UNLOAD

Syntax

UNLOAD program_name

Location

MutiBASIC (DIY Toolkit - Vol M)

Despite the name, this toolkit is completely different to the MultiBASICs which are provided on Minerva ROMs. This toolkit actually provides a quick means of saving and loading programs in memory - this allows you to load a program which you are working on, store it in memory and then alter the program. If the new alterations to the program do not work out as planned and you want to revert to the original version, you can simply RELOAD the original version from program in a matter of seconds (rather than the minutes which it would take to LOAD the original version from disk).

This can be very useful for program development, or, for example, if you have a SuperBASIC utility program which you use a lot.

This command allows you to store the currently loaded SuperBASIC program in memory. You have to supply a name for the program (similar to the name which you could use with the SAVE command, except there is no need for a device name and the program name can be up to 127 characters long). The program is then stored - details of the programs which have been stored with this command are available from the jobs list (see JOBS). When the program is stored in memory, the contents of all variables and pointers are also stored, which makes certain that if you UNLOAD a program whilst it is RUNning, you can later RELOAD it and re-start it from the same place (with CONTINUE).

Version 4.0+ of the toolkit, allows you to store the current screen display and mode along with the program, so that when the program is RELOADed, the display is in a known layout. To further extend the usefulness of this toolkit, any commands which appear after UNLOAD will be automatically executed when the program is RELOADed, for example:

UNLOAD test: RUN

will always RUN the program when you:

RELOAD test

NOTE 1

The toolkit expects the display to be located at 131072 and be 512x256 pixels and so you should switch off the screen storage facility if you are using a higher resolution display or a dual screen system.

NOTE 2

If a job already exists with the name which you have given to the program, ‘Already Exists’ will be reported.

NOTE 3

Although the toolkit can be used to store programs from a Minerva MultiBASIC, you cannot load the toolkit from a Multiple BASIC - an ‘incomplete’ error is reported.

NOTE 4

The current channel details are not stored when you use UNLOAD - you may therefore need to re-open the channels when the program is RELOADed, or use something akin to:

UNLOAD 'watch': OPEN #3,con_448x200a32x16

which will always ensure that #3 is OPEN whenever the program is RELOADed.

NOTE 5

If a program uses ALCHP to grab some memory, unless you intend to always RUN the program from the start when you RELOAD it, do not use any command which will release this area of common heap memory before you RELOAD the program. Commands which do this include:

CLCHP
CLEAR
NEW
LOAD

WARNING 1

This toolkit does not work on SMSQ/E and can crash the computer.

WARNING 2

Unfortunately, attempts to use this toolkit to UNLOAD files from one interpreter and then RELOAD the files into another Multiple BASIC will crash that Multiple BASIC (or have other various undesirable effects).

CROSS-REFERENCE

SCR_SAVE allows you to dictate whether the screen display and mode should be stored together with the program. RESAVE is similar. REMOVE allows you to remove a program stored in memory with this command. See also RELOAD and QSAVE.