00079: General Instructions for Conversions

Title:

General Instructions for Conversions

Description:

Overview 

I. Be sure to back up your original programs and data before starting any conversions. 

II. To begin, you must move the application programs and data files from the old BASIC machine to the machine with BBx or have the two machines communicating in order to proceed. See the article on Communicating for Conversions for more information. (Or P5 Utility Mnaual – Converting from other Business Basics) 

III. Once communications are established convert the LISTING.xxx program in the /basis/convert/ directory to a program in the old Business BASIC called BXSND. Run the BXSND program. From BBx, run the BXRCV program (located in the /basis/convert/ directory by default). 

IV. Using the BXSND program witrh the old Business BASIC and BXRCV in BBX, convert all your application programs and data files to BBx format. 

V. An error log file is created everytime BXRCV is run and contains information regarding what lines of programs were not converted. (BXRCV cannot always translate a verb or function from one Businees BASIC to BBx correctly. View the error log file and make manual modifications to programs. Lines that are incompatible with BBx are listed into a file named BXRCV.ERR and flagged with a “?”. 

VI. Once the errors have been resolved, the conversion is complete. 

Resolution:

Communications and Conversions 

Port to Port Communication 
The information provided here is for use in addition to the information provided in the Utilities Manual, and is not intended to be a replacement for the manuals. Please refer to the Utilities Manual Conversion Utilities if you are unsure how to proceed. 

INCOMPATIBLE MEDIA: 
If the two machines have incompatible media, you need to set up communications port-to-port. To do this, you must know the pin configurations for the ports you are going to connect in order to make the cable (or have it made by a third party such as Computerland). An alternative to knowing the pin configurations is to invest in a Smart Cable (by IQ TECHNOL-OGIES) or an IntelliCable (by INMAC). Ninety-five percent of all cabling problems can be avoided by making this investment. 

After your Smart Cable is hooked up to the two ports, communications must be set up. In order for both ports to be set up correctly, they must have: 
The same baud rate 
The same number of data bits 
The same number of stop bits 
The same parity (odd, even or none) 
No echo 

There is a simple 4 line program included in the Utilities manual to help determine if communications will be possible for a port-to-port conversion. Additionally, there is a generic UNIX script to aid in setting up the port communication options. 

The CHANOPT verb was added to PRO/5 to help setup serial port communication. Our most frustrated callers have cabling and communication errors with which we are unable to help. 


COMPATIBLE MEDIA 
If the machines have compatible media, then the first thing to do is bring up the old Business BASIC and run BXSND. You should allow about 64 pages for BXSND. BXSND will prompt you for the names of files. Enter one file name per line. Some versions of BXSND will allow an asterisk (*) at the end of the name to specify a directory scan. When you have finished inputting file names, just press <CR> at the FILE: prompt. 

Next, BXSND will ask you for the name of an output file. This will be the file that will be read by BXRCV. If you are sending many programs and data files at once, this file will need to be rather large since it must hold all of the information. Depending on the Business BASIC you are using, you might be asked for a disk number and possibly a file size. If you are running on a BASIC Four with BB3 or BB4, your output file must already exist as an indexed file with record size 128. BXSND will not attempt to create the file itself due to the inability of the BOSS operating system to simply define a file without concern for sector numbers. BXSND will output each file given while showing its progress on the screen. 

Once BXSND is finished, you should load BBx and run BXRCV. You should allow about 64 pages for BXRCV. BXRCV will prompt you for an input file. Enter the name of the file you created with BXSND. BXRCV will then tell you which Business BASIC it believes this file came from. Depending on the Business BASIC, BXRCV may ask you a few more questions. 

Finally, BXRCV will ask you for an output prefix. This prefix will be added at the front of the name of each file being received in order to cause creation of the files in any directory. In order to test the validity of the prefix, BXRCV will attempt to define a file called BXRCV.ERR using that prefix. If this fails then you should make sure the path indicated by the prefix exists and that unused floppy drives are DISABLEd. A null prefix is perfectly valid. BXRCV will scan program lines coming in from the input file and perform some automatic conversions. These conversions depend on which business basic the files came from. 

If, at this point, you feel that a conversion is too difficult to attempt, third-party references for developers that have done conversions previously can be obtained from the BASIS Sales Department. 

Last Modified: 03/08/1999 Product: PRO/5 Operating System: all

BASIS structures five components of their technology into the BBx Generations.