ACTION! BUG SHEET #3 - part 4

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          PROBLEMS WITH PAD

We will list the problems (and
solutions) regarding the Programmer's
Aid Disk here in reasonably compact
form.

1.  BGET/BPUT PROBLEMS -- The BGet
    and BPut routines in the IO.ACT
    file do not work properly under
    certain conditions.  To fix this
    bug, replace the BGet and BPut
    routines with the following
    ACTION! code:

    ;********************************
    ;Burst (Block) I/O routines to do
    ;quick disk I/O, utilizing a call
    ; to CIO
    ;********************************

    PROC CIO=$E456( BYTE areg, xreg )

    ;********************************

    CARD FUNC Burst( BYTE chan, mode,
                CARD addr, buflen )

      TYPE IOCB=[BYTE id,num,cmd,stat
                 CARD badr,padr,blen
                 BYTE a1,a2,a3,
                      a4,a5,a6]

      IOCB POINTER iptr

      chan ==& $07
      iptr = $340+(chan LSH 4)
      iptr.cmd  = mode
      iptr.blen = buflen
      iptr.badr = addr
      CIO( 0, chan LSH 4 )
    RETURN( iptr.blen )

    ;********************************

    CARD FUNC BGet( BYTE chan,
                    CARD addr, len )
      CARD temp

      temp = Burst(chan,7,addr,len)
    RETURN( temp )

    ;********************************

    PROC BPut(BYTE chan,
              CARD addr,len)
      Burst( chan, 11, addr, len )
    RETURN

2.  PRINTF -- The PRINTF routine has
    a bug which was reported and
    fixed in the Spring, 1984
    newsletter.  In the file
    PRINTF.ACT, use the ACTION!
    editor to find
       args ==+ s
    and change it to
       args ==+ 2

3.  PLAYER/MISSILE GRAPHICS --
    Because S: uses some memory just
    below the display list
    (undocumented), our method of
    finding the base address for
    Player/Missile Graphics needs a
    slight revision.  Use the ACTION!
    editor with the file PMG.ACT to
    find
      PM_BaseAdr=(HiMem-
            PM_MemSize(mode))
            &PM_AdrMask(mode)
    and change it to
      PM_BaseAdr=(HiMem-
            PM_MemSize(mode)-$80)
            &PM_AdrMask(mode)

4.  If you use the PMMove procedure
    and specify a vertical movement
    of zero, the horizontal movement
    does not take place (it should).
    To fix this, change the lines in
    PMG.ACT which read
       IF deltay=0 THEN
         RETURN ; do nothing
       FI
    to the following:
       IF deltay=0 THEN
         ; do horizontal anyway
         PMHpos(n)=x
         RETURN
       FI

5.  PLAYER/MISSILE GRAPHICS -- The
    documentation for PMG.ACT states
    that you may read the contents of
    PMHpos to find the horizontal
    position of a player or missile.
    This is simply not true.  PMHpos
    is a set of write-only hardware
    registers.  (Note that in the
    ToolKit we have added a shadow
    array and changed the name of the
    hardware registers, so this works
    correctly.  If you wish, you
    could consider doing something
    similar on your PAD.)

6.  REAL NUMBER ROUTINES -- There are
    two discrepancies in PROCedure
    names in the REAL.ACT library as
    compared to the REAL.DOC
    documentation, as follow:
      Name in .DOC     Name in .ACT
        StrR             RealToStr
        ValR             StrToReal
    We suggest that you change the
    source code in REAL.ACT to
    reflect the names given in the
    documentation (rather than vice
    versa), since this makes the
    names appear compatibile with the
    library's other number-string
    conversion routines.

7.  REAL NUMBER ROUTINES -- In that
    same area, the routine RealToStr
    (or should that be StrR?) needs
    to change the line which reads
       ptr=LBuff
    to the following:
       ptr=InBuff

8.  ALLOC.ACT -- The free list
    pointer may not be set up
    properly.  Also, when freeing a
    block, right adjacency is not
    handled properly if left
    adjacency has already been found.
    Fix these problems as follows:

    In the PROCedure Free, after the
    line reading:
       last.size==+nBytes
    insert the line:
       target=last

    Also, in the same procedure,
    change the line reading:
      IF target+nBytes=current THEN
    to read:
      IF target+target.size
            =current THEN

    In the PROCedure AllocInit,
    replace the line reading:
      FreeList.next=p
    with the following lines:
      FreeList=p
      p==+4
      FreeList.next=p

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          TOOLKIT TROUBLES

It's hard to believe that a product
as new as the ACTION! ToolKit can
already have bug reports.  Sigh.
Anyway, there are already three
versions of the ToolKit.  Version 1
has 31 free sectors (when you list
its directory).  Version 2 has fewer
free sectors and the second line of
the file MUSIC.DEM reads ";Version
2".  On version 3, the file ABS.ACT
starts with the version number.  This
last convention will be followed in
future versions.  The comments here
are organized by affected version(s).

VERSION 1 ONLY

1.  I/O ROUTINES -- The manual
    describes a routine called Format
    (in the IO.ACT library), but no
    such procedure exists on the
    disk.  However, the routine is
    there--it's just called Init
    instead.  You should change your
    disk to match your manual.

2.  MUSIC.DEM -- The program called
    MUSIC.DEM will not work as is on
    older 400/800 machines.  This is
    because it uses a call to
    Graphics(15), which is only
    available on XL machines.  You
    may change the program to use
    Graphics(8) with no effect except
    that the true colors of mode 15
    become artifact colors in mode 8
    instead.

VERSIONS 1 AND 2

1.  REAL ROUTINES -- There are two
    discrepancies in PROCedure names
    in the REAL.ACT library as
    compared to the REAL.DOC
    documentation, as follow:

      Name in .DOC     Name in .ACT
         StrR            RealToStr
         ValR            StrToReal

    We suggest that you change the
    source code in REAL.ACT to
    reflect the names given in the
    documentation (rather than vice
    versa), since this makes the
    names appear compatibile with the
    library's other number-string
    conversion routines.

2.  SORT ROUTINES -- There are four
    discrepancies in PROCecure names
    in the SORT.ACT library as
    compared to the SORT.ACT
    documentation, as follows:

       Name in .DOC    Name in .ACT
          SortB           BSort
          SortC           CSort
          SortI           ISort
          SortS           SSort

    Please change your disk file to
    agree with your manual.

3.  PRINTF -- The PRINTF routine has
    a bug which was reported and
    fixed in the Sprint, 1984
    newsletter.  In the file
    PRINTF.ACT, use the ACTION!
    editor to find
       args ==+ s
    and change it to
       args ==+ 2

VERSIONS 1, 2, AND 3.

1.  ALLOC ROUTINES -- The manual in-
    dicates that the procedure
    AllocInit requires that you pass
    it the address of the first free
    byte of memory (because Alloc
    "dispenses" memory from the first
    free byte through the top of
    memory, as correctly described in
    the manual).  However, since you
    MUST follow the procedure
    described in the introduction to
    ALLOCATE.ACT (that is, you must
    declare in your program a CARD
    called EndProg and use the
    command
       SET EndProg=*
    after compiling), the parameter
    to AllocInit is not really needed
    and so has been eliminated.
    (AllocInit uses EndProg just as
    Alloc does.)  If you pass a
    parameter to AllocInit, it will
    be ignored.

2.  WARP.DEM -- No mention is made in
    the Toolkit manual that this file
    can only be run when compiled
    from disk (unless you are using
    DOS XL to gain extra memory).
    WARP.DEM is just too big for
    ACTION! to hold both the source
    and object in memory at one time.

3.  ALLOCATE.ACT -- The free list
    pointer may not be set up
    properly.  Also, when freeing a
    block, right adjacency is not
    handled properly if left
    adjacency has already been found.
    Fix these problems as follows:

    In the PROCedure Free, after the
    line reading:
      last.size==+nBytes
    insert the line:
      target=last

    Also, in the same procedure,
    change the line reading:
      IF target+nBytes=current THEN
    to read:
      IF target+target.size
            =current THEN

    In the PROCedure AllocInit,
    replace the line reading:
      p=EndProg
    with the following lines:
      FreeList=EndProg
      p=EndProg+4