What is new in Ring 1.18

In this chapter we will learn about the changes and new features in Ring 1.18 release.

List of changes and new features

Ring 1.18 comes with the next features!

  • Read Files application

  • Random User application

  • Better CitPre application

  • Better Tools

  • More Samples

  • Syntax Files

  • The Power Operator

  • Using References

  • Ring for MS-DOS

  • Faster (For-In) Loop

  • Faster BraceError()

  • Better RingRayLib

  • Better RingSockets

  • Heroku (Better support)

  • Command: New From

  • ImportPackage() function

  • More Low Level functions

  • Better WebLib

  • Better Ring API

  • Better Documentation

  • MatrixLib Library

  • More Improvements

Read Files application

Using this application we can display text/binary files using Hexadecimal

readfiles

Random User application

A simple application as an example about using GUILib, InternetLib & JSONLib

randomuser randomuser

Better CitPre application

In Ring 1.18 the Citations Prediction application is updated

  1. The application comes with 500 samples

  2. Journal Paper (HTML): https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2022/2239152/

  3. Journal Paper (PDF): https://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2022/2239152.pdf

citationsdataset

Better Tools

  • Ring2EXE: Better code when distributing GUI applications

  • Form Designer: Correct drawing for new controls after moving Ring Notepad

  • Ring Notepad: Output Window - Correct cursor position while using unicode

  • Ring Notepad: Set the default font when opening the Font dialog

  • Ring Notepad: Preserve editing history after text insertion

  • Ring Notepad: New button to clear the output and stop the running program

  • Ring Notepad: Goto Line - Support files contains UTF-8 characters

  • Ring Notepad: Find/Replace - Support files contains UTF-8 characters

  • Ring Notepad: Avoid hiding the cursor when pressing TAB

  • Ring Notepad: Reset the dockable window title when closing all opened files

  • Ring Notepad: Translation files (English/Arabic)

  • Ring Notepad: New option to build GUI application using Ring2EXE

  • Ring Notepad: View menu - Navigate options

  • Ring Notepad: View menu - Apperance options (Checkboxes)

  • Ring Notepad: Check if we have web application before running

  • Ring Notepad: Better icon for closing the application

  • Ring Notepad: Select file window (Quick navigation between opened files)

selectfile

More Samples

  • Added: samples/General/OrbitalMechanics

  • Added: samples/UsingBingChat (Code generated by AI)

  • Added: samples/General/QuizMarks/QuizMarks.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingQt/TabActivate/simpleExample.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingQt/TabActivate/TabActivateController.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingFormDesigner/centerwindow

  • Added: samples/AQuickStart/MySQL/mysql11.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingQt3D/ex19_sceneKeyboard.ring

  • Added: samples/Algorithms/path_finding_bfs_usingref.ring

  • Added: samples/General/SmallExamples/Random/random100.ring

  • Added: samples/General/SmallExamples/Conjecture/knuthconjecture.ring

  • Added: samples/General/SmallExamples/SendMoreMoney/SendMoreMoneyMonteCarlo.ring

  • Added: samples/General/SmallExamples/MatrixMulti/Matrix-Func.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingFreeGLUT/test17.ring, test18.ring & test19.ring

  • Added: samples/ProblemSolving/Cryptogram/Cryptogram.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingArabic/ArabicSyntax

  • Added: samples/UsingQt/Painter/test.ring & test2.ring

  • Added: samples/UsingJSONLib - From test5.ring to test9.ring

  • File: samples/AQuickStart/GUILib/gui44.ring - Better Code

  • File: samples/UsingWebLib/Demo/datalib.ring - Better Code

  • File: samples/UsingWebLib/Demo/bootstrap.ring - Better Code

  • File: samples/UsingStbImage/test2.ring - Better Code

  • Folder: samples/UsingLibSDL - Better Code

lagrange

Syntax Files

Ring 1.18 provide another step towards better syntax flexibility

  • Support running source code files with any extension

  • Automatic loading for (ringsyntax.ring) file that exist in the current folder

For example in the the next screen shot

We have (ringsyntax.ring) that translate some of the Ring keywords to Arabic language

When we execute the file with Arabic name which means in English (hello.ring)

Ring will automatically execute (ringsyntax.ring) using Load Syntax command

Each Folder in the program could have it’s optional (ringsyntax.ring) file

We can mix styles in the same project

autoloadsyntax

The Power Operator

Ring 1.18 Support (**) and (^^) as the power operator

Example:

? 3**4                  # 81.00
? 3^^4                  # 81.00
? 256^^(1/4)            # 4
? 3.4^^4.5              # 246.41
? 256^^(1/3)            # 6.35
? 129.6^^(1/5)          # 2.65
? 5.9736*(10^^6)        # 5973600.00
? 7.3476*(10^^(-5))     # 0.0000734760

Using References

Ring as a language is designed to reduce references usage

The assignment operator (=) copy lists/objects by value

This release comes with the next functions to create and use managed references

ref(aList|oObject)       ---> aList|oObject (Reference) # Short name
reference(aList|oObject) ---> aList|oObject (Reference) # Long name
refcount(variable) ---> Number (References Count)

Example:

aList = [ 10,20,30, ref(aList) ]        # Circular Reference
? aList[4][1]                           # Print 10
? aList[4][4][4][4][4][2]               # Print 20
? refcount(aList)                       # Print 2

We added this feature to use Ring in teaching Data Structures & Design Patterns.

Check the chapter (Using References) to learn more about using this feature!

Ring for MS-DOS

Starting from Ring 1.18, We can build Ring Compiler/VM on MS-DOS

Tested using

  • Watcom C 386 9.01 (1992)

  • Borland C 3.1 (1992)

  • DOSBox-x 0.83.22 (2022)

  • DOSBox 0.74

Tip

We use Watcom C 386 as our formal compiler on this platform

Note

Ring uses DOS/4GW (32-bit DOS extender) to eliminate the 640 KB conventional memory limit

ringfordos

Faster (For-In) Loop

The (For-In) Loop implementation is revised in Ring 1.18

It’s six times (6x) faster than Ring 1.17

Example:

aList = list(1_000_000)
t1 = clock()
for x in aList
next
t2 = clock()
? (t2-t1)/clockspersecond()

Time using Ring 1.18: 0.4 second

Time using Ring 1.17: 2.6 seconds

Tip

The normal (For Loop) is faster than (For-In Loop) by 25%

Example:

aList = list(1_000_000)
t1 = clock()
for t=1 to 1_000_000
        x = aList[t]
next
t2 = clock()
? (t2-t1)/clockspersecond()

Time using Ring 1.18: 0.28 second

Time using Ring 1.17: 0.28 second

Faster BraceError()

Using BraceError() we can handle errors that happens inside braces

In Ring 1.18 - Calling BraceError() is faster and we can return values from this method

Example:

new points {
        first  { x=10   y=20   z=30   }
        second { x=100  y=200  z=300  }
        third  { x=1000 y=2000 z=3000 }
        print()
}

class points

        aPoints = []

        func braceerror
                aPoints + new point
                return aPoints[len(aPoints)]

        func print
                ? aPoints

class point x y z

Output:

x: 10
y: 20
z: 30
x: 100
y: 200
z: 300
x: 1000
y: 2000
z: 3000

Better RingRayLib

The next functions are added to the extension

  • SetShaderInt(shader, Location, nValue)

  • SetShaderFloat(shader, Location, nValue)

  • SetShaderVec2(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetShaderVec3(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetShaderVec4(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetShaderIVec2(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetShaderIVec3(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetShaderIVec4(shader, Location, aValue)

  • SetModelMaterialShader(model, nID, shader)

The next samples are ported from RayLib to RingRayLib

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/custom_uniform.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/julia_set.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/model_shader.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/postprocessing.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/shapes_textures.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/shader/waves.ring

raylibshader1 raylibshader2

Better RingSockets

The next functions are added to the extension

  • inet_pton(AdressFamily, IP) -> packed_address

  • inet_ntop(AdressFamily, packed_address) -> IP

  • socketsCleanup()

Heroku (Better support)

In Ring 1.18 We updated the packages to use a modern Ring version

The project is tested using Heroku-22 (Ubuntu 22.04)

URL: https://github.com/ring-lang/RingWebAppOnHeroku

Command: New From

Using (new) we can create a new object from a specific class

In Ring 1.18 we have (new from) where we provide a variable which contains the class name

Using this command we can avoid using Eval() for this common case

Example:

cClassName = "myclass2"
myobj = new from cClassName

cClassName = "myclass"
myobj = new from cClassName

class myclass
        ? :hello

class myclass2
        ? :wow

Output:

wow
hello

ImportPackage() Function

Instead of using the import command we can use the importpackage() function

This function get the package name through a string or variable

This is useful if the package name will be known only during the runtime

Syntax:

importpackage(cPackageName)

Example:

importpackage(:mypackage)
new myclass { myfunction() }

package mypackage
        class myclass
                function myfunction
                        ? "Hello, World!"

More Low Level Functions

The next functions are added to the Low Level functions

  • ringvm_ismempool()

  • ringvm_runcode(cCode)

These functions could be helpful for writing tests!

The ringvm_ismempool() tell us if the memory pool still active or not.

The ringvm_runcode(cCode) execute code using Eval() & the Main Loop

See the chapter (Low Level Functions) for more information.

Better WebLib

  1. HTTP Post - Better Code

  2. Application Class - More Methods:

    • Redirect()

    • NoJavaScript()

  3. Application Class - Attributes for JavaScript Libraries

    • cJSJQueryPath

    • cJSBootstrapPath

    • cCSSBootstrapPath

    • lNoJavaScript

  4. Page Class - More Methods:

    • theadStart(aOptions)

    • theadEnd()

    • tbodyStart(aOptions)

    • tbodyEnd()

    • tfootStart(aOptions)

    • tfootEnd()

  5. WebPage Class - Support (THead, TBody & TFoot)

Better Ring API

  • Added: RING_API_GETFLOATPOINTER(nParameter)

  • Added: RING_API_ACCEPTFLOATVALUE(nParameter)

  • Added: RING_API_GETCHARPOINTER(nParameter)

  • RING_API_GETINTPOINTER - Better code when passing integer pointer

  • RING_API_ISLIST - Don’t accept empty strings (NULL) from Ring code

  • Sample: extensions/tutorial/integerpointer

  • Sample: extensions/tutorial/stringpointer

Example (C Code):

#include "ring.h"
#include "stdlib.h"

void changeValue(char *var)
{
        strcpy(var,"Hello from C Code");
}

RING_FUNC(ring_changevalue)
{

        if (RING_API_PARACOUNT != 1)
        {
                RING_API_ERROR(RING_API_BADPARACOUNT);
                return;
        }

        if (!RING_API_ISSTRING(1))
        {
                RING_API_ERROR(RING_API_BADPARATYPE);
                return;
        }

        char *p1 = RING_API_GETCHARPOINTER(1);
        changeValue(p1);

}

RING_LIBINIT
{
        RING_API_REGISTER("changevalue",ring_changevalue);
}

Example (Ring Code):

? "Loading Library"
loadlib("mylib.dll")

cString = space(100)
changevalue(:cString)
? cString

Output:

Loading Library
Hello from C Code

Better Documentation

The next chapters are improved!

  1. Building RingQt applications for Mobile

  2. Building RingQt applications for WebAssembly

  3. How to compile Ring from source code?

MatrixLib Library

Ring 1.18 comes with the MatrixLib library (Contains the Matrix functions).

The source code exist in the ring/libraries/matrixlib folder

The samples exist in the ring/samples/UsingMatrixLib folder

The library comes with the next functions

1  MatrixMulti(A,B)             // Exists, aka MatrixMultiply(U,V)
2  MatrixTrans(A)               // Exists, aka MatrixTranspose(U)
3  MatrixPrint(U)
4  MatrixFlatPrint(U)
5  DotProduct(U,V)
6  MatrixAdd(U,V)
7  MatrixSub(U,V)
8  ScalarMultiply(k,U)
9  VectorAngle(U,V)
10 CrossProduct(U,V)
11 MatrixCofactor(U)
12 MatrixAdjoint(U)
13 MatrixInverse(U)
14 MatrixDetCalc(U)             // Calls MatrixDeterminantReduce(U)
15 MatrixDeterminantReduce(U)   // Any 2x2 to 10x10 Recursive
16 Determinant(U)               // Calls 16a-16e Determinant2x2,3x3,4x4,5x5,6x6
17 MatrixProjection(U,V)        // ProjvU = (U.V)/(V.V)xV
18 MatrixOrthoDistance(U,V)
19 VectorLength(U)
20 VectorNorm(U)                // Same as VectorLength - different name
21 VectorUnit(U)                // Vector Norm to a Unit Matrix
22 VectorDistance(U,V)
23 MatricOrthoNormal2(U,V)      // Gram-Schmidt method for 2 Vectors in R2 Space
24 MatrixOrthoNormal3(V1,V2,V3) // Gram-Schmidt method for 3 Vectors in R3 Space
25 MatrixLuDecompose(U)         // LU Decompose Matrix to Lower and Upper Matrix
26 SyntheticFactor(Eq)          // Find Factors of Quartric Equation
27 SyntheticDiv(Eq,Factors)     // Synthetic Division using Factors
28 QuadSolve(Eq)                // Quadratric equation solve format x^2 + x + c
29 CubicSolve(Eq)               // Cubic equation solve format x^3 + x^2 + x + c
30 QuarticSolve(Eq)             // Solve Quartic equation format x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + c
31 QuinticSolve(Eq)             // Solve Quintic equation format x^5 x^4 + x^3 + x^2 + x + c
31 PolyMultiply(A,B)            // Polynomial Multiple [A]*[B] ascending powers left to right
32 PolyAdd(A,B)                 // Polynomial Add [A]+[B] ascending powers left to right
33 PolySub(A,B)                 // Polynomial Subtract [A]-[B] ascending powers left to right
34 CharEquation(N)              // Characteristic Polynomial of 4x4 Matrix
34 EigenValueN)                 // Find EigenValues 2x2, 3x3, 4x4 Matrix
35 EigenVectors(A)              // Find EigenVectors 2x2, 3x3 Matrix

More Improvements

  • NaturalLib - RunString() Method - Ignore braces inside commands

  • FindInFiles Application: Better Code (Check Read() function output)

  • GetQuotesHistory Application: Better Style

  • Chess/Checkers Games: Looks more nice on small screen resolutions

  • KnightTour Game: Avoid unnecessary invalid move message

  • Tessera Game: Add the window icon

  • SpaceShooter Game - Added: applications/spaceshooter/Resources.ring

  • StdLib - Tree Class - Use the ref() function

  • StdLib - Matrixmulti() function - Better Code

  • StdLib - Added: Reduce() function

  • RingAllegro: Use Allegro 5.2.8 instead of Allegro 5.2.7.1

  • RingSQLite: Use SQLite 3.39.2.

  • RingHTTPLib: Use cpp-httplib 0.10.9

  • RingZip: Use zip 0.2.4

  • RingCJSON: Update the CJSON version

  • RingCJSON: Better support for arrays and nested arrays

  • RingQt: Added QTextOption class

  • RingQt: Set the environment variable QT_QPA_PLATFORM_PLUGIN_PATH

  • RingQt: QMediaPlayer Class - Remove currentNetworkConfiguration() Method

  • RingQt: QString2 Class - Added lastIndexOf() method

  • RingQt: RingCodeHighlighter Class - Added setUseDefaultKeywords() Method

  • RingQt: RingCodeHighlighter Class - Added setCustomKeywords() Method

  • Ring Functions - SetEnv()/UnSetEnv() - Better Code

  • Ring Functions - Print()/Puts() - Better Code

  • Ring Functions - Eval() - Better Code

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Better File Names

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Define RING_MSDOS

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Many structures updated to use unsigned int/char

  • Ring Compiler/VM Source Code - Added: vmerror.c, vmeval.c & vmthreads.c

  • Ring Compiler/VM Tests - Better names for output files

  • Support building Ring on windows using Tiny C Compiler

  • Ring Object File - Better support for classes that exist inside packages

  • Ring Compiler - Support larger number of function/method parameters

  • Ring Compiler - ring_parser_epsilon() function - Better Code

  • Ring Compiler - Support running source code files with any extension

  • Ring VM - Memory Functions - Display the size when the memory allocation fail

  • Ring VM - Support calling private methods from the class region

  • Ring VM - Fixed count for ByteCode items for the ICO_FUNC instruction

  • Ring VM - Better code for dynamic change between function/method calls inside braces

  • Ring VM - Check string range when we access strings after calling functions directly

  • Ring VM - Get pointer as string when we access the pointer address

  • Ring VM - Don’t create more than one temp. list per VM instruction

  • Ring VM - Using RING_VM_IR_GETLINENUMBER & RING_VM_IR_SETLINENUMBER(x)

  • Ring VM - Faster code when creating new threads

  • Ring VM - Better numbers format when printing lists and objects

  • Ring VM - Range Operator - return list reference instead of a copy

  • Ring VM - Pointer2Object() function - return list/object reference instead of a copy

  • Ring VM - ObjectID() function - Support Lists too

  • Ring VM - Increase the Stack size to 1K

  • Ring VM - Error System - Display recursion depth

  • Ring VM - ICO_FREESTACK instruction - Don’t delete temp. lists in global scope

  • Ring VM - ICO_FREETEMPLISTS instruction - Delete temp. lists in global scope (Thread Safe)

  • Ring VM - ICO_SETSCOPE instruction - Better implementation

  • Ring VM - List Functions - Using (unsigned int) for the list index & size

  • Ring VM - Using Braces - Save/Restore the State - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Divide Operator - Display error message - Better Code

  • Ring VM - Try/Catch/Done - Better code for memory management

  • Ring VM - Using lists during definition - Protect the list (Prevent deleting it)

  • Ring VM - The default RING_POOLMANAGER_ITEMSIZE value is 40 (instead of 64)

  • Ring VM - Better code when loading the VM instructions (Uses less memory)

  • Ring VM - Max. parameters for each VM instruction is three (3)

  • Ring VM - New instruction: ICO_EXTRAPARA (For instructions that need more parameters)

  • Ring VM - Delete the Intermediate Code list after having the Byte Code

  • Ring VM - Better format when displaying the Byte Code

  • Ring VM - Memory defragmentation before Byte Code execution