Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Subject: Re: DICE 2.06.39 to 2.06.40 changes
From: liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz (Liam Greenwood)
Date: 24 Dec 92 22:42:01 GMT+12
Organization: It's Home, really...
X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.1 PL6]

W L Anderson (wlanders@nexus.yorku.ca) wrote:
> Could someone post the version.doc file for DICE  2.06.40?   I've
> got 2.06.39, and I'm wondering what the changes are.

                               VERSION.DOC
                                  DICE

2.06.40
    *   Updates after the first free one will be upped to $15 (they used
        to be $10) as of 1 Jan 1993.

    B   bug in commodore IEEEDPFix() routine found (it would trash D3),
        hack put in library code to save/restore D3 to get around it.

    B   bug in switch() found relating to switch(unsigned_char), would
        not 'find' certain cases when the overall case range is greater
        than 128.  (I wrote a comprehensive test program to construct
        random C switch statements with all signed/unsigned int types
        to ensure that switch() is really fixed this time!)

    B   bug in structure copying code for word-aligned structures would
        mess up the last word in some cases. (doesn't occur with long
        aligned structures)

    B   bug in constant floating point divide fixed, 0.0/<fpconst> would
        cause an endless loop in DC1.

    B   bug in structural returns of the format return (*struct_ptr) has
        been fixed.  Straight structural returns 'return(structure)' were
        not effected.

    B   bug in casts to void fixed, previously generated an error, now
        allowed (no error message).

2.06.39
    F   lstat() function added, understands soft links under 2.0

    F   -unix option added to DCC

    F   -O0 option added to DCC (objects go to current directory instead
        of T:)

    F   setvbuf() was calling _CreatePort() for csr.lib instead of
        @CreatePort()

    F   DICE now supports explicit register specification for arguments
        to procedures through new storage qualifiers __D0, __D1, etc...
        i.e.

        int fubar (__D0 int, __A0 char *);

        int
        fubar(a, p)
        __D0 int a;
        __A0 char *p;
        {
            ...
        }

    F   -mu option added to DCC/DC1, enables unix-style common storage.
        Not currently compatible w/ standard amiga object module format.

2.06.38
    B   fputc() would return a signed char, so fputc(0xFF, ..) would
        return -1 instead of 255.

    B   long % long would return incorrect results for negative arguments
        to the modulus (result would be the wrong sign)

    B   link error w/ large-data model combined with -gs fixed

    B   strstr(str, "") used to return NULL.  It now returns str.

    B   bug in auto (stack) char arrays that are auto-aggregate initialized
        fixed.  An odd sized array initializied like: char ary[31] =
        "abc.."; would crash a 68000 due to an odd-aligned longword access.
        Fixed.

2.06.37
    B   arrays are now aligned the same as their element type
        alignment.  Thus, char a[3]; is byte aligned while short a[3];
        is word aligned. Previously arrays were always word aligned.
        (not really a bug, but required to work with Amiga cia structures)

    F   PROFILING ADDED.  New -prof option to DCC, LIBMAKE, and FDTOLIB.
        This tool gives you unmatched profiling capabilities.  You may
        profile just your source, standard C calls, amiga library calls,
        or any combination.  A <programname>.dprof file is automatically
        generated when your program exits and may be turned into a
        textual representation  with the DPROF program.

        Profiling routines have a 1 uS granularity under 2.0, 20 mS
        granularity under 1.3.

        __noprof qualifier for procedures added -- prevents a procedure
        from being profiled (used by the system to prevent the profiler
        routine from getting profiled itself)

    F   C.LIB renamed to CS.LIB to generalize library names.  Infix IDs
        are now generalized as follows:

        L   large data model
        S   small data model
        R   registered args, else stack args (registered release only)
        P   profiled, else not profiled.

        DCC will now use the -prof and -md/-mD options to determine which
        c.lib and amiga.lib to use.  The more useful combinations are
        included in the distribution and registered users may make
        additional versions as needed.

        Note that you may mix options -- it is perfectly valid to compile
        source modules with -mD but link small-data.

    BL  bug in fread() fixed relating to an fread() occuring after an
        ungetc().

    E   ALL LIBRARIES IN THE SYSTEM REORGANIZED.  There are now many
        more libraries.  Registered users now have a means of remaking
        *ANY* library from scratch by unpacking the library source code
        and typeing 'dmake' with no arguments for instructions. Generally
        only the DTMP: assignment and -2.0 in your DCCOPTS is required.

        Since there are many more libraries possible then I can fit in the
        distribution, this means may be used to create esoteric libraries
        that the majority of people will never use.

    F   Fixed two major bugs with constant floating point arithmatic...
        addition and subtraction would not work correctly in a few cases
        (it would get the sign wrong), the exponent would get screwed up
        in some cases (usually after a negation), and I was overflowing
        the single-precision exponent range for conversions to type float.

        Ooooo this stuff should have been caught long ago!

    F   Fixed a pointer arithmatic bug, yet another case where a scratch
        register would get overwritten due to a procedure call.

2.06.36
    B   register allocation bug fixed, related to floating point
        routines mainly.  Would generate a 'Too many redos' error
        in some cases (bug did not generate bad code).

    F   PRECOMPILED INCLUDES ADDED, see -H option in DOC/DCC.DOC.


2.06.35
    FL  under 2.0 (V37), getenv() now checks for local enviroment variables
        before global ENV: variables.  Under 1.3 only global ENV: variables
        are checked for.

    BL  fixed %U and %W in strftime(), would generate incorrect week-of-year

    B   fixed stringize operator for \n, i.e. quoteme(fubar\n) -> "fubar\n",
        would previously generate incorrect result (I think)

    B   fixed bugs in integer multiply & divide, some cases would generate
        fatal errors (all caught by DICE)

    B   fixed bug &= operator, would generate assembly error in
        conditional:    while (x &= (x - 1)) ...

    F   optimizations made to mulitply & divide, handles 16 bit expressions
        better.

    F   minor optimization added for procedure calls within the same
        module.  If call is within a byte offset then BSR.B will be
        used, else BSR.W is used.

    F   DLink now checks for illegal small-data references to far objects
        and generates the appropriate error message.  This was added for
        completeness and also because __far or -mD data objects are no
        longer A4-relative.  The check will catch illegal model mixing.

2.06.34
    BL  bug in <varargs.h> (old style var-args) fixed, was skipping first
        argument.  Note that all ANSI projects should use <stdarg.h>

2.06.33
    B   bug in offsetof(type, array_elm) fixed, previously caused error
        message.

2.06.32
    B   fixed bug in dlink Introduced in .31 that would cause a machine
        crash.


2.06.31
    B   fixed floating point bug relating to array indexing, would
        clobber A0 in some cases

    B   fixed preprocessor bug relating to the use of hex constants
        in #if expressions (they wouldn't work)

    E   redid the handling of the ?: routine to allocate its result
        storage (a temporary register) after running the sub-expressions
        instead of before, which allows you to nest ?: indefinitely without
        generating an too-many-redos error.

    B   register allocation bug (would generate fatal error) in
        &array (redundant & operator) has been fixed.

    B   DCPP now accepts null directives.  # with no directive.

2.06.30

    F   DCPP now evaluates undefined symbols in #if expressions as 0
        instead of generating an error message, as per ANSI.

    B   Yet another bug in the # (stringtize) operator found.  Fixed.
        Really really really should work right this time!

    B   bug in switch/case fixed, case <enumid>: would generate an
        error message.

    BA  I was shipping the wrong mathieeedoub*.library shared libraries,
        would cause erronous float->double conversion.

    B   another floating point bug found in && and || of the
        form 'fp && fp' or 'fp || fp', would cause incorrect
        evaluation and/or assembly error

    B   small bug in fread() would sometimes set error flag
        when returning EOF, and fseek() would not reset this
        flag (it does now).

    BL  bug in *scanf(), %c would overwrite the char by one byte
        (i.e. store into two chars instead of one).  fixed.

    B   DCPP didn't handle a quoted /* in directives correctly.

    F   Large programs that have more than 64K of *initialized* data
        may now use either __far for selected items (preferable) or -mD
        without causing link errors.  Previously dlink would combine far
        data along with near data making all small-data referenced bss
        items out of range if more than 64K of initialized data had been
        declared, __far or not.  Now, DC1 generates 'fardata' sections
        properly when -mD or __far is used (previously only worked with
        __far), and dlink will not combine any section name beginning with
        'far' into the small data model.

        This is only of major import when compiling incredibly huge
        programs.  Note that having greater than 64K of bss with -mD or
        __Far has always been supported since library bss is always forced
        in front of program bss.

    F   DLink now takes approximately 15% less memory.  While it still
        requires memory to hold the combined size of all objects and
        libraries, incidental memory requirements now reuse much of this
        memory from unlinked sections instead of allocate new memory.

2.06.29
    B   another long standing bug found: short a = i * j; where i and j
        are long's and *also* a memory reference (not in regs),
        the multiplication short-result optimization was screwed up.

    B   register allocation bug (would produce a fatal error) fixed,
        registers would not be deallocated in constant conditional
        expressions such as:    1 ? (a = 4) : b;

2.06.28
    B   really dumb bug fixed, made retroactive to 2.06.27 (all 2.06.27
        dists were redone with this fixed).  Had been introduced in 2.06.27

2.06.27
    E   add -// option to DCC and DCPP, enables C++ style // comments.
        If not specified, // style comments are ignored.  Generally
        one puts -// in DCCOPTS.

    E   added -no-env option for DCC.  If specified, DCC will *not*
        load options from DCCOPTS.

    B   fixed bug:  static int fio(), fio();  (procedure declared twice
        on same line) would force procedure to be non-static.

        fixed bug:  __geta4 int fio(), bar(); ... __geta4 would apply
        only to first procedure.

    B   fixed bug w/ labels ...  label: case ...  would generate error
        message (case or default following directly after label).  Was
        introduced when I initially fixed labels.

    E   AUTO-AGGREGATE INITIALIZATION ADDED, e.g.
        main() { int a[] = { 1, 2, 3 }; ... }.

        static & global initialization has been re-vamped.  Note that
        bit-field aggregate initialization is NOT supported yet.

    B   Fixed bug that has been in there from the beginning.
        int *a; a[20000] = 1; ... would not multiply the constant by 4 to
        get the index.  ONLY EFFECTED CONSTANT INDEXES WHOS OFFSET WOULD BE
        LARGER THAN A SIGNED SHORT, which is why it was not caught.

    B   Fixed bug in float point stack allocation... temporary fp variables
        from the previous procedure would not properly be cleared from the
        cache, causing erronous stack offsets (that overlap other variables)
        in the next procedure.

    E   Added ANSI 'U' extension for constants, e.g. 123U.  DICE now
        automatically promotes a constant to unsigned if it does not fit in
        a signed long, such as 4000000000.  Note, however, the int->float
        conversion is currently always signed due to lack of
        unsigned->float calls in the amiga's shared fp libraries.

    B   small bug in fread(), would not set the EOF flag when an EOF
        occurs for an fread() requesting a buffer size larger than the
        stdio buffer size.

    B   when making a registered-args call (-mr, -mR, -mRR) where a
        pointer - int subtraction occurs, i.e. foo(ptr - int, int),
        arguments after the argument containing the ptr - int would
        be incorrect (registers would get squashed).  ONLY applies
        to registered-args calls.  This has been fixed!

    B   bug in preprocessor fixed, #define fubar(x) "a x a" would replace
        the 'x' in the string, which is wrong.

    B   bug with bitfields has been found and fixed.  Essentially, bitfield
        operations in routines that need to run a retry pass can get
        munged.  This is usually caused by routines that declare lots of
        local variables.

2.06.26
    B   Fixed bug in floating pt compare of the form:  x = (f1 == f2);
        i.e. a compare where the result is a boolean 0/1 when not in
        a conditional.  Was caught by DICE (caused a fatal error).

    B   Fixed bug w/ bitfields (was caught by DICE), would give fatal
        error if destination was not a register for field extraction.

    B   fixed bugs with stringtize operator in macros, should now work
        according to the ANSI spec.

        #define fubar(x) #x

    BL  month was off by one for %m operator in strftime()

     E  PROCEDURES MAY NOW RETURN STRUCTURES.  YOU MUST PROTOTYPE ALL SUCH
        PROCEDURES.

     E  added // comments to DCPP (C++ style comments)

2.06.25
    E   doc/errors.doc now exists, error handling centralized.

    E   a printer driver and exec device driver example has been added to
        examples/ ... so now I have a shared library example, dos device
        driver example, EXEC device driver and printer driver example.

2.06.24
    B   stack allocation changes in 2.06.23 were broken, broke floating point.
        (got the stack tracking mixed up w/ variable allocation)

    B   ?: fix in 2.06.23 was broken (sigh), fixed ... 'default:' would
        not be properly tokenized.

    E   *scanf() now supports %e/E/f/g/G and %[..]

2.06.23 BETA
    B   goto labels are now in their own name space, no more conflicts
        with  int a; ... goto a; ... a: ...

    F   added stack tracking for fp temporaries, meaning that subroutines
        containing floating point expressions do not take up anywhere near
        the amount of stack they used to.

    F   allows declarations after switch() { and before first case.

    F   fixed problem with  ... ? symbol : ...  (symbol was being
        interpreted as a label instead of a variable within a ?:
        conditional

    F   fixed problems with conditional returns from fp operations,
        such as:        double a, b; int c = (a < b);  that must
        generate a 0/1 result instead of a branch (as in an if()).
        Would generate error before.

version trace for 2.06.22 and below retired


--
 Liam Greenwood ------ liam@durie.amigans.gen.nz ------ Wanganui, N.Z.
                 Don't tell my Mother I'm a programmer,
               she thinks I'm a piano player in a brothel