Odd Action! bug

[Alfred]

While searching for stuff on Action! I found the ksquiggles web page where he as archived the columns by Russ Wetmore. Reading them I learned a few things, and the strangest I think is the bug with regard to

absolute variable addressing. Wetmore points out that

 

BYTE
COLOR1=$2C4, i, j, k

 

produces larger code than

 

BYTE
COLOR1=$2C4, i=[0], j=[0], k=[0]

 

When I saw that I thought, he's wrong, that's not how it works. In fact he's right. i,j,k are spaced at three byte intervals in the first example, and in the second they are spaced at the proper one byte interval.

 

It absolutely should not be doing that, and I don't see offhand why it would be. Setting the value merely sets the address field in the symbol table, and should have no effect on the codegen. Yet if data is coded to be deposited, it then ignores the three byte setting and goes back to the single byte spacing like it should. Very odd.

 

I'm going to have a look at the source, maybe it's something that can be fixed without too much trouble. In the meantime, seems like leave all your =$xxxx absolute defines to the end.

[a8isa1]

It's stranger yet.

 

If you have

 

BYTE

COLOR1=$2C4, i, j, k=[0]

then the spacing interval is now 4 bytes.

9881,$2699 = ' $04A7 167 1191
9885,$269D = N $434E 78 17230
9889,$26A1 =   $4C00 0 19456

[EDIT]

Nevermind. It was always 4 bytes. Sorry.

Edited December 11, 2018 by a8isa1

[luckybuck]

Alfred, Alfred, always a pleasure, I thought ACTION! is closed... I have to think again... Thank you.

Btw., if you are searching for stuff and come across here:

https://atariwiki.org/wiki/Wiki.jsp?page=Action#section-Action-StillMissingGraphicsUtilitiesLibraryAndShapeEditor

please let us know. These are the last 2 official programs missing for Action!

 

On the other hand, we will never be able to pay back, what you all have done for the community.

 

But most important, you are still with us. Please stand by. Great things will come soon!