With all of the questions about accessing memory with QB I decided to show everyone the ultimate method for saving large blocks of RAM to a file.
A conventional loop setting memory segments and then PEEKing at each byte in each 16 byte segment could require many many minutes to read and write the RAM that this program accesses in a fraction of a second. It appears to be several times faster (and more flexible) than the BSAVE command.
How fast? When this program is timed, using Interrupt 21 function 2c, running on a K62/350, it comes in at .05 seconds. It's hard to get a more accurate time with DOS since the system timer resolution is .05 seconds. In any case, this little routine gets and saves one megabyte of memory in very short order.
You will need QB45 or better and must load the QB library (or equivalent) with the command line "QB /L QB.QLB". ' $DYNAMIC DEFINT A-Z 'Declare the registers. Don't use ' $INCLUDE: QB.BI to load 'them. This one requires that DS is a long integer. 'Don't try to modify the other registers or use this 'declaration in a different program. TYPE RegTypeX AX AS INTEGER BX AS INTEGER CX AS INTEGER DX AS INTEGER BP AS INTEGER SI AS INTEGER DI AS INTEGER FLAGS AS INTEGER DS AS LONG ES AS INTEGER END TYPE DIM InRegs AS RegTypeX, OutRegs AS RegTypeX
'MemFile$ will contain the name of the file we want to write. MemFile$ = "1STMEG" + CHR$(0) InRegs.AX = &H3C00 InRegs.CX = &H20 InRegs.DS = VARSEG(MemFile$) InRegs.DX = SADD(MemFile$) CALL InterruptX(&H21, InRegs, OutRegs)'Create an empty file InRegs.AX = &H3D01 '01 = open the file for write access InRegs.DS = VARSEG(MemFile$) InRegs.DX = SADD(MemFile$) CALL InterruptX(&H21, InRegs, OutRegs) 'Open the file hFile = OutRegs.AX 'hFile is the handle for the file FOR Segment& = 0 TO 65535 STEP 2048 'Skip segs already read InRegs.AX = &H4000 InRegs.BX = hFile InRegs.CX = 32767 'Read this many bytes InRegs.DS = Segment& 'Begin with this segment InRegs.DX = 0 'Start at offset 0 'Write the bytes to the file CALL InterruptX(&H21, InRegs, OutRegs NEXT InRegs.AX = &H3E00 InRegs.BX = hFile CALL InterruptX(&H21, InRegs, OutRegs) 'Close the file
Talk To Other Members