It is possible to write programs which return a value to the TI-Basic, i.e. which act like TI-Basic function (with some serious limitations; read below for more info). To do this, put the following statement at the begining of the program (or at the begining of the main module of your program):
#define RETURN_VALUE
This will work in both NoStub and kernel mode. Such statement will cause
the last value pushed to the expression stack to become the "result"
of the program. For pushing values on expression stack, use routines from the
estack.h header file. For example, use
push_shortint or
push_longint to push integer values,
push_Float to push floating point values,
push_zstr to push strings, etc. Note
that if you declared RETURN_VALUE, you must push something on the
expression stack.
If you plan to write a function which returns a value to TI-Basic in either ASM or C, you
should also clean up all arguments of the function from the expression stack before
pushing the result including the END_TAG. If you
neglect to do this, then using the function as an argument of another one will not work
correctly. Also, you should leave exactly one value on the expression stack (i.e. you
should delete all eventual temporary results from the expression stack). Here is a
sample code how you can clean up function arguments from the expression stack:
while (GetArgType (top_estack) != END_TAG) top_estack = next_expression_index (top_estack); top_estack--;
Here is a complete example (called "Add Arguments") of a very simple program which gets two arguments (assuming that they are small positive integers, without any checking), and returns their sum (see args.h for more info about getting the arguments):
// Add the first two integers passed to the program
#define RETURN_VALUE
#define USE_TI89
#define USE_TI92PLUS
#define USE_V200
#define MIN_AMS 101
#include <args.h>
#include <estack.h>
void _main(void)
{
ESI argptr = top_estack;
short a = GetIntArg (argptr);
short b = GetIntArg (argptr);
while (GetArgType (top_estack) != END_TAG) // Clean up arguments
top_estack = next_expression_index (top_estack);
top_estack--;
push_longint (a + b);
}
Test this program from TI-Basic by giving add(2,3) (assuming that
you compiled it and gave the name "add.c" to it). Note that if you neglect cleaning
up arguments from the expression stack, then something like
add(add(3,5),add(4,7)) will not give the correct result!
You can even return lists as the result. To do this, push first
End_Of_List marker (using push_END_TAG), then
push elements of the list in the reverse order, and finnaly push List marker on the
expression stack using push_LIST_TAG. The following
program (called "Folder") returns the list of all variables in the folder which is given as the argument:
// Get the variables in a folder as a list
#define RETURN_VALUE
#define USE_TI89
#define USE_TI92PLUS
#define USE_V200
#define MIN_AMS 101
#include <args.h>
#include <estack.h>
#include <vat.h>
void _main(void)
{
ESI argptr = top_estack;
SYM_ENTRY *SymPtr = SymFindFirst (GetSymstrArg (argptr), 1);
while (GetArgType (top_estack) != END_TAG) // Clean up arguments
top_estack = next_expression_index (top_estack);
top_estack--;
push_END_TAG ();
while (SymPtr)
{
push_ANSI_string (SymPtr->name);
SymPtr = SymFindNext ();
}
push_LIST_TAG ();
}
Give the name "folder.c" to it, compile it using
tigcc -O2 folder.c
then try, for example, folder("main") from the TI-Basic. Happy? Many
users asked me how to make such a program!
Now about problems. Everything works fine in AMS 1.xx, but AMS 2.xx forbids the use of
ASM programs in expressions. So, in the above example, 'add(2,3)' will
work perfectly, but '5+add(2,3)' or even
'add(2,3)->a' will not. This stupidity
makes returning values mostly useless. What to do? Unfortunately, I can't do nothing
from GCC4TI itself, because an ASM program will not be executed at all if AMS 2.xx
detects its presence in an expression. However, there is a solution: it is possible to
make a resident program which will intercept such "stupid" behaviour of AMS 2.xx and to
allow executing ASM programs in expressions. Such interception is already implemented
in PreOS and KerNO. So, if you have installed a fresh release of PreOS or KerNO, everything
will work OK even on AMS 2.xx. There is also a TSR called IPR which intercepts only this
error and the "ASAP or Exec string too long" error available at
Cyril
Pascal's (Paxal's) web page for those who don't want to install a full-featured
kernel. But for HW2 calculators, the HW2
AMS 2 TSR support (h220xTSR) needs to be installed before IPR.
This does not mean that your program must be compiled in "kernel" mode:
it may be a "nostub" program, but PreOs, KerNO or IPR must be present on the calculator
(to intercept stupid behavior of AMS 2.xx). To conclude: if you have AMS 2.xx and if
you want to use "returning a value" feature, you must have installed PreOs, KerNO or
IPR. If you are a programmer, please note this fact in the documentation of any program
which uses this feature!
As an alternative, you may use returning values
through variables.
As mentioned in the previous section, returning a value from ASM program on a similar way like TI-Basic functions return values causes problems with AMS 2.xx. Therefore, another way for returning values (which works well unconditionally) was introduced. This method will be ilustrated using a concrete example. Look the following modified "Folder" program given in the previous section (called "Folder List"):
// Write the variables in a folder into a list variable
#define RETURN_VALUE dirlist
#define USE_TI89
#define USE_TI92PLUS
#define USE_V200
#include <args.h>
#include <estack.h>
#include <vat.h>
void _main(void)
{
ESI argptr = top_estack;
SYM_ENTRY *SymPtr = SymFindFirst (GetSymstrArg (argptr), 1);
push_END_TAG ();
while (SymPtr)
{
push_ANSI_string (SymPtr->name);
SymPtr = SymFindNext ();
}
push_LIST_TAG ();
}
The only difference between this program and the program in the previous section is in
the usage of the RETURN_VALUE directive: in this example, it is followed
with a variable name (dirlist in this example). If
RETURN_VALUE is followed with a variable name (which must be a legal
TI-Basic variable name in lowercase), the last value pushed to the expression stack would
be stored in the TI-Basic variable with the given name. So, in this example, after execution
of the program, the result of the program (a folder list) will be stored in TI-Basic
variable called dirlist (if such variable does not exist, it will be
created). See the previous section for more info about this example. I hope that this
explanation is clear enough, so more detailed explanation is not necessary.
Basically, you can return errors using
ER_throw or
ER_throwVar from
error.h. Many functions from this library
throw errors, which you can simply pass on to the operating system, possibly using
TRY...FINALLY...ENDFINAL blocks.
However, for the system to operate normally after this, you need to write
#define ENABLE_ERROR_RETURN
at the beginning of your program. Otherwise, the screen will not be updated
properly and other cleanup code (for example for USE_INTERNAL_FLINE_EMULATOR)
is not executed. Most importantly, however, the program handle remains locked
in AMS 1.xx because of a bug in the operating system. If you try to start the
program again, you will get an "Invalid Program Reference" error.
Note: The workaround for this bug works only in kernel-less programs.
For kernel-based programs, working around the bug is the kernel's
responsibility. If you want to use this directive in kernel mode, you need to
check which kernels perform such a workaround, and tell your users about this
fact.
The following example (called "Memory Error") demonstrates how this directive
may be used together with
TRY...FINALLY...ENDFINAL blocks:
// Allocate memory as long as possible, then throw an error
// All allocated memory will be freed again!
#define USE_TI89 // Compile for TI-89
#define USE_TI92PLUS // Compile for TI-92 Plus
#define USE_V200 // Compile for V200
#define MIN_AMS 100 // Compile for AMS 1.00 or higher
#define ENABLE_ERROR_RETURN // Enable Returning Errors to TIOS
#include <tigcclib.h> // Include All Header Files
#define BLOCK_SIZE 1024
void AllocRecursively(void)
{
void *ptr = malloc_throw (BLOCK_SIZE);
TRY
// Could do something with ptr here...
AllocRecursively ();
// Could still do something with ptr...
FINALLY
free (ptr);
ENDFINAL
}
// Main Function
void _main(void)
{
AllocRecursively ();
}