I have written a simple BBC Basic program that makes a tcp connection to
a remote host, then reads from/writes to that host. The program also
opens a COM port.

When running the program here, everything is fine (and so easy with BBC
Basic!).

However, someone else is now testing the program. He is running the
compiled .exe version -- he does not have BBC Basic on his machine. The
program successfully makes the tcp connection, but then, when attempting
to read from the port, an error message box pops up. The title bar says
simply "Error", and the message text says simply "Invalid channel".

I have no idea where this message came from.

As part of initialisation, the program contains these lines:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
install @lib$+"SOCKLIB"
proc_initsockets

on error sys "MessageBox",@hwnd%,report$,0,0 : proccleanup : quit
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is the only mention of "Message Box" in the whole program, so I
assume this is what's producing the Error pop-up.

Is there any way of tracking down exactly what caused the error message
to appear and what it means?

--
73
Ian, G3NRW

I'm assuming it because David's announcement - which I saw purely by
chance - says the site "will close". If he was prepared for it to
remain online (for example by transferring the domain to another owner)
surely he would have made some moves in that direction first - such
as contacting people, like me, whom he knows would be interested in
keeping it alive.

--- In bb4w@..., <jgrathbone@...> wrote:
> I have just downloaded the entire site into an adobe pdf file it is 8.71Mbytes

> and if you or anyone else would like a copy please email me

You will need David's permission to do that.

Richard.

--- In bb4w@..., <simon@...> wrote:
> Is that something you declare as fact, or something you are just assuming?

I'm assuming it because David's announcement - which I saw purely by chance - says the site "will close".  If he was prepared for it to remain online (for example by transferring the domain to another owner) surely he would have made some moves in that direction first - such as contacting people, like me, whom he knows would be interested in keeping it alive.

Richard.

Anyway, if David is happy for the site to be mirrored, I wonder why he
isn't prepared to allow the bb4wgames.com domain to be transferred to
somebody else and kept alive.

--- In bb4w@..., <simon@...> wrote:

Indeed so. I have heard nothing directly from David by way of an
explanation; if it is a financial thing I would be more than happy to
contribute to the upkeep of the site.

Making an offline copy is non-infringement in UK copyright law as
"making an archive for preservation" [S42, S75] and "backup of
computer data for personal use" [S50].

The difficulty with that is, of course, copyright. Without David's
permission it would be illegal to make it available online (it was
almost certainly illegal to make the copy!).

I've made an off-line copy of the site

Otherwise any
access would have to be through the Wayback Machine:
http://web.archive.org/web/20130518044525/http://bb4wgames.com/

With the loss of GFXLIB and all those wonderful examples I will no
longer be able to promote BB4W as being suitable for 'serious' games
programming.

--- In bb4w@..., Yee Leong wrote:
> Oh Owl ! this is such a terribly news

Indeed so.  I have heard nothing directly from David by way of an explanation; if it is a financial thing I would be more than happy to contribute to the upkeep of the site.

With the loss of GFXLIB and all those wonderful examples I will no longer be able to promote BB4W as being suitable for 'serious' games programming.

Richard.

I posted earlier about the closure of David Williams' site:

  http://www.bb4wgames.com/

but Yahoo seems to have swallowed my message, at least temporarily.

Richard.

Find it under 'General Information... Variables... Variable types...

--- In bb4w@..., Ian Wade G3NRW wrote:
> I'm sure this must be documented somewhere, but I haven't found
> it yet.

Find it under 'General Information... Variables... Variable types... The @cmd$ variable', or you can read it online here:

 http://www.bbcbasic.co.uk/bbcwin/manual/bbcwin2.html#cmd

"The variable @cmd$ allows an executable created with the Compile utility to access the command line with which it was executed".

Richard.

Ah, thanks!  I should obviously have opened up NOWAIT and looked for myself (I think I just assumed that Fnget was some assembly language which I would not understand). Sorry for that.

Yes, "Too little to care about". Works for me.

--Grahame