jzintv Christmas 2018 update

[intvnut]

My last update to jzIntv was over 7 months ago. That doesn't mean I haven't touched jzIntv. Au contraire! I've added support for ECS cassette and printer, I've extended the debugger, I've added "raw input" mode for controllers such as the Retronic USB, and so on. See below for full details.

Find it here: http://spatula-city.org/~im14u2c/intv/

________

Release notes for 2018-12-25.
Updates since 2018-05-09.

---------------
 New features:
---------------

*  Added Carl Mueller's IDIV, JDIV, ISQRT.  This was an oversight from long
   ago, and now these are added under jzintv/examples/library/.

*  Raw-bits mode for controller adaptors such as Retronic that can provide
   raw input bits from native controllers.  See PDxx_BIT_x in
   jzintv/doc/jzintv/kbdhackfile.txt & jzintv/doc/jzintv/retronic-usb-raw.kbd.

*  Debugger features:  (see jzintv/doc/debugger.txt for updated docs)

   b?     lists active breakpoints
   t?     lists active tracepoints
   w?     lists active write-watches
   @?     lists active read-watches
   ??     outputs the debugger's current status

*  Add "button" mode to support analog joysticks that have analog buttons
   that report themselves as analog axes.

*  Add support for saving/loading ECS cassettes and printing to the ECS printer.

----------
 Changes:
----------

*  Updated the NTSC and PAL palettes based on experiments with TV capture
   cards and eyeballing several games.  (Congo Bongo is a tough one to nail.)
   Also, NTSC and PAL now have different palettes.

*  macOS builds are now 64-bit only, driven by recent changes in macOS.
   jzIntv should still run with OSX 10.7.x or later.

*  A raw semicolon ';' in a kbdhackfile now introduces a comment.  To bind
   the semicolon event, use the word SEMICOLON.

-------------------------
 Cleanups and bug fixes:
-------------------------

*  Fix "voice_compat" in internal ROM database.  It accidentally requested
   ECS rather than Intellivoice for known voice games.

*  Myriad fixes to allow compiling with MSVC, along with an MSVC Makefile.

*  Myriad fixes to allow compiling with Clang from Xcode.

*  Many waves of 'const' correctness, and occasional 'restrict' qualifiers.

*  Many 'sanitizer' directed fixes.

*  Many minor memory leaks cleaned up.

*  Fix event scanning to actually allow <5ms granularity.  Deepened the
   event queue as well.

*  Fix JSx_BTN_28, which has been b0rken for almost 20 years.

*  Fix the spelling of ecs_compat, version, publisher in metadata code.

*  Improve handling of build/release dates in metadata.

*  Fix HH:MM parsing for UTC offsets in metadata.

*  Remove C++14-isms; restrict to C++11 as baseline.

*  Use modern C++ style casts and 'nullptr' rather than 0/NULL in C++ code.

*  Fix include guards to not use _CAPS, but rather CAPS_.

*  Fall back to ECS-disabled if game sets ecs_compat to "enhanced" but no
   ecs.bin is available.

*  Fix documentation for -J flag in --help info.

*  Only print "diagonal bias" for 4diag mode in joystick status output.


-------
 Misc:
-------

*  Experimental Emscripten build.

*  Experimental Termux build.

[+DZ-Jay]

Wow! A Merry Christmas indeed!

 

Thank you for the updates. In particular, those new debugger commands will come in handy.

 

-dZ.

[+nanochess]

Oh! This reminds me of a much needed update for IntyBASIC

[+DZ-Jay]

Oh! This reminds me of a much needed update for IntyBASIC

 

 

Could we synchronize for a combined SDK release? I got the Mac and the Windows ready for 1.2.9 (and will now include this new version of jzintv), but if you have a new compiler, I will include that too.

 

-dZ.

[+nanochess]

Could we synchronize for a combined SDK release? I got the Mac and the Windows ready for 1.2.9 (and will now include this new version of jzintv), but if you have a new compiler, I will include that too.

 

-dZ.

There is a much needed simple feature that I want to include in next release but it's a little complicated.

 

I'll shot you a message once I feel things are getting together.

[+DZ-Jay]

There is a much needed simple feature that I want to include in next release but it's a little complicated.

 

I'll shot you a message once I feel things are getting together.

 

OK. If it is going to take too long, then I can release the latest SDK now and an update later. The SDK needs an update badly, and the Mac OS version needs to be released.

[blainelocklair]

Thank you for the updated release of jzintv! So great to see some new ECS features in there as well.

 

- Blaine

[intvnut]

Oh, and I almost forgot, jzIntv now prints out metadata about the game it loaded as part of its loading messages, if available:

.

Name                     SDK-1600 Hello World
Short Name               Hello World
Author                   Joe Zbiciak
Publisher                SDK-1600
License                  GPLv2+
Description              The canonical first program.
Release date             2002
Compatibility:
  ECS                    Tolerates
  Intellivoice           Tolerates
  Intellivision II       Tolerates
  Keyboard Component     Tolerates
  TutorVision            Tolerates
JLP Support:
  JLP Accel              Disabled
  JLP Flash Sectors      0

[blainelocklair]

This is very cool. In the 1.4.0 release notes for IntyBASIC, it shows that it plans to support the extra four music channels from the ECS. Oscar has been working on it, as mentioned above. I have an ECS and a Synth with it, and the polyphony sound it creates is amazing. I'm really looking forward to stretching my music work in IntyBASIC into the ECS music realm. It will add a tremendous new sound stage that few have ever heard from an Inty before.

 

- Blaine

[intvnut]

FWIW, jzIntv has supported the ECS for quite awhile. The recently added support is for the built-in ECS BASIC, so you can use CSAV/CLOD/CVRF and its printer facility inside ECS BASIC.

 

I did consider adding a flag to support "ECS without the ECS ROM" mode, for IntyBASIC games and other homebrews that use the extra sound channels. Ultimately, I did not add a flag for that.

 

One thing I hope to release someday is a souped up version of ECS BASIC that I made a couple years back. I need to get permission from the rights holders. It uses flash storage for save/load, and has a bunch of graphics built in (to support CALL GRAB). It's no IntyBASIC, but it does push ECS BASIC a bit further.