Merging modules

Programming How-To - Merging in Modules

The following notes are intended to help you when merging an optional "spare command" module into your Color 64 overlays.

1) Make sure that the module was written for your BBS program version. If it is for a previous version, then you will need to find the correct version of the module or use the included module converter program (see the section on the module converter in the upgrade documentation).

2) Load a programmer’s utility. Good options are BAID64, since it is in the public domain, and it does a true merge (not just an append), and Solidus SYSRES.

3) Make sure the module that you are going to merge will not overwrite any lines already existing in the intended overlay program. Just load the overlay program and list the line range used by the module and if you don't see anything... it is ok. If not, consider placing the module in one of the other overlays. The exception to this case is if the module was intended to replace some of the standard BBS routines.

Once you have determined that the module will not overwrite any existing code, just enter the following command (this is for BAID64): merge "module/name"

Make sure that the BBS overlay program is already in memory. In just a few moments, the lines from the module will be merged with your system overlay file.

4) The next thing you need to do is to modify the code so that one of the spare commands will execute the module. There are 9 spare commands available in Color 64 BBS. Each of these spare commands will load a pre-defined overlay file and execute a pre-defined line number. The table below summarizes the defined overlays and lines executed for spare commands 1-9. Note that Spare 1 and Spare 2 are in use for Color 64 v8.10a:

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Programming How-To