106 lines
3.1 KiB
Text
106 lines
3.1 KiB
Text
# RETRO 2020.01
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The 2020.1 release of RETRO brings many improvements.
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# Signed Releases
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Starting with 2020.1, each release will include a signing key to
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allow verification of the release. Additionally, each release will
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include the signing key to be used for the following release so
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that there is both reliable key rotation and a verifiable chain
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of trust across releases.
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# Tooling Updates
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The HTML export for the examples has been updated. It now averages
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a 7.4% decrease in conversion and a 26% decrease in exported file
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size.
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retro-locate(1) was added to search the `tags` file created by
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retro-tags(1).
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# Assembler
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The assembler is now provided by Rx. This was a technical challenge,
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but well worth the effort. By making it part of the kernel it has
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become possible to use assembly, rather than raw bytecode, in all
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parts of retro.forth. This is allowing for a significant amount of
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hand tuning to the standard library, reducing the memory footprint
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and improving performance overall.
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Some highlights of this:
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- Reduced the assembler size from 661 cells to 109 cells
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- No increase to the size of the reserved space for Rx
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- Renamed the `en`d instruction to `ha`lt
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- Added new prefixes for working with the assembler instead of
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requiring use `as{` and `}as`.
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- Deprecated `as{` and `}as` (these will be removed in the
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2020.04 release)
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Example of the changes:
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(old)
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as{ 'liliad.. i #2 d #3 d 'lica.... i 'n:put r }as
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(new)
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\liliad.. `2 `3 \lica.... ^n:put
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# Standard Library
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I fixed all reported bugs.
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As noted previously, the assembler is now in the kernel. This
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allowed replacement of raw bytecode in the standard library
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with actual assembly, aiding in readability and maintainability.
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The use of assembly to fine tune select words has allowed both
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size reduction and performance improvements.
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A few words have been deprecated due to lack of use and will be
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removed in the 2020.4 release:
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- prefix:"
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- "
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# Nga
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I reorganized the source tree. This separates the implementations
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by language and tries to keep things better structured. The Forth
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code for the I/O devices is now in a separate directory, allowing
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it to be more easily shared across implementations. Bugs related
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to the numeric range queries were fixed.
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The JavaScript implementation has seen a number of changes. Dead
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code was removed, the formatting was redone to ensure consistency,
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a framebuffer device was added, and performance was improved. The
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code now consists of multiple files, making editing easier, and
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the interface layout has been updated.
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Testing with the optional 64-bit cells has been completed and no
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issues were found.
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# Retro on Unix
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I added an `s:get-word`, removed some deprecated words, and updated
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the memory limits to reduce overall memory usage under the default
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configuration.
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# Documentation
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The documentation has been updated, adding in new examples, removing
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material that is no longer relevant, and several new sections were
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added.
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# Examples
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New examples:
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- HTTP GET via sockets
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- HTTP POST via sockets
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- enum
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- minimize (from Kiyoshi)
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- fifo queue
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Updated:
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- Gott example (from Kiyoshi)
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