aaaaaaaargh,
For the second half of what you said, have you already tried using a constant, or literal expression that compiles to a constant, in a case statement?
The optimizer is pretty strong to know these things already and remove a ton of code.
@aaaaaaaargh said:
Hello,
to make FlexBasic even more awesome it would be nice to have more options in the select case statement.
e.g
Case 1,5,436
Case 10 To 20, 30, 40 To 50
Case "S","T","U"
That would be a nice addition, I'll see what I can do.
or an integer jumptable like in freebasic
Select Case As Const integer_expression
to make fast jumps would also be a nice addition
The compiler will automatically use jump tables if it can (i.e. the jump table size is not too large), both for SELECT CASE and for ON GOTO.
@ersmith re FlexBASIC: Is there a way to detect what type of variable (long, ulong, float, byte, etc) has been passed to a function/sub whose inputs have been typed as ANY? Here is where I’m going with this conceptually: (vartype() is an imaginary “magic” function that returns the type of the variable given to it)
FUNCTION AddIt(a as any, b as any) as string
Select case vartype(a)
Case long_type
Return strInt$(a+b)
Case float_type
Return str$(a+b)
Case else
Return “error”
End select
END FUNCTION
The general rule of thumb is that for a jump table there can be at most 255 entries, and at least 1/6 of those must be distinct (so if you have one case that covers 200 entries and then 2 more single cases, it'll use compares instead of a jump).
@JRoark said:
@ersmith re FlexBASIC: Is there a way to detect what type of variable (long, ulong, float, byte, etc) has been passed to a function/sub whose inputs have been typed as ANY? Here is where I’m going with this conceptually: (vartype() is an imaginary “magic” function that returns the type of the variable given to it)
FUNCTION AddIt(a as any, b as any) as string
Select case vartype(a)
Case long_type
Return strInt$(a+b)
Case float_type
Return str$(a+b)
Case else
Return “error”
End select
END FUNCTION
Any pointers?
There is no run time type information, so there's really no way to do exactly this. You could perhaps come close with a template function:
any(T) FUNCTION Addit(a as T, b as T) as string
dim x as T
dim intx as long
x = a + b
intx = x
if (intx == x) then
return strInt$(intx)
else
return str$(x)
end if
END FUNCTION
This has a few problems in the current flexbasic, namely:
(1) The template type system seems to get the type of Addit confused a bit, and it ends up as not being exactly a string but rather a pointer to a character (so it cannot be printed directly ). This is a bug, and I'll try to fix it, but the temporary workaround is to assign it to a string.
(2) The optimizer isn't smart enough to optimize away the intx == x test in the case where the original variables are of type long. I'll work on fixing that as well.
Hello, flexprop won't compile. Everything was working good in February when I last used it. I reinstalled flexprop to the latelest version. The program opens and I can open and save files. When I click Compile nothing happens. Any ideas what the problem is?
@arkret said:
Hello, flexprop won't compile. Everything was working good in February when I last used it. I reinstalled flexprop to the latelest version. The program opens and I can open and save files. When I click Compile nothing happens. Any ideas what the problem is?
(1) What platform are you running on? Windows, Mac, Linux?
(2) Did you download flexprop.zip, or build flexprop yourself from source? If a download, which version did you download?
Also there is no compile window below the code.
That makes me think that somehow your config file may have been corrupted. Try deleting that -- it's named ".flexprop.config" and is found in your home directory. Alternatively, try creating an empty file named .flexprop.config in the same directory as flexprop.exe / flexprop.tcl.
@ersmith said:
(1) What platform are you running on? Windows, Mac, Linux?
(2) Did you download flexprop.zip, or build flexprop yourself from source? If a download, which version did you download?
I am using a Mac and I downloaded 5.5.2
That makes me think that somehow your config file may have been corrupted. Try deleting that -- it's named ".flexprop.config" and is found in your home directory. Alternatively, try creating an empty file named .flexprop.config in the same directory as flexprop.exe / flexprop.tcl.
I could not find a "flexprop.config" but I did try to create a blank text file and save it int he same folder as flexprop.tcl. I might not have understood where flexprop.config is supposed to be?
I also deleted flexprop and reinstalled it. Still no compile window.
That makes me think that somehow your config file may have been corrupted. Try deleting that -- it's named ".flexprop.config" and is found in your home directory. Alternatively, try creating an empty file named .flexprop.config in the same directory as flexprop.exe / flexprop.tcl.
I could not find a "flexprop.config" but I did try to create a blank text file and save it int he same folder as flexprop.tcl. I might not have understood where flexprop.config is supposed to be?
Note that there are two periods, one at the very beginning and one in between the words "flexprop" and "config". From a console window you could try:
Note that there are two periods, one at the very beginning and one in between the words "flexprop" and "config". From a console window you could try:
rm ~/.flexprop.config
to get rid of the file.
I tried that and still nothing. Here is the view from the terminal window:
The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run chsh -s /bin/zsh.
For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
Alexs-MacBook-Pro:~ alex$ /Users/alex/Desktop/flexprop/flexprop.tcl ; exit;
rm ~/.flexprop.config
Am I missing something? Is there a setting that I need to change?
I don't understand why there's a line that says "/Users/alex/Desktop/flexprop/flexprop.tcl; exit;" in your terminal output. You need to do the rm ~/.flexprop.config before running flexprop.tcl. Here's what I suggest:
(1) Restart your Mac, so we know we're starting fresh. There's an option for this under the apple menu.
(2) Log in and start the Terminal app. You can get to this by browsing to /Applications/Utilities in the finder, then clicking on Terminal
(3) Type:
rm ~/.flexprop.config
cd ~/flexprop
./flexprop.tcl
FlexProp should start up. It'll be configured for P2 by default; if that's the correct platform, then go to File > Open File... in the menu bar, and select one of the samples (e.g. blink_all_cogs.spin. It should load into the top part of the window. Then click on the "Compile & Run on P2" button. If you have a P2 Eval board this should cause all the built in LEDs to start blinking in a kind of pseudo-random pattern. You'll also get some compile messages in the "Compiler Output" pane in the bottom part of the main FlexProp window.
There's also a console window opened with a connection to the serial port. That seems to be a little bit wonky right now, it doesn't always appear on top but if you look for it it should be there.
(1) Restart your Mac, so we know we're starting fresh. There's an option for this under the apple menu.
(2) Log in and start the Terminal app. You can get to this by browsing to /Applications/Utilities in the finder, then clicking on Terminal
(3) Type:
rm ~/.flexprop.config
cd ~/flexprop
./flexprop.tcl
Now the compiler window is back and says the code compiles, but nothing is loading onto the P2 Eval? I am using the blink1.spin2. I tried this board on another computer and it seems to work, so it is not the board.
What error messages are showing up in the "Propeller Output" terminal window when you try to run on the P2? Do any serial ports show up under the FlexProp "Ports" menu? If you select the "Special > Enter P2 ROM Taqoz" menu item do you see the TAQOZ# prompt in the propeller output window that opens up? This is not the same as the compiler output window, it's a new terminal window that opens... as I mentioned sometimes it gets hidden by other windows, so you may have to look for it.
Hello!
I have couple of questions related to flexbasic:
1) Is there a way to access FlexBasic Variables / Arrays using different variable types by declaring them at the Address of another variable?
Back in the old days I used this kind of thing a lot (in Powerbasic) using the DIM xxxx AT Address command
Something like this
DIM L(64) AS ULONG
DIM B(256) AS UBYTE AT Addressof(L(0))
2) Or partial variabel access like on the Basic Stamp abyte = aword.HIGHBYTE
3) Is there any way to redim an Array? REDIM BLA(5)
@Fred777 said:
1) Is there a way to access FlexBasic Variables / Arrays using different variable types by declaring them at the Address of another variable?
Back in the old days I used this kind of thing a lot (in Powerbasic) using the DIM xxxx AT Address command
Something like this
DIM L(64) AS ULONG
DIM B(256) AS UBYTE AT Addressof(L(0))
Not directly, but FlexBasic has pointers and CAST so you can do something like:
DIM B AS UBYTE POINTER
B = CAST(UBYTE POINTER, @L(0))
(or to save typing and skip type checking you could do B = CAST(ANY, @L(0)), since ANY can be cast to/from anything at all).
2) Or partial variabel access like on the Basic Stamp abyte = aword.HIGHBYTE
Hmmm, that might be an interesting thing to add to the language, but for now you'll have to shift and mask (abyte = (aword>>8) AND 255).
3) Is there any way to redim an Array? REDIM BLA(5)
No, in FlexBasic arrays occupy a fixed (static) amount of memory, and it's not possible to change that. Again, you might be able to accomplish something similar with pointers.
Thanks for your response, I'll try the pointer thing. ;-)
@ersmith said:
Hmmm, that might be an interesting thing to add to the language, but for now you'll have to shift and mask (abyte = (aword>>8) AND 255).
If your're considering this then here is a list of what good old PBASIC has:
LOWBYTE Low byte of a word
HIGHBYTE High byte of a word
BYTE0 Low byte of a word
BYTE1 High byte of a word
LOWNIB Low nibble of a word or byte
HIGHNIB High nibble of a word or byte
NIB0 Nibble 0 of a word or byte
NIB1 Nibble 1 of a word or byte
NIB2 Nibble 2 of a word
NIB3 Nibble 3 of a word
LOWBIT Low bit (LSB) of a word, byte, or nibble
HIGHBIT High bit (MSB) of a word, byte, or nibble
BIT0 Bit 0 (LSB) of a word, byte, or nibble
BIT1 Bit 1 of a word, byte, or nibble
BIT2 Bit 2 of a word, byte, or nibble
BIT3 Bit 3 of a word, byte, or nibble
BIT4 ... BIT7 Bits 4 through 7 of a word or byte
BIT8 ... BIT15 Bits 8 through 15 of a word
really useful stuff for the humble basic programmer :-)
Hi,
have a strange effect in flexbasic when using Function for "cog" / pausems / optimizer level1: (happens in V5.5.2 and 5.9.1-beta-v5.4.3-419-g359148b7)
Consider the follwoing code:
OPTION EXPLICIT
const HEAPSIZE=8192
Function TestFunc(Adr As ulong) as ubyte
pauseus 1
Return 33
End Function
Dim Time1,Time2,a as ulong
Dim b as ubyte
While 1
Time1 = GetUs()
For a = 1 to 100
b = TestFunc(111)
Next a
Time2 = GetUs()
Print "Time:";Time2-Time1;" [ENTER]";
Input$(1)
Wend
When runing this using flexbasic with optimizer level 1 (-O1) then output is as follows Time:422 [ENTER]
But when the Function runs in cog ( Function for "cog" TestFunc(Adr As ulong) as ubyte ) it hangs and nothing is displayed.
This only seems to happen with optimizer level -O1
So switching to optimizer level 0 or 2 also fixes it.
But also removing the "pauseus" statement fixes this.
Strange......
@aaaaaaaargh : Thank you for the bug report. The problem is that the optimizer is incorrectly putting the loop that calls TestFunc into FCACHE if TestFunc is marked as "cog". The pausems function also uses FCACHE, and so this causes corruption. WIth -O0 there is no fcache, and with -O2 the pausems is inlined and so doesn't need to be called.
This will be fixed in the next version, but for now, avoid using the for "cog" specifier for functions that are not leaf functions (i.e. that call other functions).
@ersmith It appears some mischief is occuring in the way of things being relocated in 5.9.1-BETA in Windows. Specifically any attempt to access the "Terminal Only" option from "Main Menu - > Special -> Terminal Only" gives you:
Windows cannot find 'd:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/src/bin/loadp2'. Make sure you typed the name correctly then try again.
I noted that LoadP2.exe is located in the 'd:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/src/bin/loadp2" path instead, so as a quick fix I just created the missing directory and copied the file, but I figured you'd want to know for the next release.
EDIT: Whoops. Looks like several things didn't make it into the "new" tree. I cant compile either, (same missing file error) so I just copied the whole schmutz over.
EDIT2: Now I can get the compiler to run, but it isn't finding some of the C libraries. Example:
"d:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/src/bin/flexspin" -2 -l --tabs=3 -D_BAUD=230400 -O1 -I "d:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/src/include" "d:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/P2 Libs/DateTimeLibP2.bas"
Propeller Spin/PASM Compiler 'FlexSpin' (c) 2011-2021 Total Spectrum Software Inc.
Version 5.9.1-beta-v5.4.3-419-g359148b7 Compiled on: Aug 3 2021
No such file or directory
DateTimeLibP2.bas
Unable to open file `libsys/fmt.c': child process exited abnormally
Finished at Sat Aug 7 11:37:18 2021
EDIT3: It also looks like there were some changes to the SPIN parser. When compiling ERSmith's ANSI.SPIN, it got grumpy when IF/ELSEIF's used a mix of tabs and spaces for indents. I've never actually edited this code (Me no se habla Spin), and it's compiled fine up until now.
EDIT4: Having fixed the above (I think), now it's not finding libc/unix/mount.c
I had 6.0 beta on my Linux box, that was having similar problems. Once I loaded 5.9.1BETA to my Linux box, everything started working as expected. I can confirm that the Windows 5.9.1 BETA is showing the same same thing on my Windows box.
Sorry for the mix-up with 5.9.1; the version I uploaded had the wrong paths. I've put a corrected version up on Patreon that should have this fixed.
The TABS problem has probably been there for a while. For maximum compatibility you should set the FlexGui tab stops to 8 characters -- that option is passed to the compiler and used by it to figure out indentation in Spin code.
@ERSmith: This may just be a lack of information on my part, but here goes. RE: FlexBASIC 5.9.1-B under windows with REV C Eval board. The code I'm using to show this is below.
Issue #1: If FLASH is enabled on the board, you cant use the SD card. And vice-versa.
To prove it, configure the switches like this, insert an SD card and run the test code below. You can't compile to flash (or boot from flash), but the SD card works fine:
USB RES=ON
FLASH=OFF
P59+=OFF
P591=OFF
Now change one switch and you can compile to flash (and boot from it), but the SD card wont work:
USB RES=ON
FLASH=ON <-- this
P59+=OFF
P591=OFF
My understanding is that FLASH and SD should coexist together, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Any idea what is going on here?
ISSUE #2: While looking thru the FS code in SDMM.CC, I came on this:
static
void dly_us (UINT n) /* Delay n microseconds (avr-gcc -Os) */
{
_waitx( n * 160 );
}
As I read this, that will produce an N uS delay... but only at 160 mhz. There are a bunch of different calls to that routine in the filesystem code. I was having some flakey issues with reading/writing to the SD card, and when I changed that 160 to 320 the problems started getting better. Is there a better way to do this delay that accounts for CPU speed? (Not a C coder here!)
Find below the test code I used for Issue #1. Ugly, but works:
OPTION EXPLICIT ' must declare all variables explicitly
OPTION BASE 0 ' array base index is zero, not one
CONST _clkfreq = 320_000_000
dim tmpbuffer$, filename$ as string
dim myerr as long
filename$ = "/sd/file.txt"
tmpbuffer$ = "THIS IS A TEST. "
print
print "SDMMC Test"
print "========================"
try
print "WRITE PHASE:"
print "-Attempting MOUNT...";
mount ("/sd", _vfs_open_sdcard())
print " success!"
print "-Attempting OPEN...";
open filename$ for append as #3
print " success!"
print "-Attempting WRITE...";
print #3 tmpBuffer$;
print " success!"
print "-Attempting CLOSE...";
close #3
print " success!"
print
print "READ PHASE:"
print "-Attempting OPEN...";
open "/sd/file.txt" for input as #3
print " success!"
print "-Attempting READ...";
tmpbuffer$ = ""
tmpbuffer$ = input$(128,3)
print " success!"
print " Data:["; tmpbuffer$; "]"
print "-Attempting CLOSE...";
close #3
print " success!"
print
catch myErr
'no sd card, card is full, etc
print
print "ERROR=";myErr; " [";strError$(myErr); "]"
end try
print "========================"
print "All done."
@ersmith Another bit of wierdness for you: The FlexBASIC GetUS() function works for about ~75 minutes after boot up (on a 320mhz clock setting). When it hits 0xFFFF_FFFF, it stops there. It doesn't roll over and start counting back at 0x0000_0000. So any program that uses GetUS() will run for ~75 minutes before it stops working correctly. I assume the same issue will be present in GetMS() and GetSec() as well, but I haven't tried those due to the long time involved. From the docs:
GETUS()
Builtin function. Returns the number of microseconds since the device was
turned on. On the Propeller 1 this wraps around after approximately 54 seconds.
On the P2 the system counter has 64 bits, so it will work for about an hour.
The docs don't actually say the function WILL work past the 32-bit terminal count on the P2 (the wrap seems only to occur for the P1), so I cant really call this a bug, but... is there any way to make these function(s) roll over to zero when they reach max count on the P2? (Or make them 64 bits, since the underlying system counter in the P2 is 64 bits, and because then it would take me ~1,827 years to find the next rollover bug to gripe about, in which case I'll be forced to file that bug report in the afterlife).
@JRoark said:
@ERSmith: This may just be a lack of information on my part, but here goes. RE: FlexBASIC 5.9.1-B under windows with REV C Eval board. The code I'm using to show this is below.
Issue #1: If FLASH is enabled on the board, you cant use the SD card. And vice-versa.
I honestly don't know if this is a hardware or software issue. Is there any way you can test it with some other software (not FlexProp's built in SD routines)? I'm not in a position right now to be able to try this on a real board.
ISSUE #2: While looking thru the FS code in SDMM.CC, I came on this:
static
void dly_us (UINT n) /* Delay n microseconds (avr-gcc -Os) */
{
_waitx( n * 160 );
}
Ouch, that's some old crufty code. Instead of the _waitx( n*160 ) it should read _waitus(n).
@ersmith Another bit of wierdness for you: The FlexBASIC GetUS() function works for about ~75 minutes after boot up (on a 320mhz clock setting). When it hits 0xFFFF_FFFF, it stops there. It doesn't roll over and start counting back at 0x0000_0000.
Actually it's even weirder than that, it kind of "bounces" at 0 and then starts counting down. It's my mistake, I assumed that the qdiv instruction to do a 64 bit by 32 bit division would wrap around on overflow, but it doesn't, it does some weird stuff with the remainder instead. I'll try to find a work-around in the next release.
With Flex you can easily leverage the strengths of each language. Write the file handling routines in BASIC, include them as an object in your Spin code, and then pass the object a pointer to the buffer in your Spin code.
@ersmith Is there any way in FlexBASIC to define a string constant that does not contain "typeable" characters? What I'm looking for is a constant for a CR (or LF, or a BS, etc), but this doesn't work:
CONST cr = chr$(13)
or
CONST cr$ = 13
In the first case, the compiler doesn't know about CHR$() as it relates to making a constant, and in the other it just assigns the value of 13. If the text was "typeable", then it would be easy:
Comments
aaaaaaaargh,
For the second half of what you said, have you already tried using a constant, or literal expression that compiles to a constant, in a case statement?
The optimizer is pretty strong to know these things already and remove a ton of code.
That would be a nice addition, I'll see what I can do.
The compiler will automatically use jump tables if it can (i.e. the jump table size is not too large), both for SELECT CASE and for ON GOTO.
Oh that sounds great, is there any way to know when the table is "too large", maybe from the .lst file?
@ersmith re FlexBASIC: Is there a way to detect what type of variable (long, ulong, float, byte, etc) has been passed to a function/sub whose inputs have been typed as ANY? Here is where I’m going with this conceptually: (vartype() is an imaginary “magic” function that returns the type of the variable given to it)
FUNCTION AddIt(a as any, b as any) as string Select case vartype(a) Case long_type Return strInt$(a+b) Case float_type Return str$(a+b) Case else Return “error” End select END FUNCTIONAny pointers?
Sure, if you look at the .lst file the select case will look something like:
in the case where a jump table is used.
If a jump table can't be used, then the select case turns into a series of tests and branches, like:
The general rule of thumb is that for a jump table there can be at most 255 entries, and at least 1/6 of those must be distinct (so if you have one case that covers 200 entries and then 2 more single cases, it'll use compares instead of a jump).
There is no run time type information, so there's really no way to do exactly this. You could perhaps come close with a template function:
any(T) FUNCTION Addit(a as T, b as T) as string dim x as T dim intx as long x = a + b intx = x if (intx == x) then return strInt$(intx) else return str$(x) end if END FUNCTIONThis has a few problems in the current flexbasic, namely:
). This is a bug, and I'll try to fix it, but the temporary workaround is to assign it to a string.
(1) The template type system seems to get the type of Addit confused a bit, and it ends up as not being exactly a string but rather a pointer to a character (so it cannot be printed directly
(2) The optimizer isn't smart enough to optimize away the
intx == xtest in the case where the original variables are of type long. I'll work on fixing that as well.Thanks, that works great!
Hello, flexprop won't compile. Everything was working good in February when I last used it. I reinstalled flexprop to the latelest version. The program opens and I can open and save files. When I click Compile nothing happens. Any ideas what the problem is?
Also there is no compile window below the code.
(1) What platform are you running on? Windows, Mac, Linux?
(2) Did you download flexprop.zip, or build flexprop yourself from source? If a download, which version did you download?
That makes me think that somehow your config file may have been corrupted. Try deleting that -- it's named ".flexprop.config" and is found in your home directory. Alternatively, try creating an empty file named .flexprop.config in the same directory as flexprop.exe / flexprop.tcl.
I am using a Mac and I downloaded 5.5.2
I could not find a "flexprop.config" but I did try to create a blank text file and save it int he same folder as flexprop.tcl. I might not have understood where flexprop.config is supposed to be?
I also deleted flexprop and reinstalled it. Still no compile window.
Note that there are two periods, one at the very beginning and one in between the words "flexprop" and "config". From a console window you could try:
to get rid of the file.
I tried that and still nothing. Here is the view from the terminal window:
The default interactive shell is now zsh.
To update your account to use zsh, please run
chsh -s /bin/zsh.For more details, please visit https://support.apple.com/kb/HT208050.
Alexs-MacBook-Pro:~ alex$ /Users/alex/Desktop/flexprop/flexprop.tcl ; exit;
rm ~/.flexprop.config
Am I missing something? Is there a setting that I need to change?
I don't understand why there's a line that says "/Users/alex/Desktop/flexprop/flexprop.tcl; exit;" in your terminal output. You need to do the
rm ~/.flexprop.configbefore running flexprop.tcl. Here's what I suggest:(1) Restart your Mac, so we know we're starting fresh. There's an option for this under the apple menu.
(2) Log in and start the Terminal app. You can get to this by browsing to /Applications/Utilities in the finder, then clicking on Terminal
(3) Type:
FlexProp should start up. It'll be configured for P2 by default; if that's the correct platform, then go to File > Open File... in the menu bar, and select one of the samples (e.g. blink_all_cogs.spin. It should load into the top part of the window. Then click on the "Compile & Run on P2" button. If you have a P2 Eval board this should cause all the built in LEDs to start blinking in a kind of pseudo-random pattern. You'll also get some compile messages in the "Compiler Output" pane in the bottom part of the main FlexProp window.
There's also a console window opened with a connection to the serial port. That seems to be a little bit wonky right now, it doesn't always appear on top but if you look for it it should be there.
Now the compiler window is back and says the code compiles, but nothing is loading onto the P2 Eval? I am using the blink1.spin2. I tried this board on another computer and it seems to work, so it is not the board.
What error messages are showing up in the "Propeller Output" terminal window when you try to run on the P2? Do any serial ports show up under the FlexProp "Ports" menu? If you select the "Special > Enter P2 ROM Taqoz" menu item do you see the TAQOZ# prompt in the propeller output window that opens up? This is not the same as the compiler output window, it's a new terminal window that opens... as I mentioned sometimes it gets hidden by other windows, so you may have to look for it.
Hello!
I have couple of questions related to flexbasic:
1) Is there a way to access FlexBasic Variables / Arrays using different variable types by declaring them at the Address of another variable?
Back in the old days I used this kind of thing a lot (in Powerbasic) using the DIM xxxx AT Address command
Something like this
2) Or partial variabel access like on the Basic Stamp
abyte = aword.HIGHBYTE3) Is there any way to redim an Array?
REDIM BLA(5)kind regars,
Fred
Not directly, but FlexBasic has pointers and CAST so you can do something like:
(or to save typing and skip type checking you could do
B = CAST(ANY, @L(0)), sinceANYcan be cast to/from anything at all).Hmmm, that might be an interesting thing to add to the language, but for now you'll have to shift and mask (
abyte = (aword>>8) AND 255).No, in FlexBasic arrays occupy a fixed (static) amount of memory, and it's not possible to change that. Again, you might be able to accomplish something similar with pointers.
Regards,
Eric
Thanks for your response, I'll try the pointer thing. ;-)
If your're considering this then here is a list of what good old PBASIC has:
really useful stuff for the humble basic programmer :-)
Hi,
have a strange effect in flexbasic when using Function for "cog" / pausems / optimizer level1: (happens in V5.5.2 and 5.9.1-beta-v5.4.3-419-g359148b7)
Consider the follwoing code:
OPTION EXPLICIT const HEAPSIZE=8192 Function TestFunc(Adr As ulong) as ubyte pauseus 1 Return 33 End Function Dim Time1,Time2,a as ulong Dim b as ubyte While 1 Time1 = GetUs() For a = 1 to 100 b = TestFunc(111) Next a Time2 = GetUs() Print "Time:";Time2-Time1;" [ENTER]"; Input$(1) WendWhen runing this using flexbasic with optimizer level 1 (-O1) then output is as follows
Time:422 [ENTER]But when the Function runs in cog (
Function for "cog" TestFunc(Adr As ulong) as ubyte) it hangs and nothing is displayed.This only seems to happen with optimizer level -O1
So switching to optimizer level 0 or 2 also fixes it.
But also removing the "pauseus" statement fixes this.
Strange......
@aaaaaaaargh : Thank you for the bug report. The problem is that the optimizer is incorrectly putting the loop that calls TestFunc into FCACHE if TestFunc is marked as "cog". The pausems function also uses FCACHE, and so this causes corruption. WIth -O0 there is no fcache, and with -O2 the pausems is inlined and so doesn't need to be called.
This will be fixed in the next version, but for now, avoid using the
for "cog"specifier for functions that are not leaf functions (i.e. that call other functions).@ersmith It appears some mischief is occuring in the way of things being relocated in 5.9.1-BETA in Windows. Specifically any attempt to access the "Terminal Only" option from "Main Menu - > Special -> Terminal Only" gives you:
I noted that LoadP2.exe is located in the 'd:/Flex2Gui/flexgui/src/bin/loadp2" path instead, so as a quick fix I just created the missing directory and copied the file, but I figured you'd want to know for the next release.
EDIT: Whoops. Looks like several things didn't make it into the "new" tree. I cant compile either, (same missing file error) so I just copied the whole schmutz over.
EDIT2: Now I can get the compiler to run, but it isn't finding some of the C libraries. Example:
EDIT3: It also looks like there were some changes to the SPIN parser. When compiling ERSmith's ANSI.SPIN, it got grumpy when IF/ELSEIF's used a mix of tabs and spaces for indents. I've never actually edited this code (Me no se habla Spin), and it's compiled fine up until now.
EDIT4: Having fixed the above (I think), now it's not finding libc/unix/mount.c
I had 6.0 beta on my Linux box, that was having similar problems. Once I loaded 5.9.1BETA to my Linux box, everything started working as expected. I can confirm that the Windows 5.9.1 BETA is showing the same same thing on my Windows box.
Ray
Sorry for the mix-up with 5.9.1; the version I uploaded had the wrong paths. I've put a corrected version up on Patreon that should have this fixed.
The TABS problem has probably been there for a while. For maximum compatibility you should set the FlexGui tab stops to 8 characters -- that option is passed to the compiler and used by it to figure out indentation in Spin code.
@ERSmith: This may just be a lack of information on my part, but here goes. RE: FlexBASIC 5.9.1-B under windows with REV C Eval board. The code I'm using to show this is below.
Issue #1: If FLASH is enabled on the board, you cant use the SD card. And vice-versa.
To prove it, configure the switches like this, insert an SD card and run the test code below. You can't compile to flash (or boot from flash), but the SD card works fine:
Now change one switch and you can compile to flash (and boot from it), but the SD card wont work:
My understanding is that FLASH and SD should coexist together, but it doesn't seem to work that way. Any idea what is going on here?
ISSUE #2: While looking thru the FS code in SDMM.CC, I came on this:
static void dly_us (UINT n) /* Delay n microseconds (avr-gcc -Os) */ { _waitx( n * 160 ); }As I read this, that will produce an N uS delay... but only at 160 mhz. There are a bunch of different calls to that routine in the filesystem code. I was having some flakey issues with reading/writing to the SD card, and when I changed that 160 to 320 the problems started getting better. Is there a better way to do this delay that accounts for CPU speed? (Not a C coder here!)
Find below the test code I used for Issue #1. Ugly, but works:
OPTION EXPLICIT ' must declare all variables explicitly OPTION BASE 0 ' array base index is zero, not one CONST _clkfreq = 320_000_000 dim tmpbuffer$, filename$ as string dim myerr as long filename$ = "/sd/file.txt" tmpbuffer$ = "THIS IS A TEST. " print print "SDMMC Test" print "========================" try print "WRITE PHASE:" print "-Attempting MOUNT..."; mount ("/sd", _vfs_open_sdcard()) print " success!" print "-Attempting OPEN..."; open filename$ for append as #3 print " success!" print "-Attempting WRITE..."; print #3 tmpBuffer$; print " success!" print "-Attempting CLOSE..."; close #3 print " success!" print print "READ PHASE:" print "-Attempting OPEN..."; open "/sd/file.txt" for input as #3 print " success!" print "-Attempting READ..."; tmpbuffer$ = "" tmpbuffer$ = input$(128,3) print " success!" print " Data:["; tmpbuffer$; "]" print "-Attempting CLOSE..."; close #3 print " success!" print catch myErr 'no sd card, card is full, etc print print "ERROR=";myErr; " [";strError$(myErr); "]" end try print "========================" print "All done."@ersmith Another bit of wierdness for you: The FlexBASIC GetUS() function works for about ~75 minutes after boot up (on a 320mhz clock setting). When it hits 0xFFFF_FFFF, it stops there. It doesn't roll over and start counting back at 0x0000_0000. So any program that uses GetUS() will run for ~75 minutes before it stops working correctly. I assume the same issue will be present in GetMS() and GetSec() as well, but I haven't tried those due to the long time involved. From the docs:
The docs don't actually say the function WILL work past the 32-bit terminal count on the P2 (the wrap seems only to occur for the P1), so I cant really call this a bug, but... is there any way to make these function(s) roll over to zero when they reach max count on the P2? (Or make them 64 bits, since the underlying system counter in the P2 is 64 bits, and because then it would take me ~1,827 years to find the next rollover bug to gripe about, in which case I'll be forced to file that bug report in the afterlife).
I honestly don't know if this is a hardware or software issue. Is there any way you can test it with some other software (not FlexProp's built in SD routines)? I'm not in a position right now to be able to try this on a real board.
Ouch, that's some old crufty code. Instead of the
_waitx( n*160 )it should read_waitus(n).Actually it's even weirder than that, it kind of "bounces" at 0 and then starts counting down. It's my mistake, I assumed that the qdiv instruction to do a 64 bit by 32 bit division would wrap around on overflow, but it doesn't, it does some weird stuff with the remainder instead. I'll try to find a work-around in the next release.
What is the command to create a textfile and print to it in Spin2?
There isn't one, Spin2 doesn't have any file handling routines built in. If you want to do that sort of thing you'd be better off to use BASIC.
With Flex you can easily leverage the strengths of each language. Write the file handling routines in BASIC, include them as an object in your Spin code, and then pass the object a pointer to the buffer in your Spin code.
@ersmith Is there any way in FlexBASIC to define a string constant that does not contain "typeable" characters? What I'm looking for is a constant for a CR (or LF, or a BS, etc), but this doesn't work:
In the first case, the compiler doesn't know about CHR$() as it relates to making a constant, and in the other it just assigns the value of 13. If the text was "typeable", then it would be easy:
I'm confuzzified.