Hi Quentin,
Many thanks for your detailed explanation. Yes indeed it does help.

                                                John

                -----Original Message-----
                From:   Quentin [mailto:qsc@ICON.CO.ZA]
                Sent:   Friday, 31 March 2000 3:42
                To:     PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU
                Subject:        Re: MACROS

                John Orhan wrote:
                >
                > Hi Andy,
                >
                > And many thanks for your help. If I tried to invoke a
macro on a PIC from
                > say ram_bank0  to a place in ram_bank1 memory, ( ram_bank0
and ram_bank1
                > being memory pages) would the macro work?? Or would I have
to switch memory
                > pages first?
                Another explanation to supplement the others:
                Do not think of a macro as the same way you store a
subroutine. A macro
                initially just sits in your assembler program and is not
stored in your
                PIC memory. When you use a macro in your program, the
assembler will
                replace the macro label with the lines of code that is in
the macro
                itself.

                Simple example:

                You write a macro:
                CNSTM   MACRO
                        MOVLW   0X020
                        MOVWF   CONSTANT
                        ENDM
                This stays in your assembler editor.
                Later in your program:
                        .
                        .
                        CNSTM           ;ask for macro
                        MOVLW   0X039
                        SUBWF   CONSTANT,W
                        .
                        .
                When you assemble, the assembler will take the lines from
your macro,
                and insert it where the macro label is:
                        .
                        MOVLW   0X020
                        MOVWF   CONSTANT
                        MOVLW   0X039
                        SUBWF   CONSTANT,W
                        .
                        .
                You don't see it (you only see the label) but this is the
way it will be
                stored in your PIC memory.

                Hope this helps
                Quentin