04-13-2012, 11:12 PM
It occurs to me that a lot of game programmers would use screen address lookup tables - I've included one in with several library routines at this point.
I think we need to standardize this important library, to be honest.
1> It should be easily includable, and documented on its use. And only let itself be included once! Perhaps setting some parameter, such that the compiler includes it in automatically?
- it must, of course, be aligned. (which is another topic - the align code should be really clever about not wasting bytes, if it can squeeze some other code up in the "missed space"
2> It should be used, if available, by other ZX Basic functions - I'm thinking in particular of plot and draw, which use the ROM routine PIXELADD. Very important this. If we're willing to give up memory for a table, lets have everything use it!
3> It should be user-replaceable, if they follow the structure - so that they can define their own screen buffer, and fast-lookup screen addresses in the buffer, instead.
I think we need to standardize this important library, to be honest.
1> It should be easily includable, and documented on its use. And only let itself be included once! Perhaps setting some parameter, such that the compiler includes it in automatically?
- it must, of course, be aligned. (which is another topic - the align code should be really clever about not wasting bytes, if it can squeeze some other code up in the "missed space"
2> It should be used, if available, by other ZX Basic functions - I'm thinking in particular of plot and draw, which use the ROM routine PIXELADD. Very important this. If we're willing to give up memory for a table, lets have everything use it!
3> It should be user-replaceable, if they follow the structure - so that they can define their own screen buffer, and fast-lookup screen addresses in the buffer, instead.