Okay, a new beta release with a *critical* fix and two interesting optimizations :!:

• ! The string parameters byVal (the default) in functions incorrecly managed causing crashes sometimes. Fixed.
  
• ! Some other bugs in the Intermediate code has been fixed. And string management a bit optimized (faster and less memory used)
  
• + Added a String.bas libray with MID$, LEFT$, RIGHT$, InStr and StrPos.
  
• * The ZX Basic preprocessor has been *entirely* rewritten (refactored). It now allows true multivariate macros as cpp does (Thus allowing function inlining, etc).

Okay, a new beta release with a fix and two interesting optimizations :!:

• ! The optimizer could hang under rare circumstances. Fixed.
  
• ! The csrlin() routine had a bug reporting sometimes the wrong position (this also affected Input() library which uses it). Fixed.
  
  
• + Every BEEP command always took 21 bytes. Now it only takes 11 bytes and it's faster (good for sound effects) if only constant numbers are used. So beep <num1>, <num2> is much optimized.
  
• DRAW routine has been improved for speed. Now it's 200% faster (aprox.) and takes only 150 bytes more.
  
• PLOT, DRAW & CIRCLE now uses SCREEN_ADD positioning => you can "DRAW" at part of the memory pointed by this internal variable.

• If several constant beeps (BEEP <num1>, <num2>) are specified one after another, they will be "compressed" and played with a beep sequencer. So every beep in the sequence takes only 4 bytes.
  
• A new library routine is in preparation: polyline, which draws a sequence of lines to coords Xn, Yn:
  
  Code:

  REM A list of coords (Unsigned Bytes)
DIM CoordList(10, 2) as UByte = { {1, 1}, {3, 100}, {20, 80}, ... _
                        ... ' More coord lists
                     {128, 189}}

REM Draws a polilyne of 10 coordinates, taking coord 0 as the 1st one
REM The 2nd 0 is mondatory, but useless here.
PolyLine(10, @CoordList(0, 0))
• UBound and LBound soon to come (for getting the Upper and Lower bound of arrays).
  
  Code:

  DIM a(2 To 5, 1 TO 8) as Byte

PRINT Ubound(a, 1) : REM prints 2
PRINT LBound(a, 2) : REM prints 8
• Variable parameters function calls, like in FreeBasic or C
  
  Code:

  Function Avg(n as uByte, ...)
    ...
End Function

PRINT Avg(3, 2.5, 3.6, 7.8)
PRINT Avg(5, 1, 4, 5, 7, 9)
  This way, function AVG can receive any numbers of parameters of any type.

Hi!

Thanks for the kind words on WoSF about SE Basic. It would be really cool if the compiler could:

* support the extra commands present in SE Basic

and also

* create code that runs with the SE Basic ROM used.

Happy to give whatever support you require to achieve one or both of these if you're interested.

Cheers!

-Andrew

This release is just 1.2.6-r1812 renamed. I think it's quite stable now, and if new bugs are found, they will be fixed on 1.2.7.
So, those interested, please, download from: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb">http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb</a><!-- m -->
This version finally implements bitwise operations (bAND, bOR, bXOR, bNOT) on any interger types (8, 16 and 32 bits). 8)

Thanks to Britlion, apenao, LCD, LTee, programandala & carloscomputer again (and maybe others, please priv. msg. me). They've detected many bugs again, but now I've started to use TDD (Unit Testing) to avoid already-fixed bugs to be reintroduced. Like the previous version, this one fixes so many that some parts has been completely rewritten. If you use any older version, do please upgrade to this one immediately. This version could be considered as another "Service Pack Update".

Changes since v.1.2.5
===================================
Assembler:

• + The assembler now supports ALIGN <integer> directive
  
• + Added support for checking out of memory in runtime.
  
• + Added support for checking BREAK in runtime (--enable-break)
  
• + Added support for Subscript Out of Range in runtime (--debug-memory)
  
• + Added support for --strict-boolean (0 or 1) values (--debug-array)
  
• + Added suport for 8 bit bitwise bAND, bOR, bXOR, bNOT operations.
  
• + Added print64 by Britlion library routine, and Mojon Twins FourSpriter version (more to come).

• + Added support for logical XOR (if A XOR B then...)
  
• + Bitwise bAND, bOR, bXOR, bNOT finally added for 8, 16 and 32 bits
  
• ! Fixed a bug in RANDOMIZE which wasn't updating the seed correctly.
  
• ! Fixed a pragma typo in POS.bas library wich lead to errors.
  
• ! Fixed a bug in STR$, VAL, CHR$ and CODE which could crash the program.
  
• ! Fixed a bug in string comparison
  
• ! Fixed 2 more bugs in the peephole optimizer (-O3) which could crash the program.
  
• ! Fixed some syntax bugs. PI() and RND() are now allowed.
  Calling functions with no parenthesis is either.
  
• ! Fixed a parser bug in which empty WHILE / DO .. LOOP loops crashed the compiler. Fixed.
  
• ! Array access has been optimized for speed. Now faster.
  
• ! For loops have been slightly optimized.
  
• ! MEM_FREE heap routine has been slightly optimized.
  
  
• * The print* intermediate code instructions have been removed and converted to routines.
  
• * Lot of code refactoring, and moved to the standard trunk/tag/branches SVN repository scheme.
  
• * String expresions now are standarized (like any other data type).
  
• * TDD: Begin to create unitary tests cases for the compiler.

This is a new beta version (released a minute ago :!. Basically this is has *somewhat deep changes* in the code. So need you to test them, if possible, please :oops:

This release is needed in order to start the 2.0 branch. I also contains the print42 (fixed) and print64 by britlion, plus a fourspriter of MojonTwins (subdirectory /mj). Other graphic libraries posted here will be also included on later releases. But need more testing.

Download at <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb">http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb</a><!-- m --> as always...

Hi Boriel, In my latest game using PRINT in a FUNCTION causes Crash. If I REM out it, it works. Two builds before it was working perfectly, so maybe a reintroduced bug?
I'm sending you the complete source via PM.

Cool stuff.

I've added it as a code patch to the wiki library section. Are there any others in there, like LCD's proportional print routine or the nascent maths library section that you think are worth calling part of the include pack?

I think there's still a bug in the string slicing.

I was playing with the print64 routine - and I think it works just fine, but when printing sliced strings it breaks.

My programs can not find this function in the library because I think you erase it. I tried paste "strictbool.asm" of last version of zxbasic in library-asm and It works ok.
Problem solved. I tell this for the rest of users.
And if Boriel would include it, then ok. :?:
I downloaded today's msi windows version 10-11-18.
If I put zxb --version It post 126.-r1603 instead 1606.

I seem to be having some issues trying to use a 2D array of Strings in some cases, but unfortunately I don't seem to be able to figure out what they are. A piece of code which seems to work fine in isolation fails when I put it into my main program with screen corruption and a crash. Is a 2D array of Strings 'bad form' for some reason?

In the end I replaced it with a 2D array of UBYTEs instead which worked okay (and was probably less wasteful, tbh - I was only storing single characters anyway). If I figure out a decent way to reproduce the crash without it being embedded in a huge chunk of other stuff then I'll post it. It could well be something silly that I've done elsewhere in the program.

While I'm here, could someone clarify what is okay to declare within a SUB? I don't seem to have any problems declaring normal variables (e.g. DIM test AS UBYTE) within a SUB, but I seem to have crash issues if I try to declare and use an array (e.g. DIM test(2,2) AS UBYTE). Is it actually legal to try and do that?

This code, for example, crashes unless I move the UBYTE array outside of the SUB: