QSAVE

Syntax

QSAVE [device_]filename or

QSAVE

Location

SMS

For several years now, the best utility for saving SuperBASIC programs in a form which can be loaded very quickly into memory has been QLOAD from Liberation Software.

This utility stores SuperBASIC programs on disk in a special format which although seems meaningless if you VIEW the file, allows the program to be loaded at around 3x the speed of the normal LOAD command, which can be very useful for large programs.

Unlike other similar utilities, programs which have been saved using this utility can be loaded into any other ROM version without any trouble, using the QLOAD command. It is nice to see that this utility has been implemented as part of SMS.

The QSAVE command allows you to save the whole of SuperBASIC program currently in memory under the specified filename to the specified device. If the filename does not end in the suffix _SAV, then this will be added automatically.

If no device is specified (or it does not exist), then Toolkit II’s default data device will be used. You will also be prompted to confirm whether an existing file should be overwritten if necessary.

The second variant of the command will allow you to QSAVE the program in memory under the same filename as when LOAD or QLOAD was last used (with the _SAV suffix appended if necessary).

If the original filename used when the program was LOADed ended in _BAS, then QSAVE will alter this to be the _SAV suffix.

This variant will also take the version number of the file when it was LOADed (or QLOADed) and then increase this by one.

NOTE 1

To ensure that QSAVEd programs can be used on all implementations of the QL, ensure that if used from Minerva, Integer Tokenisation is switched off - you will need to follow the following procedure:

  1. POKE \\212,128

  2. LOAD the ASCII version of the program (or type NEW)

  3. Alter the program as necessary …

  4. QSAVE the fast loading version of the program.

NOTE 2

QSAVE without a filename suffers the same problems as SAVE.

CROSS-REFERENCE

See SAVE, QLRUN and QMERGE. DATAD$ allows you to read the current default data device. See also QSAVE_O. FVERS allows you to read the current version number of a file.