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[ Atariscne.org - News ] GCC for asm Experts (and C/C++ Intermediates) - Part 2

What a Compiler Must Get Right (That You Don't)

When you write assembly, you know the context. You know which registers hold what, whether a pointer is aligned, whether the loop count fits in a word. You know because you put it there.

Consider a demo screen where you reserve a6 for the background rasters. You update the pointer in the VBL interrupt and just advance with a minimal (a6)+ in the HBL. All your other code simply does not touch a6, because you wrote all of it. Need to update a screen pointer? Just write the global. No function call, no overhead, no uncertainty.

A compiler has no such luxury. It must be correct for every possible input the language allows. It cannot "just know" that a pointer is word-aligned, or that two buffers never overlap, or that a register is free. It must prove it, or assume the worst. And not all code it calls may even have been compiled by it. Maybe it was built with an older compiler, a different language, or maybe you wrote it in assembly yourself.

A new tool for composing bytebeat has just been published: DawBeat, an experimental browser-based DAW designed to arrange bytebeat formulas on a timeline rather than writing a single monolithic expression.

https://dev.eypacha.com/dawbeat/

The idea behind DawBeat is to approach bytebeat composition more like working in a traditional DAW: formulas can be placed in clips, arranged across tracks, and modulated over time.

Current capabilities include:

• timeline with tracks and clips
• drag formulas from a library
• real-time bytebeat playback in the browser
• variable tracks and value trackers
• automation lanes for parameters
• formula effects and audio effects
• MIDI input for controlling parameters and writing automation
• MIDI clock synchronization
• phone or tablet controller via QR (automation companion)
• undo / redo and multi-clip editing
• export compositions to WAV or MP3 

The project explores a different way of working with bytebeat, focusing on composition and arrangement over time rather than a single standalone expression.

[Submitted by eypacha]

[ Atariscne.org - News ] Sopwith - A 40 Year old MS-DOS game finally comes to the Atari ST!

Some more old ‘new game’ news is heading our way.

This unexpected gift comes courtesy of Neil Rackett of Mesmotronic, who created the 3D model of an ST running in a browser window.

This time, he’s ported an ancient MS-DOS game ‘Sopwith’ to the ST. 

It features intense biplane action through charmingly retro vector style graphics and arcade style gameplay, with characteristic MS-DOS beepy early PC sound. Interestingly, this game was going to get a dedicated ST version back in the day, but this did not happen, until now.

It can be downloaded from his Github repository. Good luck figuring out the controls!

CiH - 22.3.26.

[ OpenMPT - Open ModPlug Tracker ] OpenMPT 1.32.07.00 released

This small update to OpenMPT 1.32 is mostly a bugfix release.

Here's a list of the most notable changes in this version:

• Plugin editors can now receive SysEx messages from OpenMPT's MIDI recording.
• Choosing "Copy Pattern" from the order list context menu always copied the currently displayed pattern, not the one on which the context menu was invoked.
• Work around apparently broken channel negotiation in MaxSynths DR-910 plugin.
• Small playback fixes for MOD and ULT files.
• On recent versions of Windows 11, MIDI recording stopped working after receiving a SysEx message.
• MIDI export from MOD or S3M did not correctly export implicit note-offs when playing a new note on the same channel.
• The instrument note map category was missing in keyboard settings.

For a complete list of changes, have a look at the full version history. If you are upgrading from OpenMPT 1.31 or older, read the release notes to get a glimpse of the biggest changes.

Encore 500 Volume 2 - The Album! has been released.

16 new tracks are giving tribute to some of the Amiga 500 finest music by amongst others Jogeir Liljedahl, Firefox, Mantronix, Romeo Knight, LMan, Ziona, Base Cadet and many more!

Download the whole album here:

https://nahkolor.c64.page/Encore500_V2-MP3.7z

[Submitted by magic]