Multiple Background Color

 BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 04-23-92 (08:05)             Number: 113
From: MATT HART                    Refer#: NONE
  To: DOUGLAS BUNGER                Recvd: NO  
Subj: Multiple Background Color      Conf: (2) Quik_Bas

 DB> couple days back.  Could clear up one thing for me?  What is a
 DB> named block common rather than a global common parameter?

A named block common, I have recently found out, is VERY
VERY useful in large projects.  It allows shared variables
between programs that LINK together, whereas a global
common allows shared variables both between linked programs
and CHAINed programs using a common run time module.

For example, two programs input data.  One has a 40 byte field as its
longest, and the other has only 6 bytes (this is a real
situation in many of my programs, and how I use the block
common).  In both, I would:

     '$INCLUDE:'ACGLOBAL.INC'      ' Global COMMON's
In ACGLOBAL, I would have:
     COMMON SHARED Highlite
     COMMON SHARED Normal
     COMMON SHARED CompanyName$
     COMMON SHARED CompanyID$
     COMMON SHARED Flags()
     etc...
Stuff that's needed in all programs

But for each program, I would also have:

' BYTE40.BAS
     '$INCLUDE:'ACGLOBAL.INC'
     '$INCLUDE:'BYTE40.DEC'        ' Block declaration for this program

                                   ' only
In BYTE40.DEC:
     COMMON SHARED /BYTE40/ Dat() AS STRING * 40

But for BYTE6.DEC:
     COMMON SHARED /BYTE6/ Dat() AS STRING * 6

I could NOT use Dat() as a global common and have different
sizes to it.  Also, some programs use certain data files,
while others don't.  For example, Vendor Update:
     '$INCLUDE:'VENTYPE.DEC'
This would have:
     TYPE VendorType
          Name      AS STRING * 25
          Address1  AS STRING * 25
          etc...
     END TYPE
     COMMON SHARED /VENTYPE/ VenRec() AS VendorType
     COMMON SHARED /VENTYPE/ VenBuf
     COMMON SHARED /VENTYPE/ VenRecLen

     DECLARE FUNCTION VendorCodes$(VenRec() AS VendorType)


Another program doesn't use the vendor but may use the employee:
     '$INCLUDE:'EMPLTYPE.DEC'
     TYPE EmployeeType
          Name ...
          etc...
     END TYPE
     COMMON SHARED /EMPLTYPE/ EmRec() AS EmployeeType
---
 * Origin: Midnight Micro!  V.32/REL  (918)451-3306 (1:170/600)