Re: Adding to a Service Program

I agree with the others that Binder Language is the answer. But these days few people bother with multiple signatures and take the same approach that IBM use - namely a hared-coded signature that never changes. Unless and until you need to force a change to catch any programs that were not rebound after you needed to change the signature for whatever reason.

THE critical thing - regardless of multiple signatures or a single one is the ORDER of the names in the Binder Language is what controls the slot order in the program - and that is the only order that matters.

When adding a new procedure ALWAYS add it to the end of the list - don't be tempted to place it alphabetically. Add it to the end of the list and all will be well.

You might find these useful:
https://authory.com/JonParisAndSusanGantner/Service-Programs-and-Signatures <https://authory.com/JonParisAndSusanGantner/Service-Programs-and-Signatures>
https://authory.com/JonParisAndSusanGantner/Writing-the-Binder-Language <https://authory.com/JonParisAndSusanGantner/Writing-the-Binder-Language>

When Barbara Morris teaches this topic she uses comments in the binder source like this - a model I have adopted and encourage all my clients to do so.


/* Binder Language for UTILS */
/* Signature value remains the same */
/* Add EXPORT SYMBOL line for each new procedure added */
/* The order of the EXPORTS must never change */
/* New Exports must be added to the END of the list */
/* Never remove an Export entry from the list */


Jon P

On Sep 20, 2022, at 6:08 AM, Rich Loeber <rich@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I'm a newbie to service programs. If I have an existing service program that is in use, how do I add a new module to it? Do I have to rebuild it from scratch? If so, does that mean that I have to rebind all current programs that are using the service program?

Rich Loeber
Kisco Systems LLC
https://www.kisco.com
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