dMZX Forums: Extended macro numberspace too small -> Archived MegaZeux Bugs -> Tracker

Extended macros with variable bounds over six characters (i.e. X < -99999 OR X > 999999) can take over the variable namespace area on the screen. The namespace should probably adjust to be larger when bounds greater than these are set, or simply be extended to 11 chars long at all times (to fit in numbers to the negative billions).

There are several possible approaches to fixing this bug. None of them are particularly satisfactory.

One is to do as you have suggested, and fix integers to 11 columns (the maximum printable width of a signed 32bit number). Having tried this, it looks quite ugly in the generate macro UI, and limits the number of things you can have on screen. It also doesn't address strings which can also be of an arbitrary length. Of course, we could artificially limit these too, but I'm not sure that's reasonable (macros can be used without the UI).

Ultimately, this feature was introduced for advanced users, savvy with the macro grammar. It's incredibly useful and very versatile. Indeed, people have a choice as to whether they write a macro that breaks the UI or not. Macros aren't shipped with games typically, so I think this is a very personal decision. I'm inclined to leave it broken and consign it to the next poor soul that implements a new MZX editor. After 2.82, it should be possible to build the editor and MZXRun style executable against a library, which will make this easier.

--ajs.

Updating status to: Duplicate Entry

This and other concerns with extended macro functionality are now collected in this feature request. Therefore, I'm closing this.

Moving to: Archived MegaZeux Bugs