PROGRAM Files

A PROGRAM file contains a PRO/5 program. PROGRAM files are normally created and accessed through the LOAD, SAVE, RUN, CALL, and ADDR verbs. However, a PROGRAM file may be OPENed like any other file in which case it behaves like a STRING file. Direct access of a PROGRAM file is provided only for special utility purposes and should not be done by application programs.

PROGRAM files have a header 10 bytes long containing the following:

Bytes	Description
1,2	Program length including ending HSH() code
3,2	Program level code (supplied by PRO/5)
5,2	Program text length (offset to variable table)
7,2	Number of variables in variable table
9,2	Reserved space

The rest of the PROGRAM file is the compiled program and its variable table. As the file is always expanded on a SAVE yet never shrunk, the length of the file may be greater then the length of the program plus the PRO/5 overhead.

Unless you understand what you are doing, you should not modify PROGRAM files directly. For programming examples of manipulating PROGRAM files, examine the PRO/5 utilities.

PRO/5 can handle a PROGRAM file of up to approximately 1MB.

The FIN() of a PROGRAM file returns no information specific to PROGRAM files.