VECTIN Procedure

Product Version(s): 3.20 3.3x
Operating System:   MS-DOS
Flags: ENDUSER |
Last Modified: 19-FEB-1988    ArticleIdent: Q10288

Question:
   The Microsoft Pascal reference manual, Version 3.20,
Page 271, says (concerning the VECTIN procedure) to see
Appendix B, "Version Specifics," in the Microsoft Pascal
Compiler user's guide for information regarding
implementation. However, there is no notation in Appendix B
regarding implementation.
   Do we need to make an adaptation to have the VECTIN
procedure work properly? Explain the statement "...the
meaning of [argument] V varies with target machine".

Response:
   "Implementation" as it is used in Appendix B refers to
this version of Pascal. So, "implementation additions"
means additions to the previous implementation, i.e.,
changes to Microsoft Pascal Version 3.20 which were not
included in Version 3.13. In Appendix B, there is a great
deal of information regarding this implementation.
   No adaptation is necessary to get VECTIN to work. It
either works or it does not, and in Versions 3.20 to 3.32
it does work.
   "The effect of these procedures and the meaning of V
varies with the target machine," simply means that
interrupt vectors are hardware specific. The effect of
changing the interrupt vector 2 on an IBM Personal Computer
could be extremely different from the effect of changing
interrupt vector 2 on the Siemens PC, and you need to know
what the difference is to use this VECTIN procedure.
