Subj : PL/I v 2.1 FixPak 6
To   : Murray Lesser
From : David Noon
Date : Sun Jul 30 2000 01:30 am

Hi Murray,

Replying to a message of Murray Lesser to David Noon:

 ML>       "On OS/2, all 16-bit support has been dropped."

Well, IBM has wanted to drop 16-bit support for about 8 years now, at least in 
newly developed code.

 ML>     I read this as meaning that there is no longer access to the
 ML> 16-bit OS/2 API calls :-(.  My needs are for KBD and VIO calls, since
 ML> there are things that I wish to do in interactive text-mode
 ML> applications that cannot be done in "native" PL/I.

I have seen suggestions that you use JdeBP's 32-bit shim DLL. This is actually 
quite reasonable. The change can be implemented using PL/I macro language, with 
your original source being largely unchanged,

 ML> As a test, just to make sure the quoted message says what I was afraid
 ML> it says, I tried recompiling my KBREAD.PLI procedure and got a
 ML> compile-time message to the effect that the compiler didn't recognize
 ML> the option "linkage(pascal16)" so was ignoring it.  When I linked the
 ML> newly compiled version to a test driver and ran it, I got an access
 ML> violation exception!

Did you see any external references to DosFlatToSel() or DosSelToFlat() in the 
link map? If not, then no address "thunking" is being performed and no call 
thunking has been automatically generated.

 ML>     Two questions:  What could have led the PL/I perpetrators to do
 ML> such a dirty deed?

The product manager told them to do it. That's the prime mover of *all* 
architectural software changes.

What possessed the product manager to approve this "stroke of genius" I cannot 
fathom, but then I never could fathom the depths of the managerial mind.

 ML> More important, can you think of any other
 ML> workaround than the one I used (restored the previously installed
 ML> version)?

Write your own call thunking routine in assembler. ... :-))

 ML>     Secondary purpose of this post:  There has been no traffic for
 ML> about two weeks in either this echo nor in OS2REXX.

It seems something has been badly broken in Fido for a few weeks now. Besides 
which, message traffic is always light during mid-summer recess. Normal service 
appears to have been resumed.

Still, the slack time has allowed me finally to decomission my old 80486 system 
and move totally to the AMD K6-III based machine I built a few months ago.

Regards

Dave
<Team PL/I>

--- FleetStreet 1.25.1
 * Origin: My other computer is an IBM S/390 (2:257/609.5)

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