BaCon 4.2 released

[Pjot]

All,

BaCon version 4.2 has just been released just a month after 4.1.1. Please download the latest from the BaCon website and refresh your browser cache if the new package is not visible in your browser immediately.

The reason for the fast release is a mysterious bug in 4.1.1 which could cause the conversion process to crash. This could happen randomly without any clear indication as to why. In the end, it turned out that the string array handling did not handle OPTION BASE properly. This bug has been in BaCon for many years and revealed itself when using the UBOUND function.

Furthermore, BaCon has undergone a major code cleanup and internal architecture change. Basically, the core string processing functions, which provides the high performance to string functions, have been simplified. Also, repetitive code, like assigning results of string functions, and cleaning up string arrays, have been centralized. Lastly, the implementation of a couple of statements has been reorganized to reduce the amount of global variables. As a side effect, the generated C code is easier on the eyes also.

As a result, the implementation shrunk with more than 100 lines of code and the overall performance of BaCon has increased slightly.

Other highlights:

• Server side TLS with new functions ACCEPT and CERTIFICATE
  
• Reimplemented the stack and PUSH/PULL from scratch
  
• Various important bug fixes and improvements
  
• Lots of code cleaning!

Thanks to everybody who has contributed to this latest release, especially forum members vovchik and rikky for their bug reports.

See the full list of changes for more details (please refresh your browser cache to see the latest).

Best regards
Peter

[vovchik]

Dear Peter,

Thanks. I tested on Pi4 (Debian) and Mint 19 and everything seems to be working as expected and advertised so far.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[bigbass]

Hello Peter & vovchik

A clean compile on the raspberry pi 3 and the online virtual 64 bit bash environment too

thanks for all the improvements!
Joe

[ptitjoz]

Hello

thanks you for this new release

why the help doc says version 4.3 ? mauvaise_version_doc_4_2.jpg

[Pjot]

Hi ptitjoz,

The source package for BaCon 4.2 comes with the original documentation for BaCon 4.2. If you install the source package, or any of the installers from the BaCon website, then you're set.

As we have a few beta testers for new BaCon releases, the documentation for the latest beta is maintained online. This version also includes corrections and improvements on existing topics.

If you have updated the documentation within your GUI, then it will fetch the latest documentation from the BaCon website. Therefore, you are looking at the improved documentation containing descriptions for beta features as well.

You can always crosscheck with the current CHANGES file to see which features do not apply to the 4.2 release.

HTH
Peter