The Sinclair QL Forum

qbits wrote:
Welcome any reviews on Game and checks on my code where I might have screwed up, not having every platform to test the program on. It should Load and work on most although an original QL will need expanded memory. The QL2k emulator has a clock multiplier assuming x1 is equivalent to original QL hardware speed, the Game will run very slow as expected. At x10 its bearable-ish, x50 that might be acceptable, x500 I have no problems. My best judgement of the QPC2 and SMSQ emulators they are probably running at x1000.

QBITS

IF astro(n,7)>0 AND astro(n,5)<3:astro(n,5)=3

IF astro(n,7)>0: IF astro(n,5)<3:astro(n,5)=3

qbits wrote:Hi, its been a busy spring my eldest buying their own home. So there’s been a bit of ongoing DIY. Then summer blistering and a trip to India, 31 degrees at Heathrow on the day we left, 40 plus in Delhi phew! Our journey took us up into the Himalayans a more balmy 25 with a stiff breeze was much better.
QBITS

RWAP wrote: There are some tricks in SuperBASIC which can then help:

RWAP wrote:There are some tricks in SuperBASIC which can then help:

a) Integer FOR loops are quicker (although they only work on Minerva and SMSQ/e)

b) Can you use integer variables elsewhere?
c) Some of the FOR loops include INK commands even though the INK colour does not change within the loop. Watch out for extraneous commands such as this, where they can be moved to the outside of the loop.
d) SELECT ON and IF statements can also be speeded up if you ensure that the most likely outcome appears near the start.

e) Move the less used procedures and functions towards the end of the program (as the interpreter always has to search through the listing for the required function / procedure - I cannot recall whether the interpreter retains a lookup table to the location of procedures and functions - it has been some years since I read (and re-read) Jan Jones' book).

f) Move the DATA statements to the very end of the program.

pjw wrote:

RWAP wrote:There are some tricks in SuperBASIC which can then help:

Just a few minor updates to these excellent tips:

a) Integer FOR loops are quicker (although they only work on Minerva and SMSQ/e)

Both Turbo and Q-Liberator can also be made to use integer loop variables (see their respective manuals). The resulting code
should then work on all ROMs (and SMSQ/E etc)

pjw wrote:

RWAP wrote:e) Move the less used procedures and functions towards the end of the program (as the interpreter always has to search through the listing for the required function / procedure - I cannot recall whether the interpreter retains a lookup table to the location of procedures and functions - it has been some years since I read (and re-read) Jan Jones' book).

Point (e) does not apply to SBASIC.

pjw wrote:

RWAP wrote:f) Move the DATA statements to the very end of the program.

I dint know. Does anybody know why this is?

Andrew wrote:QL SuperBASIC The Definitive Handbook - Jan Jones
page 66:
"DATA statements themselves do not have any effect on normal execution. They may be put anywhere. It is most efficient, however, to put them at the very beginning of a program. This is because moving to a data item always starts from the first line of a program so, if all the DATA statements are up there, it takes less time to find them."

RWAP wrote:

pjw wrote:<>
Both Turbo and Q-Liberator can also be made to use integer loop variables (see their respective manuals). The resulting code should then work on all ROMs (and SMSQ/E etc)

RWAP wrote:Of course - although both Turbo and Q-Liberator would speed up the program anyway - it is about squeezing out the best speed from the SuperBASIC initially.

Sure, I just wanted to add this bit of information while we were at it

pjw wrote: Point (e) does not apply to SBASIC.

I think it applies to SuperBASIC though (SBASIC is used by SMSQ/e) - can anyone clarify - I am sure it is covered in the Jan Jones book somewhere?

Youre right about SuperBASIC, but this question was asked (in June 2018) in ql-users:

On 20 June 2018 at 22:35, Dave Park via Ql-Users <ql-users@lists.q-v-d.com> wrote:
<>
Separately, does the sBASIC in SMSQ or Minerva still scan for
procedures/functions from the beginning of the program, so earlier FN/PROCs
have a speed advantage over later ones like in JM/JS?

I did the research and replied:

The SBASIC compiler performs a number of additional passes to SuperBASIC's parser, to end up with a much purer "executable". The compiled program is not machine code, of course, it consists of fixed length tokens that still need to be "interpreted". But all useless baggage has been eliminated from the program flow, expressions teased into simple RPN steps, and locations resolved to absolute addresses. So no, the size of the program or distance to procedures does not effect the speed of execution.