Visual Basic Compile Controller
Central site for the Compiler Controller. I will post any relevant information such as notes, updates, corrections, etc.
This is the newest revision from February 2001.[VB5/6] [CC-2001february.exe] [266 kb] [15 Feb 2001]
Please Read the On-Line Materials Before Sending Me Questions
The on-line package for the article (available via the link above) contains
detailed information on the Compile Controller in a word document. Please check it first.
The microsoft assembler is no longer available. BG apparently thinks assembly language programming is dead. Try NASM instead.
The division by 2 optimization example is exaggerated
In the article example I deliberately used floating point division and
did not compile with floating point optimizations. It is possible to make a normal
exe that performs much better than the default case I show.
Register Assumed to Error assembler error
If you are getting this error while trying to assemble a listing for a form or
class module the reason is that the flat model (see the first part of the "if" directive
at the top of the listing) only includes the CS, DS, ES, and SS registers, whereas VB also
uses the FS register for exception handling (see Pietrek article on MSDN). To make the
FS register flat, add a line after the model directive which says: "ASSUME FS: FLAT".
Custom Module is Crashing - Unnamed different in class modules
If your hand-assembled module links, but crashes on execution there is a good
chance it is because you have not broken out the "unnamed variables" (see Task 3 in
the guide). Important Note: the unnamed variables in class/form modules go by the
name of the encapsulating procedure. For example, if the procedure is called "DoSomething"
then the unnamed variables in that procedure will be called "_DoSomething$". Example of
analyzing and breaking out unnamed variables in a class module.
Possibly Better Way to Rebuild Object Module
A potentially better way to rebuild your object module is to use an object module
disassembler. I have heard that Watcom, for example, has an object module disassembler.
It may give a better disassembly of VB's obj files than the source listing generated
automatically by the compiler, but I have not tried it so I do not know for sure.
