BaCon 3.4 released

[Pjot]

All,

The latest BaCon version 3.4 can be obtained from the BaCon website.

This release contains some new features:

• RUN/RUN$ to execute a system command without shell
• SOURCE$ and LINENO to allow basic reflexive programs
  
• SIGNAL to setup Unix signaling in a native manner
• improvements in IMPORT to allow construction of local function names as a string
  
• improvements in ALARM so the program resumes where the alarm interrupted

Furthermore some bugs were fixed, most important being a memory leak when passing string arguments to functions and a possible unexpected behavior when using EXEC$ in combination with open files.

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

BaCon releases are made available after testing on several platforms, including Tru64Unix, MacOSX and several flavors of Linux.

Best regards
Peter

[vovchik]

Dear Peter,

Compiles and works fine - thanks. Now have to learn how to use the new features.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[Deleted]

That's funny. Yesterday I grabbed it from the beta directory. Soon after that it was not available to download anymore and I was wondering what happened. Now I know.

Works great. I see it comes with a bit outdated Geany file. I'm gonna update it and post the new version, soon.

[Pjot]

Thanks vovchik and Tomaaz!

@ vovchik: besides RUN/RUN$ being more effective and less vulnerable, there is also the situation of prototyping - it now is possible for a running program to improve its source code during runtime, after which it can invoke itself again using RUN. But if it would use SYSTEM, a shell is created in which the new program runs, and then, if a new adjustment is being made, another new shell is created in which the program is executed, etc.

So, by continuously using SYSTEM (or EXEC$), we end up with a shell in a shell in a shell and so on. By using RUN, the current process is being overwritten by the invoked program, inheriting the same PID.

Therefore, RUN/RUN$ and SOURCE$ and LINENO in a way belong together, serving the same purpose (as is TYPEOF$) 

The SIGNAL statement is one of the leftovers which I wanted to implement before anyway, like the ON..GOTO construct.

@ Tomaaz: I tried to do my best with the Geany files, any improvement is welcome of course!

Best regards

Peter

[moravec]

I thought it might come with a hug.bac file.  Where do you get the current edition?

[vovchik]

Dear Moravec,

The latest HUG is on BaCon's main page: Bacon, and the HUG source is here: HUG. You may also want to use the latest beta BaCon, which has many new features: BETA.

With kind regards,
vovchik

[moravec]

Thanks vovchik.