Introduction

---

In some cases you may want to change the DBISAM source code and recompile it to incorporate these changes into your application. However, you must first have purchased a version of DBISAM that includes source code to the engine in order to make changes to the source code.

Setting Search Paths

---

The first thing that you must do is make sure that any search paths, either global to DBISAM such as the Library Search Path or local to your project, are pointing to the directory or path where the DBISAM source code was installed. By default this directory or path is:

\<base directory>\<product>\<compiler> <n>\code\source

The <product> component of the path can be one of the following values:


The <type> component of the product name will be either VCL or ODBC.

The <compiler> <n> component of the path indicates the development environment in use and the version number of the development environment. For example, for Delphi 6 this component would look like this:

Delphi 6

Setting Compiler Switches

---

The second thing that must be done is to make sure that the compiler switches that you are using are set properly for DBISAM. The build system used to compile DBISAM here at Elevate Software uses the dcc32.exe, dcc64.exe, and dcc command-line compilers provided with Delphi and C++ to compile DBISAM. The following switches are set during compilation and any other switches are assumed to be at their default state for the compiler:

$D-   Debug information off
$L-   Local symbols off

A Word of Caution

---

Making changes to the DBISAM source code is not an easy task. A mistake in such changes could result in the loss of critical data and Elevate Software cannot be held responsible for any losses incurred from such changes. Occasionally our support staff may send a fix to a customer that owns the source code in order to facilitate a quicker turnaround on a bug report, but it is the responsibility of the customer to weigh the risks of implementing such a change with the possible problems that such a change could bring about. Elevate Software tries very hard to also assist any customers that do want to make changes to the DBISAM source code for custom purposes and will always make an attempt to guide the customer to a solution that fits their needs and is reliable in operation. In general, however, it is usually recommended that you use the generic customization facilities provided with DBISAM as opposed to making direct changes to the source code. Please see the Customizing the Engine topic for more information.