TI83F header comment cutoff?

[jxu]

I was looking through the binaries produced by TI-Connect vs TILP which I just compiled and got working.

Interestingly, the programs dumped from TI-Connect have a header comment like "Program file 07/09/11, 16:40" while those from TILP have a header comment like "Single file dated Thu Oct 14 02:05:32 20". Maybe the year is cut off because the header comment can only be 42 bytes long? Anyhow to save bytes you can definitely get rid of the day-of-week part, maybe even put it in ISO date format.

[jxu]

https://github.com/debrouxl/tilibs/blob/54ad18eaac9f2b7e52fda284acb2729f06bf18c4/libtifiles/trunk/src/comments.cc#L83

Probably a date string formatter somewhere

[debrouxl]

Indeed, the header comment can only be 42 bytes long. At the very least, the "dated " part should go away, which would save 6 bytes, but yeah, additionally, switching to one of the ISO8601 date formats in the direct or indirect clients of tifiles_comment_set_single_sn() can be done.

[jxu]

(This issue should probably be moved to tilibs)

Is it using localtime? I did a very quick search but I'm not sure where the time comment is actually being written. (Also, why are the files all C++ when the code looks exactly like C code? If it really is for a future port to C++, then I would say that energy should be spent on fixing some code smells)

[debrouxl]

• the main callers of tifiles_comment_set_single_sn(), which is the modern version of tifiles_comment_set_single(), are in libticalcs. I'll move this issue to tilibs later, even if there's a caller in GFM as well;
• the time comment is written by tifiles_comment_set_sn(), at the beginning of the file you linked;
• the files in tilibs are indeed C-like code compiled as C++ (well, except for the iconv... thing in libticonv), in order to benefit from the stricter typing of C++, at first. No plans for a full-blown port to C++;
• I've already fixed a number of code smells, in that very file and others (adding bounded versions of a number of APIs, removing many occurrences of TRYF & TRYC macros containing return, etc.), but I'm always all ears for suggestions :)

[jxu]

Oh my suspicion was right, it was using the obsolete and accursed ctime.

I can try to assist with cleaning up code, though admittedly I have no familiarity with the codebase and I may end up doing more harm than good (maybe I will lose interest in my calculator in a month)

[debrouxl]

What would you like to clean up ? I wouldn't want to restrain you, but it makes sense to avoid work duplication or collisions generating patch conflicts :)

Note that the experimental2 branch contains more cleanups and improvements, so that's where the work ought to happen. experimental3 doesn't work well for the time being.

[jxu]

Silly things like magic numbers in the code. But you should probably ignore me since I am not familiar with the codebase.

On Fri, Oct 15, 2021 at 4:23 AM Lionel Debroux @.***> wrote:

What would you like to clean up ? :)

Note that the experimental2 branch contains more cleanups and improvements, so that's where the work ought to happen. experimental3 doesn't work well for the time being.

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[adriweb]

Such minor (yet good) cleanup can probably be done without knowing much of the codebase so any help is likely welcome :)

[debrouxl]

Indeed :) Sources of magic numbers include outsized buffers (e.g. 64 bytes for a 42-byte comment) and size bounds for a number of file types. Are these the ones which bother you ?

[jxu]

Yes. In fact there is enough room to even put the TILP / tilib version as a comment. Not sure if that is useful.