Q66690: ALERT Function in BASIC 7.10 UI Toolbox Destroys TEXT$

Article: Q66690
Product(s): See article
Version(s): 7.00 7.10
Operating System(s): MS-DOS
Keyword(s): ENDUSER | SR# S901030-181 buglist7.00 buglist7.10 | mspl13_basic
Last Modified: 14-NOV-1990

The ALERT function in the User Interface (UI) Toolbox destroys the
string sent to it in the TEXT$ field of the function call.

Microsoft has confirmed this problem in Microsoft BASIC Professional
Development System (PDS) versions 7.00 and 7.10 for MS-DOS. Suggested
workarounds for this problem are shown below.

Workarounds
-----------

Any one of the following workarounds will correct the problem but
choices 1 and 2 may be easiest because they don't require recompiling
WINDOW.BAS or building new UI Toolbox support libraries:

1. Enclose the TEXT$ parameter in parentheses. For example, the
   following statement

      Alert(4, a$, 6, 20, 15, 60, "OK", "CANCEL", "")

   should be changed to the following:

      Alert(4, (a$), 6, 20, 15, 60, "OK", "CANCEL", "")

2. Make a copy of the string before calling the ALERT function, as
   follows:

      temp$ = a$
      ALERT(4, a$, 6, 20, 15, 60, "OK", "CANCEL", "")
      a$ = temp$

3. Modify the ALERT function in WINDOW.BAS as follows:

      a. Right after the line that says

            FUNCTION Alert (style, text$...

         put the following statement:

            TempText$ = test$

       b. Right before the END FUNCTION at the bottom of the function,
          put the following statement:

             test$ = TempText$

   You should then make a new Quick library (.QLB) and a new LINK
   library (.LIB) that use the new version of ALERT, as shown in the
   following:

      BC /X/FS GENERAL.BAS;
      BC /X/FS WINDOW.BAS;
      BC /X/FS MOUSE.BAS;
      BC /X/FS MENU.BAS
      LIB UITB+GENERAL+WINDOW+MOUSE+MENU+UIASM+QBX.LIB;
      LINK /Q UITB.LIB, UITB.QLB, , QBXQLB.LIB;

   Invoke QBX.EXE using the new UITB.QLB Quick library, as follows:

      QBX /L UITB

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