Basic 7.0/7.1 "Error Loading Run-time Module: Incompatible" (58817)

SUMMARY

Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.0 and 7.1 maintain a date and time stamp for each of their run-time modules (BRT70xxx.EXE and BRT71xxx.EXE). (A custom run-time module that you create will also have a unique time stamp.) This time stamp is inherited by the compiled Basic PDS program linked with a given Basic PDS run-time module. (This information does NOT apply if you compile with the BC /O stand-alone option.)

The result of this inheritance is that the Basic executable .EXE program does not run with a run-time module other than the one it was linked with. Attempting to use a Basic PDS 7.0 or 7.1 run-time module other than the one that the .EXE program was linked with results in the following error message:

Error loading run-time module <runtime name>.EXE: Incompatible run-time module.

MORE INFORMATION

The time stamp association between Basic PDS 7.0/7.1 run-time modules and executable programs helps ensure that the run-time module used by the program actually contains the routines the Basic executable program expects to be able to call.

For example, assume that you have created the Basic run-time module BRT70ENR.EXE and the run-time library BRT70ENR.LIB during setup, and you specify that you do not want to include VGA graphics support (which removes the VGA graphics routines by linking the NOVGA.OBJ stub file into your run-time module). If you were allowed to execute a program that was compiled by another person using a different BRT70ENR.LIB run-time library, and that program used VGA graphics routines, that program would try to call the graphics routines it expects to find at certain locations in the Basic run-time BRT70ENR.EXE. Because the VGA graphics routines will not be present in your BRT70ENR.EXE run-time, the code at that location is not going to be the expected VGA routine, and the results of such a call are unpredictable.