BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 07-01-92 (09:51) Number: 2008
From: MONTE FERGUSON Refer#: NONE
To: JEFF TAYLOR Recvd: NO
Subj: Convert Bascia Files to A Conf: (2) Quik_Bas
=> I need some help locating a program that will convert a program,
=>written in MS-DOS 3.3 Basica, to an ASCII text file so that it can be
=>read in Qbasic.
=>A friend of mine showed me his problem and I could not believe that a
=>file written in Basica was incrypted in some way.
BASICA can save files in one of three formats:
1) Binary memory image. This is the fastest for BASICA to save and load, so
it's the default. The file isn't exactly *encrypted* (you
can look at it with a hex editor and read comments and
what not), but it's tokenized so you can't edit it with a
text editor, and a compiler won't touch it.
2) Text file. This is a plain ASCII listing of the code.
You get it by using the SAVE "prog.bas",A command. You
*can* edit this with a text editor, and it's what
compilers want to see.
3) "Protected" binary. This is a method of saving the file so prying eyes
and fingers can't mess with it. A protected program is an
encrypted binary image, and when loaded BASICA won't allow
it to be LISTed, SAVEd, etc. There are ways to get around
it, however.
If your file is type number one then getting text is very simple:
1) Fire up BASICA
2) LOAD "prog.bas"
3) SAVE "prog.bas",A
and you're done. If it's *protected* then things get
harrier. You might try this:
1) Fire up BASICA
2) NEW
3) BSAVE "unpro.bin",1124,1
3) LOAD "prog.bas"
4) BLOAD "unpro.bin"
5) LIST
If you get an "ILLEGAL FUNCTION" error, then this
didn't work. If on the other hand you get a program
listing, you can then:
6) SAVE "prog.bas",A
I've used this trick on the older IBM BASICs and it worked OK. Compaq does
it differently, I've read that you should use the number
&5CC instead of 1124, but that doesn't always work.
Good luck.
--- Cat 1.00
* Origin: Chiba City Cat - Cleveland OH (1:157/200.39)
