New beta release 1.2.7r1866

[boriel]

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.

To do:

• 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.

Meanwhile, you can download 1.2.7-r1866 here, as always: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb">http://www.boriel.com/files/zxb</a><!-- m -->