Q38273: PAINT Must Not Use Fixed-Length String Patterns

Article: Q38273
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 4.00 4.00b 4.50
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | B_BasicCom | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 12-JAN-1990

The following command can be used to fill in an enclosed polygon:

   PAINT (x,y), pat, border

In this case, x and y represent screen coordinates inside the polygon;
the figure is drawn in a color specified by "border" and the variable
"pat" may be either an integer or a character string. If "pat" is an
integer, the fill is done with a solid color. But if "pat" is a string
value, it represents a fill pattern.

A string value for "pat" works correctly in the QB.EXE environment
whether the string value is a fixed-length string or a variable-length
string. However, the compiled .EXE version of such a program produces
an "Illegal function call" error when "pat" is a fixed-length string.

This design limitation applies to QuickBASIC Versions 4.00, 4.00b, and
4.50, to Microsoft BASIC Compiler Versions 6.00 and 6.00b for MS-DOS
and MS OS/2, and to Microsoft BASIC PDS Version 7.00 for MS-DOS and MS
OS/2.

Note: Fixed-length strings are not implemented in earlier versions of
these products.

The following is a code example:

DIM SHARED pat AS STRING * 16

pat = "cc3c0c00"
SCREEN 9
WINDOW (0, 0)-(1250, 1000)
COLOR 1, 0
CIRCLE (600, 200), 150
COLOR 3, 0
PAINT (600, 200), pat, 1
INPUT a$

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