Value of FastPlot library

[patters]

FastPlot does appear to be faster than the compiler's current PLOT implementation. It can fill the screen in 416 ticks versus 535 ticks for the compiler implementation - a 22.2% improvement. I used this listing to compare:

Code:

#include "zxbasic/library/fastPlot.bas"

FUNCTION timerTicks() AS ULONG
    RETURN INT(65536*PEEK(23674)+256*PEEK(23673)+PEEK(23672))
END FUNCTION

DIM x,y AS UBYTE

CLS
BORDER 6
DO
    FOR y=0 to 191
        'PLOT x,y
        fastPlot(x,y)
    NEXT y
    x=x+1
LOOP UNTIL x=0 '255+1 will overstep the UBYTE to 0

PRINT timerTicks()

Modifying the list to DRAW 255 vertical lines to fill the screen takes 183 ticks - about twice as fast as using FastPlot to plot all the pixels individually.

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The reason I was interested in this was because I wanted to find the fastest way to draw a chequerboard fill of a landscape in my game. Using FastPlot.bas I can fill the screen with alternating dots in 225 ticks, only a little bit slower than filling with vertical lines via DRAW. If x and y are INTEGER rather than UBYTE then it slows to 262 ticks. See below:

Code:

#include "zxbasic/library/fastPlot.bas"

FUNCTION timerTicks() AS ULONG
    RETURN INT(65536*PEEK(23674)+256*PEEK(23673)+PEEK(23672))
END FUNCTION

DIM x,y AS UBYTE

CLS
BORDER 6
DO
    FOR y=0 to 191 STEP 2
        fastPlot(x,y)
    NEXT y
    FOR y=1 to 191 STEP 2
        fastPlot(x+1,y)
    NEXT y
    x=x+2
LOOP UNTIL x=0 '254+2 will overstep the UBYTE back to 0

PRINT timerTicks()

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Do you have the ability to retrieve attachments from the backup of the old forum before the move to myBB?
http://boriel.com/mybb/showthread.php?ti...18#pid3318 is where the lookup table was for as used by HRPrintFast.bas and for FastPlot's even faster method. It's not in the wiki.