In <733@nicmad.UUCP> brown@nicmad.UUCP writes:
>The main one being why
>didn't IBM say anything publically about the compiler problem.  You know,
>they still haven't made any public type of announcement about the compiler.

I went to my local IBM dealer (MicroCenter, the largest dealer on the planet --
they have their own mall), and asked for the latest updates to the BASIC 
Compiler 2.0.  All they had was the 1/86 'patch' diskette.  I watched as their
tech. support rep. used their on-line dealer information system to dial Boca
and do a database search (BASIC and Compiler and (patch or update or bug)) 
which turned up NOTHING.  Not even the previous 3 sets of updates!  They 
officially do not exist, or so it seems.  Picking up a voice telephone, he
called IBM and they mailed him a disk.  You are correct Mike, there is 
absolutely no documentation concerning the fixes.

>What you need to get from you IBM dealer is the latest patch diskette that
>is dated 04/04/86.  When it compiles, it even gives a version number of 2.01
>in the listing file.

But it still says 2.00 on the screen, and IBM says that there is no 2.01!

>A few of you have been having problems with getting sub-routines to work
>with error trapping.  Well, RBBS-PC uses error trapping in the SUB calls
>and it works just fine.  The secret is that the SB errors that you get 
>are ignored.  The current version has 20 such errors.  If you would like
>a copy of the source code, send me some e-mail and I will send a copy
>back for you to look at and compile, to get the idea how it is done.

Please send me the code.  This has been making me crazy for months.

>Oh, before I forget.  There is a file called SMALLERR.OBJ that comes with
>the latest version of the IBM Basic Compiler.  I have no idea what it is
>for and I am waiting for a call from IBM to tell me what it is for.

According to the IBM BASIC Compiler 2.0 Fundamentals manual, page 2-3:

SMALLERR.OBJ - short error-message module.  Linking this module causes error
messages to be displayed in an abbreviated form.

This file should have come with your original disks.  It came with mine.

Thank you for all your efforts on behalf of BASIC Compiler users everywhere!
-- 
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Mark D. Freeman                                             mdf@osu-eddie.uucp
StrongPoint Systems, Inc.                                   mdf@osu-eddie.arpa
Guest account at The Ohio State University            ...!cbosgd!osu-eddie!mdf
                                                            mdf@Ohio-State.EDU
"Are you in charge here?"  "No, but I'm full of ideas!" -- Doctor Who
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