How to Change User Interface Global CONSTants in GENERAL.BI (66140)

SUMMARY

The GENERAL.BI $INCLUDE file in the User Interface (UI) Toolbox, which comes with Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.00 and 7.10, contains several global constants (defined with CONST) that dictate how the Toolbox FUNCTIONs and SUBs will behave. When one of these CONSTants is changed, the entire Toolbox usually must be recompiled and linked, all libraries must be rebuilt, and the quick libraries must be rebuilt. This article gives instructions for this process.

This information applies to Microsoft Basic PDS versions 7.00 and 7.10 for MS-DOS.

MORE INFORMATION

To change the constants in the UI $INCLUDE files, follow these steps:

Load the file GENERAL.BI into any editor (such as QBX.EXE).
Move the cursor down to the Global Constants section.
Change the CONSTant.
Save the GENERAL.BI file.
If you are loading the entire source code for the Toolbox into the QBX.EXE editor, then you can just load and run the current program and the changes will take effect.

Most people use the Toolbox in the form of a compiled library or Quick library. To enable these changes to take effect in your Quick library or library, you must recompile and create both UITBEFR.QLB and UITBxxx.LIB. The "xxx" depends on what compiler options you use to create your final .EXE application and what compiler options you use to create the Toolbox.

Within the QBX.EXE environment, you must use UITBEFR.QLB (which supports the emulator library, far strings, and real-mode). Therefore, a full example is provided here of altering UITBEFR.LIB and UITBEFR.QLB. To re-create these files, use the following commands (as shown in the form of an MS-DOS batch file to make rebuilding the libraries easier):

   REM  Recompile the four Basic modules which make the Toolboxes
   REM  Note that the .OBJ names below MUST be used:
   BC /x /Fs /Lr /FPi GENERAL.BAS, GENEREFR.OBJ;
   BC /x /Fs /Lr /FPi MOUSE.BAS,   MOUSEEFR.OBJ;
   BC /x /Fs /Lr /FPi MENU.BAS,    MENUEFR.OBJ ;
   BC /x /Fs /Lr /FPi WINDOW.BAS,  WINDOEFR.OBJ;

   REM  Replace the existing modules in the UITBEFR.LIB. Note that
   REM  the following command should be on just one MS-DOS command line:
 LIB UITBEFR.LIB -+GENEREFR.OBJ -+ MOUSEEFR.OBJ -+MENUEFR.OBJ -
+WINDOEFR.OBJ;

   REM  Don't forget to save the old version of your library in case
   REM  an error occurs:
   RENAME UITBEFR.QLB UITBEFR.BAK

   REM  Link the new Quick library:
   LINK /q UITBEFR.LIB, UITBEFR.QLB,,QBXQLB.LIB;

If you want to modify any of the other UITBxxx.LIB libraries, then the BC compile and LIB commands given above can easily be modified to work properly with all of these other libraries.

The global constants that can be changed in GENERAL.BI are: FALSE, TRUE, MINROW, MAXROW, MINCOL, MAXCOL, MAXMENU, MAXITEM, MAXWINDOW, MAXBUTTON, MAXEDITFIELD, and MAXHOTSPOT. For a description of these constants, see page 533 of the "Microsoft Basic 7.0: Basic Language Reference."