langdon@lll-lcc.UUcp (Bruce Langdon) (03/21/86)
Below is info on Personal Pascal from the bbs of its publisher.
(Neither me nor my employer are connected to OSS except I buy their stuff)
Bruce Langdon L-472 langdon%lll-lcc@lll-crg.ARPA
Physics Department "langdon#bruce%d"@lll-mfe.ARPA
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Livermore, CA 94550 (415) 422-5444
UUCP: ..{gymble,ihnp4,seismo}!lll-crg!lll-lcc!langdon
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From OSS bbs 3/21/85 (408) 446-3451
Files to download:
STRVAL.PAS 7K 03/03/86 10:29:18
Str and Val procedures for Pascal
PASFIX1.PAS 3K 03/01/86 15:52:04
Patches to Personal Pascal-- fixes a few bugs
SOUNDDEM.PAS 3K 03/01/86 18:06:39
Demo which uses XBIOS to access sound chip
PASACC.DOC 11K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Desk accessories with Pascal
AESVDI.DOC 12K 02/22/86 00:00:00
How to do more AES and VDI calls
INTRO.DOC 2K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Introduction to BIOS, XBIOS, and GEMDOS calls
CHAR.DOC 8K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Character-oriented BIOS, XBIOS, and GEMDOS calls
FILE.DOC 10K 02/22/86 00:00:00
File-oriented GEMDOS calls
PORT.DOC 5K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Configuring I/O ports (serial and parallel)
TIME.DOC 4K 02/22/86 00:00:00
System date and time functions
COPY.PAS 3K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Sample copy pgm (uses GEMDOS calls-- compile for TOS)
DIRLIST.PAS 2K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Directory list program (compile for TOS)
THEIGHT.PAS 4K 02/22/86 00:00:00
Set/get height of text drawn by the Draw_String routine.
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Messages:
#4 - 246 chars 02/20/86 15:29:42
Re: More Pascal Documentation
We have started putting up additional
documentation for Personal Pascal.
Please bear with us a we hurry to put
more documentation up, but it does
take some time since we have to send
it from the ST to our 8-bit machine,
which is running the BBS!
#24 - 437 chars 02/23/86 17:23:49
Re: Personal Pascal Bugs
Several bugs have been reported in the Personal Pascal
system, most of which can be easily fixed. A patch
program will be available soon on this system which fixes
the following problems:
- the routine "Bring_To_Front" not found
- mysterious numbers in the ITEM SELECTOR dialog
- "Delete_Dialog" sometimes crashing
- a few more fairly obscure bugs
In addition, read the following few messages for a few
fixes you can apply now.
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#25 - 357 chars 02/23/86 17:29:42
Re: Rect_Intersect in GEMSUBS
The definition of the Rect_Intersect
procedure was left out
of the early versions of the GEMSUBS.PAS
file. If you file
is missing this declaration, please insert the following:
PROCEDURE Rect_Intersect( x, y, w, h : integer ;
VAR newX, newY, newW, newH : integer )
: boolean ;
EXTERNAL ;
into your GEMSUBS.PAS file.
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#26 - 386 chars 02/23/86 17:31:12
Re: Bring_To_Front routine
The Bring_To_Front routine in the PASGEM library also
has a problem in early releases. Due to a typographical
error, the name actually used in the PASGEM file is
"Brint_To_Front". As mentioned in a previous message, a
patch program will soon appear to fix this problem, but in
the meantime, you will have to use this incorrect spelling,
if you want to use the Bring_To_Front routine.
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#27 - 558 chars 02/23/86 17:35:03
Re: Cmd_Args and Filename
One more problem exists in the Pascal libraries, this time
in the PASLIB file. One of the modules in that file is in
the wrong position, causing undefined symbols if you try to
use the Cmd_Args or Filename functions. The actual symbol
marked undefined is something like "strukteq". If you want
to use either of these routines, you need to tell Personal
Pascal to make two passes through the PASLIB file by
putting the name PASLIB in the "Additional Link Files" box in
the "Linker Options" dialog. Once you do this, both routines
will be linked correctly.
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#28 - 168 chars 02/24/86 10:19:06
Re: Pascal FOR loop variable
To- David Duberman
Yes, we do intend to allow Long_Integer FOR loop counters.
We also intend to allow variables to occupy more than 32K of
space in a future release.
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#30 - 398 chars 02/24/86 10:27:44
Re: Pascal output to printer
If you want to open a file to the printer using Personal
Pascal, the following procedure call should work:
rewrite( f, 'prn:' ) ;
if f is of type "text". ('lst:' works too, as do the upper-
case versions) You can also make the standard output go to
the printer with:
rewrite( output, 'prn:' ) ;
DON'T use the "reset" call with the printer, since that call
opens a file for INPUT, not OUTPUT.
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#31 - 414 chars 02/24/86 10:33:53
Re: Use of Get_DEdit
Some people have expressed confusion about how to use the
Get_DEdit call. In order to retrieve the final value of an
edited string from a dialog, you should declare a variable to
hold the result:
VAR
new_value : Str255 ;
Then use Get_DEdit AFTER calling Do_Dialog:
Get_DEdit( the_dialog, the_field, new_value ) ;
The string "new_value" will then contain the final value of
the editable field "the_field".
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#32 - 391 chars 02/24/86 10:37:12
Re: IO_Check and IO_Result
We blew it! If you want to use the IO_Check and IO_Result
routines from within a Pascal program, you must declare the
routines to be EXTERNAL, in order to let the compiler know
about them. This gem of knowledge was inadvertantly left
out of the manual. Declare the routines like this:
PROCEDURE IO_Check( on : Boolean ) ;
EXTERNAL ;
FUNCTION IO_Result : Integer ;
EXTERNAL ;
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#33 - 617 chars 02/24/86 10:40:31
Re: Pascal with two drives
Some people have had difficulty telling Pascal to put their
source and object on drive B:, if they have a two-driver
system. In order to edit, compiler, or link a file on
drive B:, select the option so you get the ITEM SELECTOR
dialog, then do the following:
1. Click the mouse on the upper text field (where the
directory is shown)
2. Use the keyboard to change the leading "A:" to "B:"
3. Move the mouse down into the area where the file names
are shown, and click the mouse once (this tells
GEM that you have changed the directory).
You should now see the list of files on the B drive.
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#35 - 795 chars 02/24/86 11:30:12
Re: STRING type w/ Pascal
There are a couple of things to keep in mind when using the STRING
type in Personal Pascal. Whenever you use the STRING type, with or
without a length specified, you are declaring a "new-type" (see page
6-20 of your manual). A "new-type" is incompatible with all other
new-types. So, if you declare a procedure like this:
PROCEDURE p( VAR s : STRING[10] ) ;
there is no way to pass another variable declared as STRING[10] to the
procedure, since the two "STRING[10]" variables are different types!
In order to pass a variable to the procedure, declare a type in the
TYPE section like this:
TYPE Str10 = STRING [ 10 ] ;
and declare the procedure like this:
PROCEDURE p( VAR s : Str10 ) ;
Then, if you declare the string you want to pass as type Str10 as
well, everything will work fine.
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#36 - 515 chars 02/24/86 11:33:45
Re: To: Gary Cacace
We will soon have a file that demonstrates absolute memory access
using PPascal. In the meantime, remember that you must be in supervisor
mode if you want to access memory below $1000 or in the hardware. Also,
in order to call assembly language routines, you declare them like this:
PROCEDURE assem( -parameters- ) ;
EXTERNAL ;
In your assembly language file, "assem" must be all capitals (ASSEM)
and be declared to be ".globl". Your routine should also pull all
parameters off the stack before returning!
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#37 - 568 chars 02/24/86 11:37:10
Re: Libraries w/ Pascal
Several people have asked how to put Personal Pascal routines into a
library (like PASGEM and PASLIB). If you want to do this, you must
have the library manager AR68, available from Atari, not us. Make
sure you get the patched version, or instructions on patching it, since
it won't work unchanged. Also, you need the program FIXO to make your
object files an even number of long-words in length. Your Pascal modules
should be compiled with the M+ and E+ options, and shouldn't reference
any global variables, if you want any Pascal program to be able to use
them
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#40 - 358 chars 03/03/86 09:52:04
Re: Pascal Wishes
Several people have suggested that in
a future update of Pascal we allow
some of the Pascal program files to
reside on a different disk (e.g., to
put the compiler on a ramdisk). We
have this on our wish-list for future
versions. If any of you have other
wishes for future Pascal versions,
please leave a message here or write.
Your thoughts are important.
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#41 - 351 chars 03/03/86 09:56:22
Re: Problems with CASE in Pascal
Some people have had difficulty using
the CASE statement with Pascal. So
far, the problem has been that they
tried to use a variable as a CASE
constant. As the name implies the
"tag-values" in a CASE statement MUST
be constants! E.g., the following
will generate an error:
CASE i OF
(* If x is a variable, error! *)
x: do_something;
END;
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#42 - 216 chars 03/03/86 10:01:57
Re: Reading the cursor pos. on ST
Several people have asked how to read
the cursor position from Personal
Pascal (presumably in a TOS program).
We will soon have a cursor movement
support package available here which
includes reading the cursor pos.
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#43 - 216 chars 03/03/86 10:12:51
Re: Buffers and "rwabs"
If you want to pass the address of a
Pascal array as a buffer parameter to
the rwabs XBIOS call, pass the array
as a VAR parameter, and declare the
rwabs routine as taking a VAR param
of the type you gave the array.