Recent Posts

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

Clearly it would break any program that relies upon the format of the default error handler.

Examples please.

Especially given as how:

• This won’t affect the BASIC program itself as the error is what is returned when there’s no active error action set up – so we are not changing BASIC to be more useful to programmers because of some vague third party something-or-other working at a lower level than BASIC itself.

now, the big one:

• BASIC itself is inconsistent.

*BASIC
ARM BBC BASIC V (C) Acorn 1989

Starting with 4190460 bytes free

>10 CRAP
>RUN
Mistake at line 10
>SAVE "$.__crap"
>*Filer_Run $.__crap
>

[error box on screen says, simply, “Mistake” – where’s the “at line 10” part?]

And, finally:

• In both cases, ERL points to the error line and REPORT$ says “Mistake”. So making the error message more helpful doesn’t need to imply messing up the message in REPORT$.

<Columbo> Oh, and one final thing… </Columbo>

• If one can’t mess with the error format, presumably because something might attempt to parse the error – really seriously stupid given what can be returned as an error…

10SYS "OS_GenerateError", "Life and everything about it SUCKS!"
>RUN
SWI &2B returned a bad error pointer at line 10

Reason is simple – the error message needed four bytes making what, to the OS, looks like a valid error number (though it probably shouldn’t be the OS’ job to vet the number passed). That particular error is fairly new, and if you prefix the string with CHR$(0) four times, then it’s clear that one can pass practically anything to a BASIC program to get reported as an error message. So, yeah, what was the argument again?

>10SYS "OS_GenerateError", CHR$(0)+CHR$(0)+CHR$(0)+CHR$(0)+"Something happened at line at line at line at line"
>RUN
Something happened at line at line at line at line at line 10
>

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

we have until the year 2176

Must put an event in Organiser to remind me to be on the lookout at the appropriate time / day. I wonder what version of Pi that would be by then…

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

I might be poor! but .. no I am on £5 / month to general bounty :D It is nice to pay for being able to “work” with RISC OS :)

Topic: Aldershot / Frobnicate

someone who seemed to delight in writing totally unreadble code.

Every code is unreadable after Textile has been at it. ;-)

Try: <pre><code> …put the code here… </code></pre>

[looks at modified code example]

Seriously? I think I’d need to see the assembly just to work out WTF it is actually doing/testing/checking!

Topic: Aldershot / Frobnicate

C has many “gotchas”! (I personally hate the ?: operator)

A lot of the Doom source code was written by “Killough”, someone who seemed to delight in writing totally unreadble code.

  floorplane = (frontsector->floorheight < viewz	// killough 3/7/98
        || (frontsector->heightsec != -1
        && sectors[frontsector->heightsec].ceilingpic == skyflatnum) ?
        R_FindPlane(frontsector->floorheight,
            (frontsector->floorpic == skyflatnum	// killough 10/98
                && (frontsector->sky & PL_SKYFLAT) ? frontsector->sky : frontsector->floorpic),
            floorlightlevel,				// killough 3/16/98
            frontsector->floor_xoffs,			// killough 3/7/98
            frontsector->floor_yoffs) : NULL);

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

I agree published APIs should not be changed if possible. But I have never understood the ‘format of the default error handler’ to be a published API. It does some stuff and creates a (variable) message. I have written some dubious code at times, but I have never considered, or depended on, the format of the error message. Many times I have cursed that a simple program needs an ON ERROR just to see where an error was!

The current default handler does display ERL if QUIT is not TRUE – usually when a program is run from within the BASIC interpreter

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

Wow, how far off topic has this drifted!

Looking at the donation button, is there a way to set up a recurring donation?

Yes, it’s hidden under the General bounty :-(

Steve, while we’ve got your attention – GIVE THIS ITS OWN BUTTON ON THE DONATE PAGE! Sorry for shouting, but I’ve been saying this for years, and it is clearly still a problem as this question comes up regularly. You need to make it as obvious as possible. If enough people gave a regular donation ROOL could employ a full time programmer! (assuming they can find one, seeing RO Dev’s probelms)

the main thing I find jarring whenever I return to RISC OS is the lack of text selection, and cut and paste in writeable icons.

Also jarring when switching from a RO Select machine, which has had this for about 15 years :-(

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

IIRC the default BASIC error handler prints the full message with line number if the program is run on the command line but only the error if run from the desktop.

Topic: General / Zero Page Info

Any info on the this call?

Portable_ReadFeatures

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

Clearly it would break any program that relies upon the format of the default error handler. RISC OS and BBC BASIC have historically tried to avoid making breaking changes such as this to published interfaces. It’s the main reason why you’re still able to run a lot of stuff written in the 80’s for Beeb on a RISC OS 5-powered Titanium. My gut tells me not to meddle with the default error handler in BASIC, even if we do all agree it’s a bit sucky.

Topic: General / Zero Page Info

Thanks for the pointers. (vrpc)

Seems :-

SYS XPortable_ReadFeatures TO ,Z%
(Any info on the this call?)

A%=Z%

Then code called to do:-

str R0,&F81 for RO4.02

(; Gets set in PortableFlags when we’ve switched to slow speed)

(What is the correct RO5.xx method?)

Thanks

[edit1] that was (TO ,Z%)

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

5-byte centisecond counts from 1-Jan-1900 carry us well beyond the dreaded Unix problem expected at 2038.01.19 03:14:07 UTC?

This is a problem for Unix but not for RISC OS which uses unsigned integer, so we have until the year 2176 (approximately). I presume it is an advantage for Unix in that it can handle dates from 1762 rather than from 1900.

Topic: General / Zero Page Info

As Rick states, its PortableFlags

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

The suggestion from Rick of making it a default

I think Rick was suggesting that
+ " at " + STR$(ERL)
was added to the default error handler, which I would agree with. The default handler is overridden by an ON ERROR in the program anyway. What problems could that cause?

Topic: Community Support / UpCall 15 missed events

Does UpCall 15 get raised for every buffer that receives data? Or is it raised once when several buffers receive data at the same time?

I’ve noticed that if I check for R1=< stream handle > I’m missing events, as if the event was raised for another buffer. If I remove the check, I don’t miss any events.

Or is there a more reliable method for receiving USB data that I should be using?

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

However, for any serious debugging, particularly of Wimp programs, Reporter is most useful to be able to easily display the values of any variables in real time.

Agreed. The simple version incorporated in BASIC itself is easier to implement though and suffices for most people.
The suggestion from Rick of making it a default (no ON ERROR required in the program) needs careful thought though as you need to be able to override at times.

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

A lot of those calculators are about as accurate as a roll of the dice. Except they usually go above 66.

By 2038 I’m not even sure if where I’m living will be habitable any more. Will people still be using computers as much then or is it just a “phase”?

Future proofing an RTC is a good idea though, no matter what. One thing can be said is that computers are at a point where the use of an extra word here and there won’t clog up our current storage capabilities.

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

Ricn’s suggestion worked for me and there is now one less thing deterring me from using BASIC on RO, besides having barely touched any varietyy of it since maybe the mid ’90s.

Topic: Community Support / RISC OS And Arduino

Take a look at the ATMega32U4. I ordered a couplle of boards based on them a while back. Hopefully they’ll be here soon-ish.
They have built in USB capability and as a result are in a lot of devices. IIRC my ATMega and ARM STM programmers are based off these. They are also good for putting together custom HID devices if I understand correctly. There is source available. In Arduino land I believe they are the Arduino Leonardo and the new version of the Arduino Micro.
This is of course if you want to go the USB route.
I’m waiting on mine because I want to make a custom Synaptics touchpad USB setup. Not as hard as it sounds.

Topic: Bounties / Are RISC OS folk meanies or just poor?

I would agree that using Reporter just to find the line number of a Mistake is overkill. However, for any serious debugging, particularly of Wimp programs, Reporter is most useful to be able to easily display the values of any variables in real time. I know I would say that … but I also know many others find it useful.

Topic: General / Zero Page Info

It’s just after the error flag to stop MessageTrans recursion, so it’ll be a flags byte used by “portable” (the portable module?).

https://www.riscosopen.org/viewer/view/castle/RiscOS/Sources/Kernel/hdr/KernelWS?rev=4.30#l1550

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

I went to here to see what all the fuss is about.

Hmm, it told me I would live to be 80.66 years.
So I modified it with my BMI (only just slightly into the first overweight section by a decimal place thanks to my predilection for Mars bars), and said I have moderate activity as my job is fairly active (I put my phone in my pocket and let it run a GPS trace while I was working, slaughtered the battery but before the phone pooped out it had already passed 8km!). No smoking.
This adjustment took me to 81.06 years.

Sorry, I don’t buy this one either. Marking myself as proper overweight, knocking back 14-21 units of booze per week and stuff all exercise tells me I’ll make 81.66 years. So clearly the way to a long and happy life is to give up exercise, drink enough to be at risk of alcoholism, and hit the doughnuts big time. Yeah. Riiiiiight.

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

by then

??

:-p

Topic: General / Zero Page Info

What does &F81 do in the Zero Page?

Topic: Aldershot / 2038: here we come

I smell outdated research

Actually there have been a large number of studies on alcohol consumption over many decades that have not produced the “required” result¹ and thus the studies are almost invariably buried as deep as the funders can manage. The funders did like the stats for higher consumption levels² but were upset when the results were corrected by removing other factors³

¹ Most studies have been funded by anti-alcohol groups who have been rather upset when the results indicate moderate alcohol consumption to be better than zero consumption.
² Early studies failed to account for the normal consumption point being a smoke filled public house and therefore bundled in the secondary smoking problems, but despite that people drinking about 2 pints a day (every day) were shown as healthier than tee-totallers. At higher levels people spent more time secondary smoking and the mortality rate climbed alarmingly.
³Removing secondary smoking effects took the positive health to a point where most drinkers I know would consider the consumption a little high.