Editing Before First Line in Procedure Can Cause QB Problems (63273)

SYMPTOMS

Editing before the first line in a SUB/FUNCTION procedure can cause problems in the QB.EXE and QBX.EXE environments. Normally, you would get the following correct message:

Blank lines not allowed before SUB/FUNCTION line. Is remark OK?

However, in some cases, making other changes before the SUB/FUNCTION line can cause the QB and QBX environments to make unwanted changes. For example, if a remark is accepted for the line before the first line and then the comment line is deleted, the "Blank lines not allowed" message incorrectly appears and REMarks out the SUB/FUNCTION line.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a bug in the QB.EXE environment that comes with Microsoft QuickBasic versions 4.00, 4.00b, and 4.50 for MS-DOS and Microsoft Basic Compiler versions 6.00 and 6.00b for MS-DOS (buglist6.00, buglist6.00b); and in the QBX.EXE environment that comes with Microsoft Basic Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.00 and 7.10 for MS-DOS (buglist7.00, buglist7.10). We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

Besides comments, the only statements that are normally placed before SUB/FUNCTION lines are DEFtype statements (DEFINT, etc.). To place a DEFtype statement before the SUB/FUNCTION line, we recommend that you type it elsewhere in the program and use the cut and paste editing functions to move the DEFtype statement.

To correct most editing problems such as this in the QBX.EXE editor, choose the Undo command from the Edit menu in Basic PDS 7.00 or 7.10, which can undo as many as the last 20 modifications.

The following information (from the QBX Help screen for the "Blank lines not allowed" dialog box) describes the behavior of the QBX editor with respect to blank lines before SUB/FUNCTION statements:

Ordinarily the SUB or FUNCTION statement that begins a procedure is the first line in the View window. When you try to use the smart editor to put a blank line above the SUB or FUNCTION statement, the editor always transforms that blank line into a comment line.

To edit more easily before the first line in a SUB or FUNCTION, you can save the file in text format and use a different editor or word processor to edit the code.