Fixes for "Runtime Error 200" bug of Borland Pascal 7 on fast PCs

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TpPatch.zip

Patch program for existing executable files

Note: this program speaks only German, but English docs are included.

Note: This program is recommended by Borland.

Use: if your program is   program.exe , enter the command   tppatch program.exe

Warning: This patch will cause delay to run too fast on computers that are significantly faster than Pentium II with about 233 MHz. Some programs require correct timing, for those this patch may do more harm than help! Other programs should work fine with this.

Technical details:

• A patched program will test if the computer is too fast. If no it proceeds with calculating the delay factor as usual. If yes the factor is instead set to the maximum possible value.
• Program makes room for the required additional code by rewriting two variable assignments directly before the patched region with shorter code that is functionally equivalent. (If you don't see that it's equivalent after looking at the assembler code, note the registers that are used!).

t7TplFix.zip

patch program for Run Time Library file of Turbo Pascal 7.01

Use: replace your file TURBO.TPL with the one generated by this program, then recompile your pascal sources.

Technical Details:

• applies the same patches as in bp7patch (c't magazine), but uses the bugfixed Pascal version 7.01.
• No other files are changed, no other undocumented modifications are done to the CRT unit (unlike in the other distributed RTL files, see some of the other solutions below).

NewDelay.pas

unit with delay replacement and error trap

This unit comes as pascal source. It contains two things:

• a new delay procedure that prevents the overrun by using a 32 bit delay factor instead of only 16 bit.
• a trap procedure to catch the runtime error as it occurs. It will still occur internally, but catched before the program aborts, then it's skipped and the program continued. That's a nasty trick, I don't like it, but it seems to work.

Additional feature: tries to make a program behave nice during delays if it runs in a multitasking environment. This will of course delay to be a too long and a bit different each time. If you don't like it, disable it in the source.

Use: In your program sources include this unit first, crt second, then all other units and then recompile your programs.

bppatch.zip

Solution by German computer magazine c't July 97 page 232.

The patch program for executables has the same problem as all these patches: if the patched program uses the delay procedure, this will run at incorrect speed, thus if the program requires precise timing and uses delay to do that, it will probably not work properly any more. Furthermore on even faster computers than today this patch will fail and the run time error will re-appear even with the patch applied.

Technical Details of RTL patch:

• implements a 32 bit counter with somewhat different code than the other solutions, presumably to make it more relibable.
• additional feature: disables all other interrupts during delay initialization to make initialization more reliable.

Warnings:

• the program patch is only suitable for programs that do not require precise timing
• the included TPL files were created based on the Run Time Library of Turbo Pascal 7.0 instead of version 7.01. Version 7.0 had bugs! By using these TPL files, you reintroduce these bugs by solving another one!

bp7patch.zip

patch program for Run Time Library

In the patched versions the delay procedure will use a 32 bit counter similar as in newdelay but without the nice idle behaviour.

Note: This is a new program version that will work also if you have only TURBO.TPL, no TPP.TPL (i.e. Turbo Pascal instead of Borland Pascal).

Note: This program is recommended by Borland.

Use: patch your TPL files, then recompile your pascal sources.

Warning: not only changes CRT.TPU, but also all other files in the Run Time Library. There are especially very many changes to SYSTEM.TPU. I find this a bit suspicious and are very uncomfortable with using the new file as long as I don't know precisely what's going on here.

tp7p5fix.zip

TSR program to catch the runtime error while an affected program starts

Warning: this program probably causes the delay to run too fast, so likely the same warning applies as for TpPatch

Use: Install the TSR before any program is run that was compiled with Borland Pascal.

tpbug.zip

new TPL files

File contains exactly the same files CRT.ASM, CRT.PAS and CRT.TPU (included in TURBO.TPL) as BPPATCH.ZIP.

Warning: all the other TPU files contained in TURBO.TPL are different from the original files too, expecially SYSTEM.TPU contains a lot of changes. They are neither the version of Turbo Pascal 7.0, nor the ones of versions 7.01. I find this a bit suspicious and are very uncomfortable with using the new file as long as I don't know precisely what's going on here.