clutx.clarkson.edu (Mike Carvin,,,) (03/02/89)
Yes, this is a question about Turbo Pascal.....no flames, please!! I use Turbo Pascal version 3.0 rather extensively, and I have a bunch of include files for my more frequently used procedures. I was wondering if anyone knows of a way to convert those files to .BIN files, so I can declare the needed procedures as external?? (My experience with 8088 is minimal, so I'd rather not hack in assembler, if I can at all get away with it.) I asked about it here (Clarkson U), and from the response, I take it that there is a program or something that will do the job, but it may not be on the market any longer. Does anyone know about this, or any thing else that may be of use. Any help that I can get on this will be greatly appreciated. Thanx in advance ********************************************** * Mike Carvin * * (carvinme@clutx.clarkson.edu) * *--------------------------------------------* * "What's the point of being grown-up * * if you can't be childish sometimes?" * * -- Dr. Who * **********************************************
Damouth.wbst@xerox.com (03/03/89)
I'm not sure I really understand your question, but: If you update to Turbo Pascal 4.0 or 5.0, you have the ability to have separately compiled modules, which are automatically linked at run time. I think that all of your include files, perhaps with minor restructuring, could be defined as units and separately compiled. You don't declare them external, but rather for units name FOO, FOO1, etc, you have a statement in your main program like Uses FOO.TPU, F001.TPU, etc. If you have a legal 3.0, you can upgrade to 5.0 fairly cheaply directly from Borland. Or any current 5.0 user will probably sell you his 4.0 package real cheap. (You can have mine for $30). 5.0 adds the integrated debugger and overlays (which disappeared in 4.0), and more support for extended memory, 8087, etc. The upgrade package for 5.0 plus the stand-alone fancy debugger and the new Turbo Assembler was around $100. Another $50 gets you Turbo C as well. I found 5.0 well worth it, just for the very convenient integrated debugger - its good enough so I haven't yet used the standalone debugger. I never used 3.0 - I went directly from UCSD Pascal to 4.0. I can't imagine living without separately compiled units, however. I indeed keep all my standard definitions and standard procedures in a separate pre-compiled unit, and also break my main program into several units, so that at any given time I am only recompiling a single fairly small body of code and all the rest of it is static and linked at run time - blindingly fast. This completely eliminates the need for include files. /Dave /Dave