betad.txt
(c)1999 Keinall "Lord Granitor" Caddle

Supplementation documentation for beta.exe;
describes the diferences between dmx.exe and
beta.exe. 

:K31 on 6 Nov 1999 - morning early (predawn)

:K31 on 23 Dec 1999 - evening 
-updated to reflect the change to use beta.c as
the main driver, which is a derivative of the top
secret "vex.exe" project.

:K31 on 2 Jan 2000 - night
-completed the update, detailing state of DMP 
commands.

---]
How to use this document...

Read DMX.TXT; then read this. 

---:
Intro

The differences between these releases of dmx.exe
and beta.exe are in one component, the parser. beta.exe
uses an experimental parser whilst dmx.exe uses a 
legacy parser inherited from generations of Macas
experiments.

---]
The New New Macas

Firstly, MACAS.TXT describes the normal Macas. 

For now, the only difference between than and
this is the treatment of the Print At ('@') command.

In this variant of Macas, this command is treated
as a Locate ('l') followed by a Print Ex ('?');
and thus, wrapping and scrolling occurs. And there
is no speed advantage to using this.

---]
The Cutting Butter DMP

The Direct Mode Parser (DMP) is the cutting butter
in technology. It lacks sharpness but it's important
if you want to spread the butter on bread, or something.
Butter isn't very digestible in large blocks, after all.

Currently (Thursday, December 23, 1999
4:39 PM), beta.exe makes use an enhances API to lookup
token values. This is amazing, especially considering
that this TTT (tok2.c) is dark magic, coming from an
unknown place and doing unknown things... 

---:
New DM Commands

New additions to the DMP commands include EVAL, which
parses it's paraments as if they were tokens and then
spits back the value.

The PRINT command in beta.exe is now a seperated
module, in plainspeak this means that it kicks ass,
and that my code is that more modular. 

The PRINT command is identical to the Macas Print Ex
in function, and the code is a bit cleaner. Hence it
is superior to the old PRINT command.

---]
Sunday, January 02, 2000
10:00 PM

Summary of changes:

More stuff added to SMA internally... 

All the DMP commands have been altered a bit.. if only by being
ignored:-

NEW now works better, the parser (3x5) now adds the end of procas
text thingy to the cleared scope. 

SYS seems to work but the label stuff is dark and murky code indeed.

SYSTEM/EXIT is the simpliest thing... it works fine as usual,
however, there might be an obscure bug in LET that causes the
thingy to crash (SIGSERV)...

LET now seems fixed, I currently use an minor hak to accomplish
this... more testing is needed... 

TEST, CLR, and CONT are too boring for me to fuck around with.

MSTAT is accurate as ever. 

FLIST is still the builtin command that should not exist..
as well as PI, the mysterious ad hoc thingy that need not be
hardcoded, asside from the lack of BASIC ish parser. 

MLIST is the most kick ass command ever, it's a hybrid of 
flist, list, and the monitor's "M" command... and peek()...

---:
MLIST

MLIST	<start>[-[end]
MLIST   [start]<-<end>>
MLIST	[start]

start and end are numerics memscope address constants.

Format: 
	decimal digits (e.g. 120) : offset from start of f.scope
	L<decimal number> (e.g. L0): offset from start of LableL 
		scope (the b.scaope), start beign the side closest
		to the f.scope
	B<decimal number> (e.g. Bo): deprecated, b.scope offset from
		the f.scope but not aligned to .. anything.. 1 byte
		after the label scope starts. useless.
	R<decimal numner> : start counting from end of b.scope, ie.
		from end of memscope and farthest away from f.scope.

Usage: Right now the formatting is fixed at hex 16bit addresses,		
	hex values for byte content, and screen codes printed as well.
	
	8 values a line... 
	
	Very similar to LIST, keyboard input the same.
	

---]
Epilogue

There you have it, the minor difference between
the New Macas and the New New Macas.

And the Brand Spanking New DMP Commands.

Live long and avoid vomiting unecessarily.

---]

"Whoever discovers the interpretation of these
	sayings will not taste death" - Thomas[1]

---K31.

