The UnDisbeliever’s Development Log

Well this update features another small hit of bad news. I ran into a bit of scope creep. Well, not exactly; but that is what my Project Management Lecturer would probably call it.

My problem stems from the fact that I must type all the variable types a section of code interacts with. For example this is a small section of the code my python script reads;

  #args byte a, byte b, byte c
  #args byte a, sbyte b, byte c
  #args byte a, word b, byte c
  #args byte a, sword b, byte c
  #args byte a, long b, byte c
  #args byte a, slong b, byte c

 ** SNIP 187 LINES **

  #args slongfrac a, sword b, sfrac c
  #args slongfrac a, long b, sfrac c
  #args slongfrac a, slong b, sfrac c
    #index all,X,Y

    SEP #$20
    read8bitFrom typeof(a) a
    CLC
    ADC b

    convert8bitAccTo typeof(c) c
  #enda

The constant management of all these different arrangements is extremely daunting for me. Rereading some of my script input files, I am unable to determine why I assigned such a variable combination to a code section.

For the past few hours, I’ve been thinking on how to create a series of rules as to how the WLA-DX macro file should be generated, but still keeping some form of efficiently to the code. My new attempt will allow me to write a list of the different variables used for the section of code and get python to iterate through all the probable solutions.

For example, the above section of code, could be simplified as thus;

  #section
  #variable a byte, sbyte, word, sword. long, slong, frac, sfrac, longfrac, slongfrac
  #variable b byte, sbyte, word, sword. long, slong
  #variable c byte, sbyte, frac, sfrac
    #index all,X,Y

    SEP #$20
    read8bitFrom typeof(a) a
    CLC
    ADC b

    convert8bitAccTo typeof(c) c
  #ends

This would allow me to easily see what variables each section of code relates to, and prevent all this scope creep.