SPLat/PC: Builder

Builder is a new feature introduced with SPLat/PC V8.20.0. It is a project management tool that allows you to keep different parts of your project in separate source files and then merge them ("build") into a single file for final translation and download. This contrast with the older method of having your whole project in a single file. It is aimed particularly at larger projects, so if you are writing programs of less than say a couple of hundred lines, it probably is not something you need to worry about.

In brief Builder allows you to tag your source files to define different segments like constants, I/O allocations, code and NVEM page 0 data, them merge several source files into a single project, with the different segments sorted into the correct sequence. You can also control inclusions and exclusions, say to build different versions of your project for debugging versus production release.

Builder allows and encourages:

• Modular programming whereby you write and test each sub-function of your program separately. You can leave the test code intact in the separate source files and exclude it from the final build.
• Code re-use, so you can more easily build yourself a library of useful functions.
• Use of Active Templates.

Builder is integrated into SPLat/PC. You can download the latest version of SPLat/PC here.