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 Alaska Xbase++
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 Blinker supports Alaska Xbase++ 1.1 Service Release 1 (1.1 SL1) and later
 for the creation of 32 bit Windows programs, including automatic execution
 of Blinker from PBUILD and full support of the Xbase++ debugger.

 Please ensure that you are using a minimum of version 1.1 Service Release 1,
 dated June 1998, before contacting us or Alaska for support. Using an older
 version of Xbase++ with Blinker can result in many types of errors,

 including GPFs at link time, the debugger not displaying program source code
 correctly, or Blinker error 1165 on an import library for a .DLL.

 If you have a problem with an Xbase++ program linked with Blinker, always
 try re-linking the same program with Alink and running it in exactly the
 same environment before contacting Blinkinc for support. If the problem also
 occurs with the program linked with Alink, then it is obviously not specific
 to Blinker, so cannot be supported by Blinkinc.

 Setup

 By default Xbase++ uses COFF format .OBJ files, which are not currently
 supported by Blinker, so Xbase++ and PBUILD must be configured to use the
 OMF format for .OBJ and .LIB files. When switching between COFF and OMF
 format remember to force PBUILD to rebuild the whole project, e.g. run
 PBUILD /A.

 Before attempting to use Blinker with Xbase++ you must therefore make the
 following modifications to your development environment:

 Set the DOS environment variable LIB to point to the OMF subdirectory of the
 Xbase++ LIB subdirectory (e.g. XPPW32\LIB\OMF) BEFORE the Xbase++ LIB
 subdirectory. This ensures that the OMF format libraries are used by Blinker
 in preference to the COFF format libraries, otherwise you will receive
 Blinker error 1165 at link time.

 If you are using PBUILD to automate the build process, make the following
 modifications or additions to each of your .XPJ (PBUILD project) files:

 OBJ_FORMAT = OMF
 OMF_LINKER = BLINKER.COM /QM

 (Note that if for some reason you must still use an older version of
 Xbase++, you will require the alternative settings

 COMPILE_FLAGS = -OMF
 LINKER = BLINKER.COM /QM

 but this is not officially supported, and the resulting programs may not
 work correctly in all cases).

 Batch and Make files

 If you are using Blinker from a batch file, or some other Make utility, you
 will need to create your own link script file as shown below. In addition,
 make sure that you specify Blinker as BLINKER.COM to force it to run as a
 DOS program, and that all .PRG files are compiled in OMF format by
 specifying the .OMF command line parameter to XPP.

 Xbase++ link scripts typically consist of a list of the .OBJ FILEs followed
 by a few simple Blinker commands to control the output file type.

 If you wish to include debugging information in the output file, make sure
 you include the CODEVIEW link script command. Please refer to the CODEVIEW,
 CVON and CVOFF commands in the online help for more details.
 E.g. to link file TEST.PRG

 # TEST.LNK
 CODEVIEW          # Include debugging information
 FILE TEST         # TEST.OBJ file
 OUTPUT TEST       # Output file name
 NOBELL            # No irritating beep at the end

 Then, to ensure that a 32 bit executable of the appropriate type is created,
 add the following four lines to the end of the link script:

 DEFBEGIN
    NAME TEST
    EXETYPE NT
 DEFEND

 NAME TEST indicates that an EXE is to be created, and that the module name
 of the program is TEST. To create a DLL of the same name, simply replace
 NAME TEST with LIBRARY TEST. Please refer to NAME and LIBRARY under 'Module
 definition commands' in the online help for more details.

 When creating native GUI programs the default .EXE type command of EXETYPE
 NT is sufficient, but when converting existing CA-Clipper programs, or
 creating new character mode programs, the EXETYPE SUBSYSTEM must be
 specified as CONSOLE.

 . . .
    EXETYPE NT SUBSYSTEM CONSOLE
 . . .

 Please refer to EXETYPE under 'Module definition commands' in the online
 help for the alternative subsystems, depending on the type of program you
 are creating.

 Sample programs

 If you encounter a link or runtime error when using Blinker with Xbase++,
 please always try and create a small test program to perform the same
 operation, since the solutions to most problems usually become apparent once
 they have been isolated to a small test program.

 The XPP subdirectory of the Blinker installation directory includes sample
 programs and link script files for using Blinker with Xbase++, including an
 example of creating a small program which uses a separate .DLL, and DBU.LNK
 to link the CA-Clipper DBU sample program.

 Note that the CA-Clipper source code for DBU may require modifications in
 order to compile successfully with Xbase++. Blinkinc does not offer support
 on making those modifications, or on the behaviour of the resulting program,
 i.e. the DBU.LNK file is provided as is, for informational purposes only.