[Info-vax] Error Messages in Basic - %BASIC-E-PARMODNOT, mode for parameter <n> of routine <procedure-name> not as declared

[John Reagan]

On Saturday, June 8, 2019 at 2:54:16 PM UTC-4, Robert A. Brooks wrote:
> On 6/8/2019 2:21 PM, Jeffrey H. Coffield wrote:
> > There are other long time errors and omissions in Basic support that I have had 
> > to keep my own fixed/stable versions of some of the library files so my programs 
> > will work. Notably the files concerning XAB structures for Basic would 
> > change/break with new versions of OpenVMS.
> 
> Can I see an example of that?  It may be that the SDL back end for BASIC needs 
> some work.  In any event, we can't fix it if we don't know that it's a problem.
> 
> -- 
>                   -- Rob

The XAB SDL isn't very friendly to anything but Macro and BLISS output.  All of those XABs appear to be totally different structures but have a common component.  Almost all of the language definitions have had to hand-create their own XAB types.  For example, Pascal's STARLET.PAS is built with a hand-crafted FAB$TYPE, RAB$TYPE, and XAB$TYPE (which all originate from RMSUSR.SDL).

I suggested a change to the SDL years ago which I think would be invisible to Macro and BLISS (I don't remember the state of C's XAB struct definition) but my change was never accepted.