KnowledgeBase 00082: Setting QMBasic Compiler Options

Last updated: 17 Feb 2017 Applies to: All versions

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This article was originally published as a Tip of the Week.

Introduction

In its default form, QM follows the general concepts of the "Information style" products initially defined by Prime Information and subsequently adopted by PI/open and, to some extent, UniVerse/Unidata in their default modes.

This article summarises some of the features available to improve compatibility with other multivalue products.

$MODE

The $MODE compiler directive enables various language features. Most of these can, if the developer wishes, be enabled for just part of a program module but it is more usual to apply mode settings over the entire program.

See the QM Reference Manual for full details of the mode settings. Some of the more important ones are:

$MODE CASE.SENSITIVE	Enables case sensitivity in names for labels, variables and user defined functions.
$MODE IMPLIED.STOP	Changes the implied RETURN at the end of a program module to be STOP.
$MODE OPTIONAL.FINAL.END	Makes the final END at the end of a program module optional.
$MODE PICK.ERRMSG	Makes STOP and ABORT work as in Pick style systems, referencing the ERRMSG file.
$MODE PICK.MATRIX	Changes from dynamically allocated dimensioned matrices with a zero element to statically allocated matrices with no zero element.
$MODE UV.LOCATE	Changes from the slightly illogical Information style definition of the IN clause of LOCATE to the semantics used by UV (and others).

$NOCASE.STRINGS

This compiler directive makes string comparisons case insensitive. Unlike $MODE which can appear anywhere in a program, affecting compilation from that point forwards, $NOCASE.STRINGS must appear before the first executable statement and applies to the entire program.

The $BASIC.OPTIONS Record

Although the compiler directives described above could be inserted separately into each program module, QM provides an easy way to define the modes just once in a record named $BASIC.OPTIONS.

If there is a $BASIC.OPTIONS record in the file holding the program source, this record applies to all programs in that file.

If there is no $BASIC.OPTIONS record in the program source file but there is one in the VOC file, this is used to set compiler options.

In either case, use of

   $MODE DEFAULT 

in the program source code will revert to the default option settings of the compiler.

The $BASIC.OPTIONS record has an X in field 1 to comply with VOC record formats. The remaining fields contain various options to control the behaviour of the compiler. The more important ones are:

CATALOGUE	Automatically catalogue the program on successful compilation. Qualifiers are available to set the cataloguing mode.
DEBUGGING	Compile the program in debug mode.
DEFINE token value	Define a token similarly to use of $DEFINE or EQUATE in the program source text.
MODE name	Equivalent to use of $MODE in the program source text.
NOCASE.STRINGS	Enabled case insensitive string operations.
WARNINGS.AS.ERRORS	Treat compiler warnings as errors.

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