Write down that the left operand decides integer or float arithmetic

No behaviour change, by decision. `A# * 0.45` is 0 and `0.45 * A#` is 1.35,
because every operator branches on `self->valuetype` and converts the right
operand to match. It is inherited from the Go reference, a C128 promotes to
float instead, and this interpreter is at least consistent about it -- so a
dialect saying the left operand wins is a defensible position, and changing it
to promotion would alter the result of every mixed expression in every existing
program.

**The defect was that nobody said so.** Chapter 3's "Numbers" did not mention
it, Chapter 13 did not list it among the differences, and nothing fails when a
program gets it wrong -- it computes something else and carries on. The game in
examples/ lost its per-level speed increase to `5.6 + LEVEL# * 0.45` evaluating
to a flat 5.6, and bled velocity out of every bounce through `0 - BLVX%(B#)`
quantising to whole pixels. Both read correctly. Neither produced a diagnostic.

Now said in three places: a section in Chapter 3 with the demonstration and the
two rules that keep a program out of it (put the float on the left, put the
answer somewhere with a `%` on it), a row in Chapter 13 naming it as the
difference from 7.0 most likely to turn a working listing into a quietly wrong
one, and the reasoning on value.h where the operators are declared.

tests/value_arithmetic.c pins it in both directions across multiply and
subtract, with a comment saying it is the documented contract rather than an
accident -- so promotion becomes a decision somebody takes deliberately rather
than a change that could slip in under a passing suite.

TODO.md section 9 item 4, struck as a documentation outcome.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
2026-08-02 00:23:20 -04:00
parent d5f3c3ef5b
commit c8b917d205
5 changed files with 139 additions and 2 deletions

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@@ -42,6 +42,18 @@ There is no escape character.
Integers are 64-bit and floats are IEEE doubles, so `PRINT 1.5` gives `1.500000`. A
leading zero is not octal; `0x` is hexadecimal.
### Mixed arithmetic follows the left operand, not the wider type
**A C128 promotes to float. This does not.** An integer on the left converts the right
operand to an integer and throws its fraction away, so `A# * 0.45` is `0` where
`0.45 * A#` is `1.35`. It is consistent, it is inherited from the Go interpreter this was
ported from, and **nothing fails when you get it wrong** — the program computes something
else and carries on.
[Chapter 3](03-the-language.md#the-left-operand-decides-whether-the-arithmetic-is-integer-or-float)
has the two rules that keep you out of it. This is the difference from 7.0 most likely to
turn a working listing into a quietly wrong one.
### Structures are an addition
BASIC 7.0 has no records at all. `TYPE`/`END TYPE`, `DIM X@ AS T`, the `@` suffix, `.` and
@@ -133,6 +145,16 @@ interpreter's error code, which bears no relation to a Commodore error number. P
- **Drawing does not persist across frames.** The verbs draw straight to the renderer,
so anything drawn is overwritten on the next frame unless the program redraws it.
This is a defect, not a design.
- **And a redraw has to *fit*.** The host runs a fixed number of source lines and then
presents the frame, and presenting discards the drawing buffer — so a sequence of
drawing verbs longer than one batch comes back **half drawn**, with an `SSHAPE` at the
end capturing only what was issued since the present. "Redraw it every frame" is
therefore not sufficient advice on its own. Measured against the standalone frontend's
256 lines a batch: after synchronising to a jiffy edge, 220 lines of drawing survive a
capture and 250 do not. The only way a program can see the boundary is to watch `TI#`,
which is refreshed once per batch — so the step on which it changes is the first step
of one. [Chapter 18](18-tutorial-breakout-artwork.md#step-4-find-the-frame-boundary)
builds a pacing routine out of exactly that.
- **`CHAR` ignores its colour argument** and needs a text device with a cursor.
## Sound