(* Version 1.10, Nov 1984 *) DEFINITION MODULE Program; (* Sub-program loading and execution Under MODULA-2/86, programs can be divided into sub-programs (we call them 'programs') which are loaded upon request. These programs are executed like procedures: - they have only one entry-point (body of program's main module). - after termination, their data do not exist any longer. In the case of programs the code also disappears and will be reloaded from disk upon the next activation. - programs may themselves activate other programs. Derived from the Lilith Modula-2 system developed by the group of Prof. N. Wirth at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. *) FROM System IMPORT Status; EXPORT QUALIFIED Call, GetErrorInfo; PROCEDURE GetErrorInfo (VAR msg: ARRAY OF CHAR); (* - Obtain more information about a load error. out: msg a string related to the last error. After Call (below) has returned a Status value of 'modulenotfound' and 'incompatiblemodules', GetErrorInfo will return the name of the offending module. (length is up to 24 characters). It returns an empty string in all other cases. *) PROCEDURE Call (programName: ARRAY OF CHAR; shared: BOOLEAN; VAR st: Status); (* - Load and execute a (sub) program. in: programName file specification for the program, shared whether to share resources, out: st terminating status of the subprogram. The file whose name is given in 'programName' is opened loaded, and started. There is no default device or file type; these must be supplied by the caller. The file must contain a linked, relocatable Modula-2 program. The load address is defined by the default allocation schema, in which programs are loaded on top of stack and a new stack is created for execution of the new program. If 'shared' = TRUE then all sharable resources allocated by the called program are owned by the calling program (or possibly the caller of the caller...). Shared resources are not released upon termination of the new program. Upon termination of the program, its memory is freed and the old stack is established. All the resources used by a terminating program are released, if they are not shared and if they have not been released explicitly by the program (files, heap, etc). Any value of 'st' other than 'normal' indicates an abnormal termination of the subprogram. In some cases GetErrorInfo (above) will provide additional details. Cautions: In case of abnormal termination, Call does NOT print any kind of error message. Do not assign a procedure in the current program to a procedure variable which could still exist after the current program terminates (for example, a variable in a shared resource or in the calling program). When the current program terminates, all procedures in it must be considered to cease to exist. The loader in this module is not reentrant. This means that interrupt processes must not load overlays! *) END Program.