_              __            _   _

   _ __ ___| |_ _ __ ___  / _| ___  _ __| |_| |__

  | '__/ _ \ __| '__/ _ \| |_ / _ \| '__| __| '_ \

  | | |  __/ |_| | | (_) |  _| (_) | |  | |_| | | |

  |_|  \___|\__|_|  \___/|_|  \___/|_|   \__|_| |_|

        RetroForth & nga 2024.1 Release Notes

=> ==============================================================

• general

• removed some unneeded files

• quieter output when building

• remove old Python build + packaging code

• configuration of devices can now be done in either config.h

or (by default) Configuration.mk

• build instructions for enabling/disabling devices updated

• toolchain

• removed duplicate typedef in tools/retro-muri.c

(reported by sevan)

• update tools/missing-dsource.retro

• in retro-muri.c, use bsd_strlcpy (rep by fangchar)

• retro-describe now using hash based name comparison

• retro-describe small reductions in call/return overhead

• documentation

• add missing source data for vocabularies & globals:

a: d: double: err: file: fll: mem: script:

• fix misc. typos

• examples

• add example/irc-logger.retro

• add example/ilo-export.retro

• add new example showing decompression of ulz files

• add example/vocabulary.retro

• add example/colored-dwords.retro

• image

• small optimizations in fll: vocabulary

• move from interface/ to package/extensions/:

double.retro malloc.retro

• in retro.forth, fix s:index/char (rep by fangchar)

• remove separate temp. string buffer in s:dedup

• use constants for device identifiers in the Forth part of

the device handlers

• support loading extensions at runtime via library:load

(searches ./library/ and ~/.config/retroforth/library/)

• more use of assembly language

• move full listener from interface/retro-unix to the base

image

• library

• block-editor (from konilo)

• describe (lookup glossary data at runtime)

• konilo (some words from konilo, was in image previously)

• termina (from konilo [console, colors, tui programs])

• x11 (for use w/nga-x11)

• retro-compiler

• fix bugs in retro-compiler(1) preventing compilation

• fix bug in retro-compiler(1) causing compiled programs to

hang on startup

• added an initial man page for retro-compiler(1)

• new nga implementations

• nga-d

• nga-x11

• nga-c

• fixed a bug in load_image() (rep. by sevan)

• err:notfound message no longer in C (sevan)

• add -v for verbose mode

• now skip execuion of NOP instructions

• fix some casting issues

• force immediate exit() on HA instruction

• file:read-line now provided by file device

• use mode array instead of conditionals when opening files

and pipes

• remove obsolete/unused files

• refactor handling of invalid opcodes

• use constants for device identifiers

• remove need to lookup & call err:notfound

• use C preprocessor to help with readability in arg.

processing

• optional BRANCH_PREDICTION (build-time option) to use

__builtin_expect() (faster on some systems). (~iacore)

Future Notes

In 2023.9 the nga-c implementation added support (enabled by

default) for using UTF32 (translating incoming source and output

between UTF8 and UTF32 transparently). The fallback option (to

just read raw 8-bit values) is now considered deprecated and

will be removed in the future (assuming no bug reports relating

to the UTF32 conversions are reported).

=> ==============================================================