What is new in Ring 1.21

In this chapter we will learn about the changes and new features in Ring 1.21 release.

List of changes and new features

Ring 1.21 comes with the next features!

  • Ring for Raspberry Pi Pico

  • Lectures Tracker application

  • RingPDFGen Extension

  • Better MatrixLib

  • Better RingQt

  • Better RingRayLib

  • More Samples

  • Faster Function Call

  • Faster Arithmetic Operations

  • Faster Compiler

  • Reducing Memory Usage

  • ForEach Keyword

  • NumOrZero() Function

  • Better Operator Overloading

  • Syntax Highlighting for Vim/nano

  • New VM Instructions

  • More Improvements

Ring for Raspberry Pi Pico

In this release we present a new extension that supports Raspberry Pi Pico

Using this extension we can write Ring programs that runs on the RP2040 Microcontroller

For more information check the chapter: Using Ring for Raspberry Pi Pico Microcontroller

Raspberry Pi Pico

Lectures Tracker application

A simple Desktop/Mobile application that connects to a Web API to get some data.

The application is developed using Ring & RingQt.

To test the application

  1. Run ring/applications/lecturestracker/webserver/server.ring

  2. Run ring/applications/lecturestracker/mobileapp/lecturestracker.ring

Lecture Tracker

RingPDFGen Extension

This extension support the PDFGen library

The extension exist in the ring/extensions/ringpdfgen folder

The supported functions and constants exist in the Using RingPDFGen chapter

Example:

load "pdfgen.ring"

cPDFFileName = "output.pdf"

pdf = pdf_create(PDF_A4_WIDTH, PDF_A4_HEIGHT, [
        :creator  = "My software",
        :producer = "My software",
        :title    = "My document",
        :author   = "My name",
        :subject  = "My subject",
        :date     = "Today"
] )

pdf_set_font(pdf, "Times-Roman")
pdf_append_page(pdf)

pdf_add_text(pdf, NULL, "This is text", 12, 50, 20, PDF_BLACK)
pdf_add_line(pdf, NULL, 50, 24, 150, 24, 0, 0)
pdf_add_text(pdf, NULL, "This is text", 24, 250, 20, PDF_BLUE)

for t=1 to 30
        pdf_add_text(pdf, NULL, "Number: " + t, 14, 250, 50+(20*t), PDF_RED)
next

pdf_add_text(pdf, NULL, "I LOVE PROGRAMMING!", 48, 30, 700,PDF_BLUE)

pdf_save(pdf, cPDFFileName)
pdf_destroy(pdf)

system(cPDFFileName)

Output:

PDFGen

Better MatrixLib

The next functions are added to the library

MatrixScalarProjection(U,V)             // Scalar Projection A onto B = (A.B) / |B|
MatrixCopyCol(U-Array, Start, End)      // Create new smaller V-array from U-array

Example

Load "stdlibcore.ring"
Load "matrixlib.ring"

Func Main()

        A =  [[  1],[  6],[ 18]]
        B =  [[ 42],[-69],[ 98]]

        See "A " MatrixPrint(A)
        See "B " MatrixPrint(B)

        SP = MatrixScalarProjection(B,A)
        See "Scalar projection of B onto A = 73.26  => "+ SP +nl

        SP = MatrixScalarProjection(A,B)
        See "Scalar projection of A onto B = 10.96  => "+ SP +nl

        A =  [[ 3],[ 4]]
        B =  [[ 1],[ 2]]

        See "A " MatrixPrint(A)
        See "B " MatrixPrint(B)

        SP = MatrixScalarProjection(A,B)
        See "Scalar projection of A onto B = 4.9193 => "+ SP +nl

Output:

A       MatrixPrint: 3x1
|  1  |
|  6  |
|  18 |

B       MatrixPrint: 3x1
|  42 |
| -69 |
|  98 |

Scalar projection of B onto A = 73.26  => 73.26
Scalar projection of A onto B = 10.96  => 10.96
A       MatrixPrint: 2x1
|  3 |
|  4 |

B       MatrixPrint: 2x1
|  1 |
|  2 |

Scalar projection of A onto B = 4.9193 => 4.92

Better RingQt

  1. Qt library is updated from Qt 5.15.16 to 5.15.17

  2. QDateTimeEdit - Added Class Events

  3. Using (load “qtcore.ring”) we can load the QtCore library

  4. The next classes are added to RingQt

  • QAbstractGraphicsShapeItem

  • QAudioOutput

  • QGraphicsAnchor

  • QGraphicsAnchorLayout

  • QGraphicsEffect

  • QGraphicsEllipseItem

  • QGraphicsGridLayout

  • QGraphicsItem

  • QGraphicsItemGroup

  • QGraphicsLayout

  • QGraphicsLayoutItem

  • QGraphicsLineItem

  • QGraphicsLinearLayout

  • QGraphicsObject

  • QGraphicsPathItem

  • QGraphicsPixmapItem

  • QGraphicsPolygonItem

  • QGraphicsProxyWidget

  • QGraphicsRectItem

  • QGraphicsSceneContextMenuEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneDragDropEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneHelpEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneHoverEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneMouseEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneMoveEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneResizeEvent

  • QGraphicsSceneWheelEvent

  • QGraphicsSimpleTextItem

  • QGraphicsSvgItem

  • QGraphicsTextItem

  • QGraphicsWidget

  • QLibraryInfo

  • QLineF

  • QModelIndex

  • QRectF

  • QRegExp

  • QStyleOptionGraphicsItem

  • QTransform2

  • QTransform3

  • QVersionNumber

Graphics View

Better RingRayLib

The RayLib version is updated from 2.5 to 5.0

Also, all of the samples and applications that uses RingRayLib are revised and updated.

RayLib 5 sample

More Samples

The next samples are added to the ring/samples folder

  • ring/samples/General/NetworkFlow/Matrix-Networks.ring

  • ring/samples/General/Matrix/MatrixThreePointsOnCircle.ring

  • ring/samples/Drawing/PolarCartesian/AA-Draw-Polar-Cartesian.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingMatrixLib/60-Matrix-Test-Scalar-Projection.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingMatrixLib/61-BundlesOfRice.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingQt/GraphicsView/graphicsview.ring

  • ring/samples/UsingQt/Painter/test3.ring

PolarCartesian

Faster Function Call

We improved how Ring VM manage the functions scope/arguments through pre-allocation to provide performance improvements.

As a result, the stars animation sample works at 5400 FPS (instead of 2350 FPS in Ring 1.20)

Tested using Victus Laptop [13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-13700H, Windows 11]

Results:

Ring 1.21 --> 5400 FPS
Ring 1.20 --> 2350 FPS
Ring 1.19 --> 2350 FPS
Ring 1.18 --> 500  FPS
Stars

The waving cubes sample works at 170 FPS (instead of 40 FPS in Ring 1.20)

Tip

This is faster than the Python 3.11 version which works at 85 FPS

Note

The C version of this sample works at 480 FPS

Waving Cubes

Faster Arithmetic Operations

We introduced some new VM instructions that merge common instructions into one.

This lead to speed improvements with respect to arithmetic operations.

Example:

decimals(3)
t1=clock()
for t=1 to 1_000_000 r=max(t,t*2) next
t2 = clock()
? r
? (t2-t1)/clockspersecond()

Output:

2000000
0.073

Results:

Time using Ring 1.21    --> 73 ms
Time using Python 3.11  --> 83 ms
Time using VFP 9.0 SP2  --> 94 ms
Time using Python 2.7   --> 108 ms
Time using Harbour 3.2  --> 110 ms
Time using Ring 1.20    --> 244 ms

Faster Compiler

This release provides better performance when compiling large projects

These projects could have huge number of classes and methods

For example, PWCT2 compile time is reduced from 1100 ms to 790 ms

Also, SoftanzaLib compile time is reduced from five seconds to one second

Reducing Memory Usage

We did the next updates to reduce the memory usage

  1. The ByteCode registers count is reduced from four to two

  2. Setter/Getter/OperatorOverloading - Don’t use ring_vm_eval()

  3. Using GC functions when using strings in the VM stack

  4. Using the VM Stack when passing arguments to C functions

  5. Reducing memory required by RING_API_REGISTER to support C functions

  6. The pre-allocated memory pool items count is reduced from 1M to 100K

ForEach Keyword

This release support using the ForEach keyword in For-in loops

Example:

aList = 1:10
ForEach x in aList
        ? x
Next

NumOrZero() Function

This is a new function added to stdlibcore.ring

Using this function we get a number as output (No runtime errors)

Example:

load "stdlibcore.ring"

? numorzero(10)
? numorzero("10")
? numorzero("10.2")
? numorzero("10.2 abc")
? numorzero("What")
? numorzero([10])
? numorzero(new point)

class point

Output:

10
10
10.20
0
0
0
0

Better Operator Overloading

We support operator overloading from the first release of the Ring language

When using an object inside an expression and this object define the operator method, this method will be called if the object comes first.

object operator value
myobj + 10
myobj + "test"
myobj + [1,2,3]

In this release we support that the value could come first before the object and the operator() method will be called but the letter ‘r’ will comes before the operator (i.e. r+ instead of +)

Example:

? f(2)

mylist = new List([1,2,3])

f(mylist).print()

func f x
        return 2+x*x    # Here 2 comes before x and x could be an object

class List

aList = []

func init vValue
        aList = vValue

func operator cOperator,vValue

        if cOperator = "r+"
                cOperator = "+"
        ok

        switch cOperator
                on "+"
                        if isNumber(vValue) {
                                for t in aList
                                        t += vValue
                                next
                        but isObject(vValue)
                                for t = 1 to len(aList)
                                        aList[t] += vValue[t]
                                next
                        ok
                on "*"
                        if isNumber(vValue) {
                                for t in aList
                                        t *= vValue
                                next
                        but isObject(vValue)
                                for t = 1 to len(aList)
                                        aList[t] *= vValue[t]
                                next
                        ok
                on "[]"
                        return aList[vValue]
                on "len"
                        return len(aList)
        off
        return self

func print
        ? aList

Output:

6
3
6
11

Note

the numbers(3,6,11) are the result of applying the function f to the list items [1,2,3]

Syntax Highlighting for Vim/nano

Check the folders: ring/tools/editors/vim and ring/tools/editors/nano

nano

New VM Instructions

The next instructions are added to the Ring Virtual Machine

  • ICO_STEPFROMREG - Set the For-Loop step value

  • ICO_PUSHNL - Push new line to the stack

  • ICO_LISTITEMN - Add number to the current list

  • ICO_LISTITEMC - Add string to the current list

  • ICO_RETURNN - Return a number from a function

  • ICO_PUSHARG - Quickly access function arguments

  • ICO_PUSHNTHENJUMP - Push number to the stack then jump

Also, we added the next arithmetic instructions

  • ICO_SUMN

  • ICO_SUBN

  • ICO_MULN

  • ICO_DIVN

  • ICO_MODN

  • ICO_POWN

More Improvements

  • Ring Notepad - Toolbar - Better icons

  • NaturalLib - Using (stdlibcore.ring) instead of (stdlib.ring)

  • AddAttribute() - Produce runtime error if the attribute is already defined

  • AddMethod() - Produce runtime error if the method is already defined

  • RingInternetLib - Set CURLOPT_USERAGENT in Download() function

  • Ring API - Implementation through functions that get a pointer to the VM structure

  • Better scripts for building Ring on Linux

  • Ring Compiler - Add new lines between error messages

  • Ring Compiler - Check argument duplication during function definition

  • Ring Compiler - Call command - Better error messages

  • Ring Compiler - ICO_SETPROPERTY - No arguments are required

  • Ring Compiler - ICO_NEWLINE instruction - Check if the previous instruction is ICO_NEWLINE

  • Ring Compiler - Don’t use ICO_BEFOREEQUAL instruction for the common case (Equal)

  • Ring Compiler - Don’t pass spaces inside multi-characters operators

  • Ring Compiler/VM - String structure - Store small strings in the structure

  • Ring VM - Better support for list items of new objects when using lists during defintion

  • Ring VM - List() function - Use blocks only if the list size is greater than 30 items

  • Ring VM - Better code when deleting lists created using the List() function

  • Ring VM - Set the loop variable when using for-in and NULL string

  • Ring VM - Better implementation when using the for-in loop and new objects

  • Ring VM - Better implementation for deleting the item reference inside the for-in loop variable

  • Ring VM - Check the sub list size when using string index (The size must be two [:key = value])

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_freetemplists() - Avoid unnecessary lock/unlock when using threads

  • Ring VM - Low level function - ringvm_codelist() - Better implementation

  • Ring VM - File vmthreads.c renamed to vmthread.c

  • Ring VM - FuncCall structure - Removed unused member (nTempMemSizeAtStart)

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_stepnumber() and ring_vm_sum() - Use: RING_VM_RETURNIFACTIVECATCH

  • Ring VM - ring_state_runcode() - Reset pVM->nPC to instructions count before code eval/execution

  • Ring VM - Hash Table - Better performance when using many variables

  • Ring VM - Object Attributes - Better performance when checking setter/getter methods

  • Ring VM - BraceError() method - Support using This and runtime error messages

  • Ring VM - ring_state_free() - Better code for threads support

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_eval() - Better code for deleting the byte code

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_eval() - Avoid deleting the code when defining new packages

  • Ring VM - Eval() - Return NULL (Empty String) if the return command is not used

  • Ring VM - Produce runtime error when using a negative value in shift operations

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_createtemplist() implementation - Take in mind the PC and OPCode

  • Ring VM - Share information about different levels of the memory pool when creating new thread

  • Ring VM - ICO_SETREFERENCE - Check the variable list size

  • Ring VM - The ICO_FUNCEXE and ICO_ENDFUNCEXE instructions are removed

  • Ring VM - The ICO_PRINT and ICO_GIVE instructions are removed

  • Ring VM - Produce specific runtime error when using Return inside the function parameters

  • Ring VM - Produce runtime error if the list item is not an object and accessed by dot operator

  • Ring VM - ring_vm_jumpfor() function - Better code to check if we need to terminate the for loop

  • File (meta_e.c) is separated to (meta_e.c) and (vminfo_e.c)

What is new in Ring 1.21.1?

  • Version() function - Optional parameter to display the patch number

Example:

? version()
? version(True)

Output:

1.21
1.21.1
  • Many animation samples are revised to close the application if the window is closed during animation

  • Ring2EXE - Revised lib path when distributing the application for Linux/macOS with specific libraries

  • Better implementation for the (Using Lists/Objects During Definition) feature

  • Ring Source Code - VM Structure - The position of the pCFunction pointer is revised

What is new in Ring 1.21.2?

  • The SysInfo package has been added to the RingPM Registry

  • Display old/new package version during package update

  • Package name in the RingPM registry is not case sensitive

  • Ring Notepad - Distribute Menu - Better description for the options

  • Form Designer - Default value (none) for Text Color when generating the source code

  • ring/samples/UsingRayLib/more/ex5_wavingcubes_threads.ring - Better Code

  • StdLib - SystemCmd() function - Avoid error if the current directory is not writable

  • TempName() function - Better implementation for Linux

  • ring/build/buildgcc.sh - Better script (callable from any directory)

  • ring/tools - Batch Files - Avoid the (-static) option

  • Ring VM - Remove old code related to pFuncCallList