Robert Purves wrote:
> 
> >
> >I don't understand exactly why I have to store first the result of
> >the call in a long int variable (that must be in RAM) then to copy
> >the result in another variable.
> 
> SndSoundManagerVersion returns a 32-bit value, which later is to be
> interpreted as four 1-byte fields in a record structure.  Owing to its weak
> variable-typing, FB^3 does not complain if you attempt this the wrong way,
> but you are liable to get an incorrect result or even a crash, by assigning
> a register var to a record.
> 
> The right way is to define NumVersionVariant, as shown below, which allows
> us to write the unambiguously correct statement:
>   vers.whole = fn SndSoundManagerVersion
> 
> Then decoding the BCD information in vers.parts is far from straighforward.
> I believe the decoding below, although incomplete, is accurate.
> It would be an interesting challenge to decode 0x04214003 as "4.2.1a3",
> which Apple claims is the correct interpretation.
> 
> Robert P.
> 
> '---Run in Console mode-------
> // NumVersion  Packed BCD version representation
> //  (e.g. "4.2.1a3" is 0x04214003)
> begin record NumVersion
> dim majorRev       as unsigned char
> dim minorAndBugRev as unsigned char
> dim stage          as unsigned char
> dim nonRelRev      as unsigned char
> end record
> 
> // NumVersionVariant is a wrapper so NumVersion
> //  can be accessed as a 32-bit value
> begin record NumVersionVariant
> begin union
> dim parts as NumVersion
> dim whole as unsigned long
> end union
> end record
> 
> toolbox fn SndSoundManagerVersion = long `0x203C, 0x000C, 0x0008, 0xA800
> 
> local fn GetSndMGrVersion$
> dim vers as NumVersionVariant
> dim as str15  majorTens, majorUnits, minor, bugFix, SMVersion
> vers.whole = fn SndSoundManagerVersion
> // decode majorRev and minorAndBugRev fields:
> majorTens  = str$( vers.parts.majorRev >> 4 )
> if ( majorTens == " 0" ) then majorTens = ""
> majorUnits = str$( vers.parts.majorRev and 15 )
> minor      = str$( vers.parts.minorAndBugRev >> 4 )
> bugFix     = str$( vers.parts.minorAndBugRev and 15 )
> SMVersion  = right$( majorTens, 1 ) + right$( majorUnits, 1 ) ¬
>  + "." + right$( minor, 1 ) ¬
>  + "." + right$( bugFix, 1 )
> end fn = SMVersion
> 
> // test
> print fn GetSndMGrVersion$
> '---------------------------
> 

Thank you so much!

-- 

Cheers

Alain

-----------------------------------------------------
FB^3 in Europe:  http://euro.futurebasic.com/
FB II Pouch:     http://www.pixmix.com/FB/outils.html
-----------------------------------------------------