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Q58817: BASIC 7.00 "Error Loading Run-Time Module: Incompatible"

Article: Q58817
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 7.00 7.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | SR# S900201-67 | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 20-SEP-1990

Microsoft BASIC Professional Development System (PDS) versions 7.00
and 7.10 maintain a date and time stamp for each of their run-time
modules (BRT70xxx.EXE and BRT71xxx.EXE). This time stamp is inherited
by the compiled BASIC PDS program linked with a given BASIC PDS
run-time module. (This information does NOT apply if you compile with
the BC /O stand-alone option.)

The result of this inheritance is that the BASIC executable .EXE
program does not run with a run-time module other than the one it was
linked with. Attempting to use a BASIC PDS 7.00 or 7.10 run-time
module other than the one that the .EXE program was linked with
results in the following error message:

   Error loading run-time module <runtime name>.EXE: Incompatible
   run-time module.

The time stamp association between BASIC PDS 7.00/7.10 run-time
modules and executable programs helps ensure that the run-time module
used by the program actually contains the routines the BASIC
executable program expects to be able to call.

For example, assume that you have created the BASIC run-time module
BRT70ENR.EXE and the run-time library BRT70ENR.LIB during setup, and
you specify that you do not want to include VGA graphics support
(which removes the VGA graphics routines by linking the NOVGA.OBJ stub
file into your run-time module). If you were allowed to execute a
program that was compiled by another person using a different
BRT70ENR.LIB run-time library, and that program used VGA graphics
routines, that program would try to call the graphics routines it
expected to find at certain locations in the BASIC run-time
BRT70ENR.EXE. Because the VGA graphics routines will not be present in
your BRT70ENR.EXE run-time, the code at that location is not going to
be the expected VGA routine, and the results of such a call are
unpredictable.

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