This content is archived and may be deprecated or obsolete and is presented in the hope that it may still be useful.

InstallMk2 - A replacement for the INSTALL statement

As of BBC BASIC for Windows 4.00 this tool is depreciated.

InstallMk2 ( Source | Text ) Example ( Source | Text | .EXE )

InstallMk2 provides a complete replacement for the INSTALL statement in BBC BASIC for Windows and solves many of the inherant problems of using INSTALL.

The INSTALL statement expects a correct path to the library file that you wish to use, if the library file is not present INSTALL aborts with a 'File or path not found error'. If your program requires libraries that are part of the standard BBC BASIC for Windows installation you need to specify an exact path to the library. If BBC BASIC for Windows is not installed or has been installed in a different location then again INSTALL aborts with an error.

InstallMk2 solves the above problems by providing a portable way of loading libraries and gives you an error-free API for loading libraries.

 REM Attempt to install WINLIB
 IF FN_Install("WINLIB.BBC") = FALSE THEN
  PRINT "This program requires WinLib."
 ENDIF

FN_Install looks for the library in a number of locations and loads the library if it is present. The search path includes: the current directory, in the BBC BASIC for Windows Lib directory, in a Lib directory in the current directory and in a Lib directory above the current directory.

You can specify an absolute pathname to the library if you so wish but you should do so only if you need to. FN_Install will find the standard BBC BASIC for Windows libraries regardless of where BB4W has been installed, if BB4W has not been installed you can use the return value of FN_Install to provide a helpful message to the user.

FN_BB4WIsInstalled provides a convenient way to determine if BBC BASIC for Windows has been installed and you can find the installation path using FN_ReadBB4WInstallPath.

 REM Test if BBC BASIC for Windows is installed
 IF FN_BB4WIsInstalled THEN
  PRINT "BBC BASIC for Windows is installed on this machine."
  PRINT '"It was installed to "FN_ReadBB4WInstallPath"."
 ELSE
  PRINT "BBC BASIC for Windows is not installed on this machine."
 ENDIF

InstallMk2 is not intended to be used as a library, you must include the code somewhere in your main program for InstallMk2 to work properly.

Functions and procedures provided

PROC_Install(lib$)

Load a library if it is present on the local machine, no error if operation fails. Use this at your own risk, FN_Install(file$) should always be used instead.

FN_Install(lib$)

Load a library if it is present on the local machine.

Returns:

TRUE - Library exists and has been INSTALLed.
FALSE - Library cannot be found.

FN_FileExists(file$)

Test for the existence of a file.

Returns:

TRUE - if the the file pointed to by file$ exists.
FALSE - if the file does not exist.

FN_BB4WIsInstalled

Determine if BBC BASIC for Windows is installed.

Returns:

TRUE - BBC BASIC for Windows is installed.
FALSE - BBC BASIC for Windows is not installed.

FN_ReadBB4WInstallPath

Read the BBC BASIC for Windows installation path.

Returns:

The path to the BBC BASIC for Windows installation directory or, a NULL string if BBC BASIC for Windows is not installed.