BCX Command Line Usage

Purpose: BC, typed on a command line, invokes the BCX translator, with the options specified, will translate a BCX BASIC file to a C language file.


 Usage : 

 BC Infile[.bas] [,Options]

 Parameters:

  • Infile [.bas] The name of the file to be translated. The file name can have any or no extension. If no extension is given, BCX assumes the file ends in .BAS.
  • Options Please note that the order of the command line arguments is important. The options must follow the name of the file to be translated.
    • -d: DEFINE a constant ... ex. BC MyFile -d:MyConst[=SomeValue]

      The -d switch allows a CONST to be inserted from the command line. If BCX is invoked like so:

      bc Myfile -d:qwerty

      the following would be in the resulting C file:

      #define qwerty

      Likewise, if BCX was invoked like so:

      bc Myfile -d:qwerty=12345

      the following would be in the resulting C file:

      #define qwerty 12345

      BCX has the ability to specify multiple defines in the command line, for example,

      bc test -D:__POCC__=400 -d:OLESUPPORT

    • -e Write ERRORS to BCX.ERR file
    • -f:path\filename.ext Write C output file to specified path\filename.ext, for example, 
      
 bc myfile -f:c:\bcxfiles\newname.c
    • -h Used to create the header file for use with $Project. When the -h switch is used the file is created with the extension of .bh for bcx header.
    • -i Send Warnings and Errors to INFOBOX
    • -k Kill the generated BCX generated 'C' file
    • -m Enable Module Name/Line Number Reporting
    • -n Suppress emission of runtime functions and link with BCXrt.lib
    • -o OUTPUT a copy of the generated C file to STDOUT
    • -r Update BCX Path variable in the Windows Registry

      The -r switch is for setting or updating the BCX path key in the Windows Registry. The path is set to the folder in which BC.EXE is located. The BCXPATH$ function relies on the registry entry for its return value.
      When the -r switch is invoked NOTHING ELSE IS ALLOWED on the command line.

    • -s Show STATUS of translation by line number
    • -t:ArraySize changes the default size of the array holding the circular buffers used for temporary storage. Note well, ArraySize must be a power of 2, that is, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 etc.
    • -u Emits _UNICODE AND UNICODE macros before any Windows header. This is was required for full support of BCX COM functions with when UNICODE is defined
    • -w Enable WARNINGS during translation
    • -x EXCLUDE Win32 Headers from the resulting C file

Remarks:

The following .lib files do not have to be linked explicitly because they are emitted in the C code as #pragma's: kernel32.lib, user32.lib, gdi32.lib, comctl32.lib, advapi32.lib, winspool.lib, shell32.lib, ole32.lib, oleaut32.lib, uuid.lib, odbc32.lib, odbccp32.lib, winmm.lib, comdlg32.lib, imagehlp.lib and version.lib.

Using the BCX Translator BCX.INI file

BCX.INI provides an easy way to automatically include all your favorite types, variables, constants, and code in all your programs.

BCX.INI is a user defined BASIC source code file that must reside either in the same folder as the BCX translator(BC.EXE) or in the current folder, if it is to be used.

For example, if you create a BCX.INI that contains the following


 SUB Foo(A$)
  MSGBOX A$
 END SUB

then your main file could be the ONE LINE program :


 Foo("Hello From BCX.INI")

If BCX can translate it, you can put it in the BCX.INI, including CONST's, inline C, comments, directives, whatever.

As one's personal BCX.INI grows, one may want to consider using the CONDITIONAL COMPILATION directives: $IF, ELSE, $ELSEIF, $ENDIF to conditionally $INCLUDE other BASIC files into BCX.INI, instead of keeping them all in BCX.INI.

$NOINI directive

BCX does not require BCX.INI to function. By default, BCX will automatically include the contents of this BCX.INI each time BCX is invoked. This behavior can be disabled by placing the $NOINI directive at the beginning of your source code file, before any code or variable declarations.