comments and prepare new version 7.7

codeGeneration/src/prog8/codegen/target/cpu6502/codegen/BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen.kt

@@ -37,7 +37,8 @@ internal class BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen(private val program: Program, private val
                 SourceStorageKind.ARRAY -> src.array!!
                 else -> {
                     // TODO make it so that we can assign efficiently from something else as an expression....namely: register(s)
-                    // but for now, first assign it to a temporary variable
+                    //      this is useful in pipe expressions for instance, to skip the use of a temporary variable
+                    //      but for now, just assign it to a temporary variable and use that as a source
                     val tempvar = asmgen.getTempVarName(src.datatype)
                     val assignTempvar = AsmAssignment(
                         src,

codeGeneration/src/prog8/codegen/target/cpu6502/codegen/assignment/AssignmentAsmGen.kt

@@ -287,7 +287,7 @@ internal class AssignmentAsmGen(private val program: Program, private val asmgen
                     }
                     is BinaryExpression -> {
                         if(value.operator in ComparisonOperators) {
-                            // TODO real optimized code for comparison expressions
+                            // TODO real optimized code for comparison expressions that yield a boolean result value
                             // for now generate code for this:  assign-false; if expr { assign-true }
                             translateNormalAssignment(
                                 AsmAssignment(

compiler/res/version.txt

@@ -1 +1 @@
-7.7-dev
+7.7

compiler/test/ast/TestProg8Parser.kt

@@ -796,7 +796,7 @@ class TestProg8Parser: FunSpec( {
         val ff = start.statements[4] as Assignment
         ff.value shouldBe NumericLiteralValue(DataType.UBYTE, 255.0, Position.DUMMY)
         val letter = start.statements[6] as Assignment
-        // TODO characters should not be encoded until code generation, like strings...
+        // TODO characters should perhaps not be encoded until code generation, like strings... however this will prevent optimizing expressions with characters
         val encodedletter = Petscii.encodePetscii("A", true).getOrElse { fail("petscii error") }.single()
         letter.value shouldBe NumericLiteralValue(DataType.UBYTE, encodedletter.toDouble(), Position.DUMMY)
     }

docs/source/todo.rst

@@ -52,12 +52,11 @@ Future Things and Ideas
 
 More optimization ideas
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
-- translateFunctioncall() in BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen: should be able to assign parameters directly from register(s)
+- translateFunctioncall() in BuiltinFunctionsAsmGen: should be able to assign parameters to a builtin function directly from register(s), this will make the use of a builtin function in a pipe expression more efficient without using a temporary variable
 - translateNormalAssignment() -> better code gen for assigning boolean comparison expressions
-- if a for loop's loopvariable isn't referenced in the body, replace by a repeatloop
+- when a for loop's loopvariable isn't referenced in the body, and the iterations are known, replace the loop by a repeatloop
-- automatically convert if statements that test for multiple values (if X==1 or X==2..) to if X in [1,2,..] statements, instead of just a warning
+- automatically convert if statements that test for multiple values (if X==1 or X==2..) to if X in [1,2,..] statements, instead of just a warning.
-- byte typed expressions should be evaluated in the accumulator where possible, without (temp)var
+- rewrite expression tree evaluation such that it doesn't use an eval stack but flatten the tree into linear code that uses a fixed number of predetermined value 'variables'?
-  for instance  value = otherbyte >> 1   -->  lda otherbite ; lsr a; sta value
-- rewrite expression tree evaluation such that it doesn't use an eval stack but flatten the tree into linear code that uses a fixed number of predetermined value 'variables'
 - this removes the need for the BinExprSplitter? (which is problematic and very limited now)
+  and perhaps as well the assignment splitting in  BeforeAsmAstChanger too
 - introduce byte-index operator to avoid index multiplications in loops over arrays? see github issue #4