Great Cow BASIC
	An open-source BASIC compiler for microcontrollers
	Great Cow BASIC Updates
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	This lists the bugfixes and changes to GCBASIC made since the last release (0.9.3.0). You can obtain the latest version in 2 different files: update.zip, which includes all files changed since the last release. Use this if the current version of GCBASIC you have installed is older than 15/11/2009. Size is about 3.0 MB. update-nochipdata.zip, which includes all files changed since the last release, except for the chip data files. Use this if the version of GCBASIC you have installed is dated 15/11/2009 or later. Size is about 0.5 MB. The most recent help file is included in these files. It is also available online here. Note: The update files are also in the file release system for GCBASIC. Check in the "Unstable" download folder.
	29/11/2009 Fixed bank selection bug on PIC 12F/16F (occured when first instruction in subroutine accessed data outside of bank 0) Changed name of constant in random.h - RandomTimer constant is now named RANDOMIZE_SEED. Changed default random seed from TMR0 to Timer0 - now works on both PIC and AVR. Added help articles on pseudo random number generator 26/11/2009 Fixed interrupt bug on PIC 12F/16F (random crash when interrupt occurs during a call to a subroutine not in page 0) 15/11/2009 Added automatic pin direction setting (only sets pins if not set by Dir command) Added support for enhanced midrange PICs (tested with PIC16F1936) Added software I2C routines Altered default oscillator settings on PIC: Will now use internal oscillator if it can give the required speed If internal oscillator not suitable, uses HS oscillator for chips over 4 MHz, or XT for under. Fixed page selection bug when dealing with overloaded subroutines Added bit variable comparison Added new LCD mode (allows LCDWriteByte and LCDReadByte to be replaced with custom subroutines) Altered GCASM list file to include symbol table and improved formatting Added pages about USART and software I2C to help file Updated chip data files 9/9/2009 Fixed bit test bug Fixed 18F compatibility with Tiny PIC Bootloader 12/8/2009 Fixed several bugs in banksel insertion code on 12F/16F PIC involving loops Fixed banksel bug in built in assembler (added in last update) Added support for #option bootloader [location] to move the start location of the GCBASIC code forward Fixed bugs in word subtraction code Fixed bug in PIC interrupt context save 9/8/2009 Improved compatibility between new included USART library and that posted on the forums Optimisation improvements: Relative jumps (rcall and bra) now used on PIC 18F where possible Reduced code size for microsecond delay movf, decf, incf used in comparisons to check if variable = 0, 1 or 255 (PIC) If a subroutine is called on the last line of another, call x/return will be replaced with goto x Microsecond delay will now work with variable on all PICs. A warning will be displayed if it will not be accurate (will only be accurate on PIC at clock speeds of 12 + 4x MHz, where x is an integer >= 0). Fixed bug when subtracting word variable from constant (PIC) Fixed PIC delay bug (caused delays of 256 us, 512 us, 768 us, etc to take 256 us too long) Fixed PIC 12F/16F interrupt context save, PCLATH and FSR now saved. 23/7/2009 Fixed bug in Dir command on AVR. 19/7/2009 Added USART library, supports both PIC and AVR. 15/7/2009 Data tables optimised - if a predefined location is to be read, GCBASIC will remove the table and reading code, and set the result variable directly. Fixed bugs in interrupt context save - all calculation variables now saved. Interrupts are now never disabled during calculations - no longer required with improved context save rjmp/jmp and rcall/call now used appropriately on AVR. Fixed IntOn bug - excessive IntOn calls will not cause IntOn/IntOff to stop working. Fixed Interrupt vector/first code location overlap bug (18F and AVR) Interrupt bug on PIC fixed - enable bit now checked as well as flag. .ORG bug in built in assembler fixed (AVR) Timer code now supports AVR. Example programs in help file tidied up. 17/6/2009 Data tables can now hold word values. GCBASIC will detect data type of table automatically, use a word variable in ReadTable to get word value out of table. Altered included 7 segment and keypad routines. The requirement to connect these devices in a particular way has been removed, and some optimisation has been done to reduce the size of the code. Compatibility with old code has been maintained. Updated included SRF04 ultrasonic routines to add support for the single I/O pin mode used by the SRF05. Support for plug-in file converter modules added, more detail on this to follow. #if compiler directive added. Improved code generated when a long Repeat (> 255 repetitions) was followed by a short repeat. Fixed array bug on AVRs when attempting to access RAM location past 255. Fixed data table bugs (AVR only) Fixed alias to IO register bug (AVR only) Fixed bug when adding different variable types (AVR only) Fixed condition handling bug when condition surrounded by brackets 29/5/2009 Fixed string parameter bug on 18F chips Improved timing of serial routines. These now run more reliably on slower chips, and at faster speeds (4800 and 9600 bps). Altered handling of branch instructions to make GCBASIC compatible with AVR assembler. 17/5/2009 Fixed bugs from 4/5/2009 release: Fixed bug which caused subroutines to be called twice when call command placed before sub name Fixed function bug (invalid calls when variable with similar name to function used in same line) Fixed interrupt bug (context restore code was being placed at the start of the interrupt) Other fixes/changes: Fixed bug with divide and multiply when multiple banks of RAM used Multiple byte variables will not be split across banks Delay, calculation and interrupt context saving variables now stored in common RAM Added AVR A/D code Added new SerPrint routine to print word variables, SerPrint is now available for byte, word and string. Added subroutine name check in On Interrupt command Fixed error logging bug, too many errors will now result in a "too many errors" error and not a compiler crash. 9/5/2009 Major bugs have been encountered in the previous update posted. The previous 24/1/2009 update can be found in update-nochipdata.zip and a new update fixing the bugs will be posted in a few days. 4/5/2009 Major changes to the internal structure of gcbasic.exe: Subroutines are now compiled before being merged Variables are now stored with the subroutine that they belong to, not in a single list. Code is now stored in a doubly linked list, not an array. This should make the compilation process faster. Subroutines will now be moved around between memory pages until they fit. Programs larger than 2048 instructions will be more reliable #option lcall removed, no longer required. Long call instructions will be used automatically where needed. Fixed several bank selection bugs AVR support improved. The following features worked when used on an ATTiny2313: LCD routines (Print, Locate, CLS) Arrays and strings Data tables All calculations and comparisons on byte and word variables On chip EEPROM read and write Delays (us, 10us, ms, 10ms, s) Jumps/Loops (For, Repeat, Do, If, Goto) I/O commands (Dir, Set, PulseOut, Pot) Fixed delay bug, improved accuracy of 10 microsecond and millisecond delays Fixed bug in IntOn/IntOff Fixed bug in 12F683 EEPROM code Fixed several GCASM AVR mode bugs Fixed several chip data file errors. 24/1/2009 Fixed ReadAD bug that was preventing ports from being set to analog mode correctly Fixed bug in On Interrupt, which was not working properly on chips without PEIE bit. Fixed delay bug which would cause required delay routines to be left out when the delay length involved a calculation. 13/9/2008 Random function improved Fixed bug when a sub is defined with () following its name Fixed bug which caused issues with long data tables on 18F chips Updated chip data files, fixed several memory map errors 29/6/2008 Data tables can now be stored in data EEPROM. Define the tables using Store Data directive - for example, "Table TableName Store Data". The data is stored starting at location 0, and filling towards the end of the EEPROM. Support for 18F4331 added to a-d.h Fixed bugs in a-d.h which caused trouble in chips without a CHS2 bit Fixed bug in alias handling which was causing aliases to non-existant variables to be created. 15/4/2008 Implemented overloading for subroutines Print subroutine now handles Byte and Word variables LCDInt and LCDWord are now deprecated. They will continue to work but Print should be used instead for new programs. Fixed bug when 2 string constants are passed as parameters in the same line Fixed internal bug in WholeINSTR. 11/2/2008 Fixed bug when using the same array twice on a line Arrays and strings now partially supported on AVRs Fixed bug in GCASM which caused incorrect configuration values on 12C5x/12F5x/16C5x/16F5x PICs The T0CKI pin now defaults to standard I/O mode on 12C5x/12F5x/16C5x/16F5x PICs 7/1/2008 Altered GCBASIC to read settings from a config file Will read settings from a file called gcbasic.ini in the same directory as gcbasic.exe if present Can read from another file if specified with the /S: parameter See sample file included in update for more detail compile.bat editing utility will be altered, but has not yet been. With a gcbasic.ini file, there is no need for compile.bat. Files can be dropped onto gcbasic.exe. Fixed bug with HPWM Fixed bug when same function is called twice or more on the same line Fixed bug with Dir command on 12-bit core chips with more than 8 pins 4/12/2007 Added utility to edit compile.bat Updated GCBASIC to compile with FreeBASIC 0.18 (natively, not in -lang deprecated or -lang qb) Successfully compiled and ran on Ubuntu Linux. Altered 4 and 8 bit LCD routines to work without R/W pin when #define LCD_NO_RW is used Strings now default to different sizes depending on chip RAM Added "In" and "Out" to subroutine parameters - for example, "Sub MySub (In Param1, Out Param2 As Word, Param3). In will stop GCBASIC copying the value back from the sub (as with #NR but for each parameter), Out prevents a value being copied in. These are optional. Updated EEPROM subroutines to use In and Out. Fixed bank selection issues related to call mnemonic banksel now only produces code for RP1 if needed bankisel now produces no code on chips with 256 or less data addresses Dir command now checks that pin/port is valid Removed /D: and /NC command line options Improved detection of install directory GCBASIC does not clear the screen any more when running in a command prompt Documented /K:A and /K:C command line options in command line information screen (GCBASIC /?). /K:A will save all original source code as comments in the .asm, /K:C will save all comments from the original source in the .asm. There are now two versions of update.zip - update.zip which has all of the updated files since the last release, and update-nochipdata.zip which has all new files except for the chip data files. 16/10/2007 Fixed a bug with aliases for user variables which caused assembler errors Allowed use of single character strings as integer constants Minor adjustments to improve bootloader support EEPROM routines updated with new interrupt enable/disable commands Fixed a bug in program memory write routines Fixed array bug introduced in a previous update 7/10/2007 Added "#option bootloader" - adds an instruction to clear PCLATH at the start of the assembly program, and relocates "call INITSYS" to after the interrupt vector. Added "On Interrupt" for handling interrupts. Please refer to the Interrupts article in the updated included help file for more information (Interrupts is under Syntax). Changed handling of type casts in calculations - instead of being placed on the end, "[word]" must now be placed before the variable or value that is to be cast. "[byte]" is also now allowed. Note that some programs may need to be altered as a result of this change. Changed asm directive - anything following "asm" will now be passed through to assembly even if it is not a valid assembly mnemonic. Fixed LCALL when using asm ORG inside the program. Tidied GCBASIC source code, removed several thousand variable suffixes ($ and %). While some still remain, this is a significant step towards being able to compile GCBASIC with the newest version of FreeBASIC. Many variable names are also now more descriptive than "DS$" or "T%". 21/9/2007 Added initial AVR EEPROM and ADC routines. These are untested at present. Altered code at reset vector - the InitSys routine is now called from the same location as other initialisation routines. This will allow GCBASIC programs to be used with more bootloaders. Fixed issue with calculation - multiply/divide were sometimes returning incorrect type, or overwriting a required value. Added #IFNDEF directive Minor improvements made to assembly optimisation Initial AVR support added to built-in assembler. Intel hex files produced match those generated by avrasm2, but the code has not been tested on an actual AVR. Rewrote function handling code, now runs significantly faster. Improved pseudo-random number generator Tidied up some older GCBASIC source code Arrays of more than 255 bytes are now permitted on 18Fs. 6/8/2007 Fixed a bug in the constant folding code for conditions, which caused an error message if the result was true. Added Alias clause to Dim. This enables several smaller variables (typically SFRs) to be combined and treated as one large variable. For example, "Dim EEAddress As Word Alias EEADRH, EEADR" joins EEADRH:EEADR into one word variable named EEAddress. Fixed a bug which caused some word variables to become byte variables. 3/8/2007 Fixed a bug in timer.h which caused some required code to be deleted Fixed bug in string copy routines when copying empty strings Altered Dim to accept a list of variables, such as "Dim SomeVar, AnotherVar, ThirdVar As String". 29/7/2007 Partial AVR support added Chip data files Set, Dir, Rotate, Wait, If, Goto Do ... Loop, For ... Next Subs and Functions, including Exit Sub All 8-bit var operations 16-bit equal, not equal, value copy, add, subtract, and/or/etc Generates .asm files compatible with avrasm2 Interrupt context saving/restoring Exit Do/Exit For now supported Hardware multiplier code compiled inline - SysMultSub only used for software multiply More error checking 30/6/2007 Fixed several A/D converter issues on 10F220 Fixed bug which may have caused GCBASIC to lock up while sorting the error list Fixed option lcall 25/6/2007 Fixed a bug which caused confusion between comments and the b' ' notation for binary numbers Major internal changes to the section of code which sets variables, with more to come Alteration to the way that system subroutines (SysCompEqual, SysDivSub, SysCopyString, etc) are added/removed as necessary. GCBASIC now treats subroutines differently when their name starts with "sys". LCDCreateChar (position, sourcearray()) sub added, copies data from an array into the CGRAM of the LCD module Multiple array elements can be set in one line, ie. ArrayName() = 1, 3, 4, 2 17/6/2007 Fixed bug involving variable type detection Altered ms and us delays to accepts 16-bit delay lengths 8/5/2007 Fixed several bugs with comments Fixed LFSR command in built-in assembler Fixed issues with hex numbers in assembler.

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