Add records: TYPE, DIM ... AS, field access, copy on assign
BASIC 7.0 has no records at all, so none of this is a port. The `@` suffix was
not invented either: the Go reference reserved IDENTIFIER_STRUCT and never used
it, and src/grammar.c rendered such a leaf as "NOT IMPLEMENTED" until now.
Declaring the type is what buys the storage model. A TYPE states its fields, so
an instance has a known slot count and is laid out exactly as an array is -- one
contiguous run from the same value pool DIM already draws from, with field access
as offset arithmetic. No new pool holds data; the only new table holds
descriptors. A nested value flattens into its container's run, which is why
LINE with two POINTs and a string is five slots rather than three.
Each field takes its type from its own suffix, the same rule every other name
here follows, so a field list needs no type column. An `@` field is the
exception and has to name its type, because three primitive types fit in three
suffix characters and N declared types do not fit in one.
The declaration is prescanned before the program runs, like labels and DATA and
for the same reason: it has to be in effect wherever control goes. Three passes,
each for a case the one before cannot do -- names first so a field can refer to
a type declared later, then field lists, then sizes by repeated resolution. What
never resolves is a cycle of by-value containment, so "a TYPE cannot contain
itself by value" is a diagnosis rather than an assumption, and the message says
to use PTR TO instead.
Assignment copies. That interception is the whole feature and it cannot live in
akbasic_value_clone(), which copies one slot -- and one slot holds a *reference*
to an instance rather than the instance, so going through it would alias. A
structure is intercepted before that path and its slots are copied one at a
time, walking the descriptor rather than memcpy-ing the run, because a pointer
field must copy its reference where a value field must copy its slots.
Two smaller things the work required. All three prescans now sit inside one
ATTEMPT: a malformed declaration is the program's mistake, and it was printing a
stack trace and taking the driver with it, which is the boundary goal 3 exists
to draw. And a fresh variable's structtype is -1 rather than the 0 a memset
leaves, because 0 is a valid type index and every new variable was claiming to
be the first type declared.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:39:47 -04:00
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10 REM A TYPE declares its fields; each takes its own type from its own suffix,
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20 REM which is the same rule every other name in this language follows.
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Add strict pointers: AS PTR TO, POINT ... AT, and the -> operator
A pointer is a distinct declared kind rather than a mode a structure can be in,
which is what "strict" means here: `.` requires a structure on its left and `->`
requires a pointer, neither stands in for the other, and both refusals name the
operator the program should have used. So a reader always knows from the
spelling whether the thing on the left is their own copy or somebody else's
data.
Assignment still copies. POINT is the only way to share, so a program that never
writes it can never be surprised by aliasing -- and `P@ = A@` is refused with a
message saying to POINT it instead, rather than quietly becoming the one
assignment in the language that does not copy.
PTR TO is also the only way a TYPE may refer to itself, since by value it would
have no finite size. That is what makes a linked list possible, and
tests/language/structures/pointers.bas builds one, walks it and renders it.
Rendering follows pointers, so it needs a depth bound where copying does not:
copy stops at a pointer by construction, but two nodes pointing at each other is
easy to write and PRINT would not come back. Four levels, chosen so the bound
bites before the 256-byte render buffer does -- otherwise a cycle would stop
because it ran out of room rather than because it was told to.
Three things the work turned up, all now pinned by tests:
A freshly DIMmed record printed `(UNDEFINED STRING REPRESENTATION FOR 0)` for
every field. Slots now take the type their field declared, so it reads as zeros.
Adding POINT as a verb makes POINT unusable as a type name, and the parser
reported that as "Expected expression or literal" pointing at the line rather
than the problem. The prescan now refuses a reserved word as a type name and
says so.
Field names follow the same reserved-word rule as variable names, enforced by
the loader's own scan -- `TO@` is a bad field name for exactly the reason `TO#`
is a bad variable name. Recorded rather than worked around.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:48:09 -04:00
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30 TYPE COORD
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Add records: TYPE, DIM ... AS, field access, copy on assign
BASIC 7.0 has no records at all, so none of this is a port. The `@` suffix was
not invented either: the Go reference reserved IDENTIFIER_STRUCT and never used
it, and src/grammar.c rendered such a leaf as "NOT IMPLEMENTED" until now.
Declaring the type is what buys the storage model. A TYPE states its fields, so
an instance has a known slot count and is laid out exactly as an array is -- one
contiguous run from the same value pool DIM already draws from, with field access
as offset arithmetic. No new pool holds data; the only new table holds
descriptors. A nested value flattens into its container's run, which is why
LINE with two POINTs and a string is five slots rather than three.
Each field takes its type from its own suffix, the same rule every other name
here follows, so a field list needs no type column. An `@` field is the
exception and has to name its type, because three primitive types fit in three
suffix characters and N declared types do not fit in one.
The declaration is prescanned before the program runs, like labels and DATA and
for the same reason: it has to be in effect wherever control goes. Three passes,
each for a case the one before cannot do -- names first so a field can refer to
a type declared later, then field lists, then sizes by repeated resolution. What
never resolves is a cycle of by-value containment, so "a TYPE cannot contain
itself by value" is a diagnosis rather than an assumption, and the message says
to use PTR TO instead.
Assignment copies. That interception is the whole feature and it cannot live in
akbasic_value_clone(), which copies one slot -- and one slot holds a *reference*
to an instance rather than the instance, so going through it would alias. A
structure is intercepted before that path and its slots are copied one at a
time, walking the descriptor rather than memcpy-ing the run, because a pointer
field must copy its reference where a value field must copy its slots.
Two smaller things the work required. All three prescans now sit inside one
ATTEMPT: a malformed declaration is the program's mistake, and it was printing a
stack trace and taking the driver with it, which is the boundary goal 3 exists
to draw. And a fresh variable's structtype is -1 rather than the 0 a memset
leaves, because 0 is a valid type index and every new variable was claiming to
be the first type declared.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:39:47 -04:00
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40 X#
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50 Y#
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60 END TYPE
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70 TYPE SHAPE
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80 NAME$
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Add strict pointers: AS PTR TO, POINT ... AT, and the -> operator
A pointer is a distinct declared kind rather than a mode a structure can be in,
which is what "strict" means here: `.` requires a structure on its left and `->`
requires a pointer, neither stands in for the other, and both refusals name the
operator the program should have used. So a reader always knows from the
spelling whether the thing on the left is their own copy or somebody else's
data.
Assignment still copies. POINT is the only way to share, so a program that never
writes it can never be surprised by aliasing -- and `P@ = A@` is refused with a
message saying to POINT it instead, rather than quietly becoming the one
assignment in the language that does not copy.
PTR TO is also the only way a TYPE may refer to itself, since by value it would
have no finite size. That is what makes a linked list possible, and
tests/language/structures/pointers.bas builds one, walks it and renders it.
Rendering follows pointers, so it needs a depth bound where copying does not:
copy stops at a pointer by construction, but two nodes pointing at each other is
easy to write and PRINT would not come back. Four levels, chosen so the bound
bites before the 256-byte render buffer does -- otherwise a cycle would stop
because it ran out of room rather than because it was told to.
Three things the work turned up, all now pinned by tests:
A freshly DIMmed record printed `(UNDEFINED STRING REPRESENTATION FOR 0)` for
every field. Slots now take the type their field declared, so it reads as zeros.
Adding POINT as a verb makes POINT unusable as a type name, and the parser
reported that as "Expected expression or literal" pointing at the line rather
than the problem. The prescan now refuses a reserved word as a type name and
says so.
Field names follow the same reserved-word rule as variable names, enforced by
the loader's own scan -- `TO@` is a bad field name for exactly the reason `TO#`
is a bad variable name. Recorded rather than worked around.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:48:09 -04:00
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90 ORIGIN@ AS COORD
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Add records: TYPE, DIM ... AS, field access, copy on assign
BASIC 7.0 has no records at all, so none of this is a port. The `@` suffix was
not invented either: the Go reference reserved IDENTIFIER_STRUCT and never used
it, and src/grammar.c rendered such a leaf as "NOT IMPLEMENTED" until now.
Declaring the type is what buys the storage model. A TYPE states its fields, so
an instance has a known slot count and is laid out exactly as an array is -- one
contiguous run from the same value pool DIM already draws from, with field access
as offset arithmetic. No new pool holds data; the only new table holds
descriptors. A nested value flattens into its container's run, which is why
LINE with two POINTs and a string is five slots rather than three.
Each field takes its type from its own suffix, the same rule every other name
here follows, so a field list needs no type column. An `@` field is the
exception and has to name its type, because three primitive types fit in three
suffix characters and N declared types do not fit in one.
The declaration is prescanned before the program runs, like labels and DATA and
for the same reason: it has to be in effect wherever control goes. Three passes,
each for a case the one before cannot do -- names first so a field can refer to
a type declared later, then field lists, then sizes by repeated resolution. What
never resolves is a cycle of by-value containment, so "a TYPE cannot contain
itself by value" is a diagnosis rather than an assumption, and the message says
to use PTR TO instead.
Assignment copies. That interception is the whole feature and it cannot live in
akbasic_value_clone(), which copies one slot -- and one slot holds a *reference*
to an instance rather than the instance, so going through it would alias. A
structure is intercepted before that path and its slots are copied one at a
time, walking the descriptor rather than memcpy-ing the run, because a pointer
field must copy its reference where a value field must copy its slots.
Two smaller things the work required. All three prescans now sit inside one
ATTEMPT: a malformed declaration is the program's mistake, and it was printing a
stack trace and taking the driver with it, which is the boundary goal 3 exists
to draw. And a fresh variable's structtype is -1 rather than the 0 a memset
leaves, because 0 is a valid type index and every new variable was claiming to
be the first type declared.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:39:47 -04:00
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100 AREA%
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110 END TYPE
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120 DIM A@ AS SHAPE
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130 DIM B@ AS SHAPE
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140 A@.NAME$ = "FIRST"
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150 A@.ORIGIN@.X# = 10
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160 A@.ORIGIN@.Y# = 20
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170 A@.AREA% = 2.5
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180 REM Assignment COPIES. B@ is its own record from here on.
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190 B@ = A@
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200 A@.NAME$ = "CHANGED"
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210 A@.ORIGIN@.X# = 99
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220 PRINT A@
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230 PRINT B@
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240 REM A whole nested record copies as a unit too.
|
Add strict pointers: AS PTR TO, POINT ... AT, and the -> operator
A pointer is a distinct declared kind rather than a mode a structure can be in,
which is what "strict" means here: `.` requires a structure on its left and `->`
requires a pointer, neither stands in for the other, and both refusals name the
operator the program should have used. So a reader always knows from the
spelling whether the thing on the left is their own copy or somebody else's
data.
Assignment still copies. POINT is the only way to share, so a program that never
writes it can never be surprised by aliasing -- and `P@ = A@` is refused with a
message saying to POINT it instead, rather than quietly becoming the one
assignment in the language that does not copy.
PTR TO is also the only way a TYPE may refer to itself, since by value it would
have no finite size. That is what makes a linked list possible, and
tests/language/structures/pointers.bas builds one, walks it and renders it.
Rendering follows pointers, so it needs a depth bound where copying does not:
copy stops at a pointer by construction, but two nodes pointing at each other is
easy to write and PRINT would not come back. Four levels, chosen so the bound
bites before the 256-byte render buffer does -- otherwise a cycle would stop
because it ran out of room rather than because it was told to.
Three things the work turned up, all now pinned by tests:
A freshly DIMmed record printed `(UNDEFINED STRING REPRESENTATION FOR 0)` for
every field. Slots now take the type their field declared, so it reads as zeros.
Adding POINT as a verb makes POINT unusable as a type name, and the parser
reported that as "Expected expression or literal" pointing at the line rather
than the problem. The prescan now refuses a reserved word as a type name and
says so.
Field names follow the same reserved-word rule as variable names, enforced by
the loader's own scan -- `TO@` is a bad field name for exactly the reason `TO#`
is a bad variable name. Recorded rather than worked around.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:48:09 -04:00
|
|
|
250 DIM P@ AS COORD
|
Add records: TYPE, DIM ... AS, field access, copy on assign
BASIC 7.0 has no records at all, so none of this is a port. The `@` suffix was
not invented either: the Go reference reserved IDENTIFIER_STRUCT and never used
it, and src/grammar.c rendered such a leaf as "NOT IMPLEMENTED" until now.
Declaring the type is what buys the storage model. A TYPE states its fields, so
an instance has a known slot count and is laid out exactly as an array is -- one
contiguous run from the same value pool DIM already draws from, with field access
as offset arithmetic. No new pool holds data; the only new table holds
descriptors. A nested value flattens into its container's run, which is why
LINE with two POINTs and a string is five slots rather than three.
Each field takes its type from its own suffix, the same rule every other name
here follows, so a field list needs no type column. An `@` field is the
exception and has to name its type, because three primitive types fit in three
suffix characters and N declared types do not fit in one.
The declaration is prescanned before the program runs, like labels and DATA and
for the same reason: it has to be in effect wherever control goes. Three passes,
each for a case the one before cannot do -- names first so a field can refer to
a type declared later, then field lists, then sizes by repeated resolution. What
never resolves is a cycle of by-value containment, so "a TYPE cannot contain
itself by value" is a diagnosis rather than an assumption, and the message says
to use PTR TO instead.
Assignment copies. That interception is the whole feature and it cannot live in
akbasic_value_clone(), which copies one slot -- and one slot holds a *reference*
to an instance rather than the instance, so going through it would alias. A
structure is intercepted before that path and its slots are copied one at a
time, walking the descriptor rather than memcpy-ing the run, because a pointer
field must copy its reference where a value field must copy its slots.
Two smaller things the work required. All three prescans now sit inside one
ATTEMPT: a malformed declaration is the program's mistake, and it was printing a
stack trace and taking the driver with it, which is the boundary goal 3 exists
to draw. And a fresh variable's structtype is -1 rather than the 0 a memset
leaves, because 0 is a valid type index and every new variable was claiming to
be the first type declared.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-01 11:39:47 -04:00
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260 P@ = B@.ORIGIN@
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270 PRINT P@
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280 REM And a structure renders with its type name and its fields.
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290 PRINT B@.ORIGIN@.X# + B@.ORIGIN@.Y#
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