Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

 ◄Example►                                   ◄Up► ◄Contents► ◄Index► ◄Back►
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 
  Syntax:   label PROTO [distance] [langtype] [, [parameter]:tag]...
 
  See also: Procedure Diagram, PROC, INVOKE, EXTERNDEF, TYPEDEF
 
  Description:
 
     Defines a prototype for a subsequent procedure. Informs the
     assembler about how many and what kind of arguments should be
     expected in a procedure definition. This allows the assembler
     to perform type checking on arguments.
 
     If you define a prototype for all stack-based procedures defined
     with the PROC directive, you can place procedure prototypes in a
     separate include file. This is recommended when using procedures
     in a library file.
 
     Parameter      Description
 
     label          Defines name for the procedure. Must exactly match
                    <label> in PROC definition.
 
     distance       NEAR, FAR, NEAR16, NEAR32, FAR16, or FAR32.
                    Indicates the call distance of this procedure.
                    If you choose NEAR or FAR, the assembler will
                    select 16- or 32-bit NEAR and FAR depending on
                    the processor directive in effect. If you do not
                    specify this option, the assembler determines the
                    distance from the memory model and processor type.
                    NEAR is the default if you do not use the .MODEL
                    directive.
 
     langtype       Any valid language type. Determines naming style
                    and calling convention.
                    See: ◄language type►
 
     parameter      Procedure parameter. The assembler translates
                    argument references into a direct reference to the
                    stack location. Separate multiple arguments with
                    commas.
 
     tag            Either a qualified type or VARARG. VARARG
                    allows a variable number of arguments to be passed
                    as a comma separated list to <argument>. If VARARG
                    is used, it must be applied to the last parameter
                    of the PROC directive. VARARG is only allowed with
                    the C, SYSCALL, and STDCALL language types.
                    See: ◄qualified type►
                                    -♦-