<refentry id="runb">
<refnamediv>
<refname>RUNB</refname>
<refpurpose>BASIC09 run time package</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>

<refsynopsisdiv>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>runb</command>
<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>i-code module</replaceable></arg>
</cmdsynopsis>
</refsynopsisdiv>

<refsect1><title>Description</title>
<para>
BASIC09 run time package
</para>
<para>
Once one or more BASIC09 procedures are debugged to the programmer's
satisfaction, they can be "packed" or converted permanently to the
bytecode form.
</para>
<para>
Packed BASIC09 procedures are in fact OS-9 modules, and the OS-9 shell
recognizes them as I-code and passes them off to the virtual machine
emulator RunB for execution. RunB avoids a great deal of the overhead of
the typical interpreted BASICs of the day -- not to mention that one can do
integer calculations where appropriate rather than doing everything in
floating point -- so that BASIC09 programs run very quickly in comparison
with interpreted BASICs.
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>