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From: knudsen@ihwpt.ATT.COM (mike knudsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809
Subject: LOAD those PACKed RUNB files!
Message-ID: <1639@ihwpt.ATT.COM>
Date: Mon, 27-Apr-87 14:09:40 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihwpt.1639
Posted: Mon Apr 27 14:09:40 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 28-Apr-87 03:18:10 EDT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 34
Keywords: BASIC09, Level 1 and 2, RUNB

With the new Level 2's emphasis on merging modules
together into files, it's worthwhile to visit
an old bug of RUNB (Basic09).  Some guys on Delphi
finally figured out what had been going on for years
even under Level 1 (I had just quit using PACK).

Problem is this: You PACK several Basic09 procedures
into one file (or MERGE them together later, maybe
adding some machine-code routines like INKEY or GFX2
or your own).
	With this file in your /CMDS, say named ZORCH,
you should be able to type just "ZORCH" and OS9 will
pull in RUNB to execute it.  Well, not quite.
You'll get the "unknown procedure" error.
	Reason: OS9 (or Shell) loads the first module
in the file and immediately starts to execute it,
forgetting about the rest of the file.  That is,
once RUNB is loaded, OS9 looks for the rest of the
procedures in /CMDS and your pwd, but ignores the
rest of your merged file!  So unless all the other procedures
are also saved separately under their own names,
you get Unknown Procedure. (And if they are, you just
blew 8K for every one of the little buggers in Level 2).
	To fix, just LOAD ZORCH before typing ZORCH.
This puts all modules in memory, nicely packed for
Level 2 also.  Yes, you can mix packed B9 and 6809 code
modules (neat, eh?).  I found the fix while trying to run
a friend's PACKed graphics demo; the Delphi hackers found
the explanation while trying to make the "for 128K only"
part of the B9 manual (YAWN) work.
-- 
Mike J Knudsen    ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen  Bell Labs(AT&T)
    Delphi: RAGTIMER    CIS: <memory failure, too many digits>
	" ~E(x):[is_lunch(x) && cost(x)==0] "